Primary Stage of Socialism

Our country is in and will be in the primary stage of socialist development for a long time. It is a correct judgment on the historical position of socialism in China made by the second generation of Chinese collective leadership with Deng Xiaoping as the core. It does not mean that any country in the world has to experience this early stage in building socialism but that it is the specific historical stage that China has to experience in building socialism when China is still featured with backward productive forces and undeveloped commodity economy.

The primary stage of China’s socialism includes two meanings. The first is that China has entered a socialist society, and we must adhere to it, which emphasizes China’s social nature. The second is that China’s socialist society is in and will be in the primary stage for a long time. We must face up to this primary stage and do not surpass it, which emphasizes the degree of China’s socialist development. The development stages of socialist society is a new topic raised in the socialist practice.

Lenin fully agreed with Marx’s vision of the future society and clearly divided the communist society into the first stage and the advanced stage. With the initial accumulation of socialist practical experience, Lenin began to realize that socialism would also be a historical process of multilevel development, but due to his premature death, he failed to fully demonstrate this idea. The CPC’s understanding of the stage of socialist development began in the late 1950s.

Mao Zedong pointed out when reading Political Economics Textbook of the Soviet Union that “this stage of socialism may be divided into two stages. The first stage is underdeveloped socialism and the second stage is relatively developed socialism. The second stage may take longer than the first stage.” He advocated that to study the stage characteristics of socialism, a quantitative investigation of the development of productive forces and people’s wealth should be made. These ideas are the important theoretical achievements in this period. In practical work, however, people still have an unclear head about the socialist development stages. Shortly after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the weak foundation, large population and backward productivity were China’s national conditions. He underscored that China’s modernization was bound to last for a long time. In 1981, the “Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Several Historical Issues of the Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” adopted by the 6th Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee first proposed that China’s socialist system was still in the primary stage. In 1986, the “Resolution on the Guiding Principles of Socialist Spiritual Civilization Construction” adopted by the 6th Plenary Session of the 12th CPC Central Committee provided a certain analysis of the primary stage. On the eve of the 13th CPC National Congress, Deng Xiaoping emphasized that “the 13th CPC National Congress was to explain that China’s socialism was only in the primary stage”.

“Socialism itself is the primary stage of communism, and China is in the primary stage of socialism. ”It was emphasized that this issue is the starting point and fundamental basis for the Party to formulate its line, principles and policies. In 1987, the 13th CPC National Congress systematically expounded the primary stage of socialism and the Party’s basic line, marking the formal establishment of the theory of the primary stage of socialism. In 1997, the 15th CPC National Congress summarized the process characteristics of the historical development of the primary stage of socialism from nine aspects. In 2007, the 17th CPC National Congress analyzed the current stage characteristics from eight aspects. The 18th CPC National Congress emphasized that the primary stage of socialism is the general basis for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, the theoretical basis for the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the basic starting point for the Party to formulate correct lines, principles and policies, and the basis for creating and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.