Three Subjects, Three Supplements

Chen Yun's creative idea on China's socialist economic system at the Eighth Congress of the CPC. It was also called “three subjects and three supplements” to them. In August 1956, during the preparations for the Eighth National Congress of the Party, Chen Yun formed the idea that “the main forces need guerrilla cooperation”.

On September 20 of the same year, Chen Yun made a speech entitled "New Problems that Have Arisen Following Basic Completion of Socialist Transformation” at the Eighth Congress of the Party, and put forward the idea of "Three Subjects, Three Supplements" when developing the socialist economic system.

This is: Regarding state operations and collective operations as the mainstay and private operations as its supplement, in the aspect of production planning, planned production as the mainstay and free production permitted by the national plans in accordance to market changes as its supplement; and in the aspect of socialism, the market operated by the state as the mainstay and a free market led by the state as its supplement. For Chen Yun’s opinions, Mao Zedong’s response to these opinions was “thought that they were well said”.

The resolution passed at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China has absorbed Chen Yun's important opinions and pointed out that the main body of the socialist economy is to implement centralized management, but it also needs a certain range of decentralized management as its supplement. After the Eighth National Congress of the CPC, the Party and the state adjusted the national economy according to this idea, which increased the vitality of the national economy.