The Guiding Principle in the Primary Stage of Socialism

The basic program in the primary stage of socialism is a scientific summary of China’s reform, opening up and modernization after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, the concrete manifestation of the Party’s basic line in economic, political, cultural, social and ecological aspects, and the action program for the Party to lead the people of the whole country to push forward the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

In 1992, the 14th CPC National Congress established the reform goal of the socialist market economy system, and therefore China’s reform entered a new stage of development. The “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Issues Concerning the Establishment of a Socialist Market Economy System” approved at the Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee emphasized that the socialist market economic system was interconnected with the basic socialist system. At the 5th Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee, Jiang Zemin made a profound exposition of the twelve major relations in the overall situation of China’s socialist modernization. It further clarified the basic goals and policies of China’s current economic system, economic and social development strategy, and spiritual civilization construction, and gave a preliminary answer to what the economy, politics and culture are and how to build them in the primary stage of socialism, which laid a theoretical foundation for the formulation of the basic program of the Party in the primary stage of socialism. In 1997, according to the general requirements of the basic line of the primary stage of socialism, the 15th CPC National Congress formulated the basic program of the Party in this stage. The 17th CPC National Congress in 2007 and the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 further elaborated and developed the basic program.

The main content of the basic program in the primary stage of socialism are as follows.

(1) The first is to build a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics. We should develop a market economy under socialist conditions and continuously liberate and develop productive forces; adhere to and improve the basic economic system in which socialist public ownership is the mainstay and multiple ownership economies develop together; adhere to and improve the socialist market economic system, so that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation under the macro-control of the state; adhere to scientific and technological innovation and change the mode of economic development; adhere to and improve the distribution system with distribution according to work as the main body and multiple distribution methods coexisting; adhere to and improve opening to the outside world, actively participate in international economic cooperation and competition, promote the sustained and healthy development of the national economy, and ensure that the people share the fruits of reform and development.

(2) The second is to build politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should govern the country according to law and develop socialist democratic politics under the leadership of the CPC and on the basis of the people being the masters of the country; adhere to and improve the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants; adhere to and improve the people’s congress system, multiParty cooperation and political consultation system led by the CPC, regional ethnic autonomy system and grassroots mass autonomy system; develop democracy, improve the legal system and build a socialist country ruled by law; achieve social stability, a clean and efficient governance, and a lively political situation in which the people of all ethnic groups in the country are united and harmonious. To realize the basic program of the primary stage of socialism, we must correctly understand and handle the relationship between the highest program and the lowest program.

(3) The third is to build culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should, under the guidance of Marxism, set it as a goal to cultivate citizens with ideals, morality, culture and discipline, and develop a national, scientific and mass culture of socialism that faces modernization, the world and the future; improve the socialist cultural soft power; build socialist spiritual civilization, cultivate and practice the socialist core values, and facilitate the development and boom of the socialist culture.

(4) The fourth is to build a socialist harmonious society. We should focus on improving people’s livelihood, solve the most concerned, direct and realistic interests of the people, and strive to form a situation in which all the people live in harmony, according to the general requirements of democracy and the rule of law, fairness and justice, honesty and friendship, vitality, stability and order, and harmony between man and nature, and the principle that whoever participates in the construction shares the achievement.

(5) The fifth is to build the socialist ecological civilization. To this end, we should adhere to the basic national policy of saving resources and protecting the environment, vigorously promote circular development, green development and low-carbon development, and form an industrial structure, living style and lifestyle that saves resources and protects the environment, so as to reverse the deterioration of the ecological environment from the source, build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, build a beautiful China and realize the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

This “Five-sphere” basic program in the primary stage of socialism displays the overall plan of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. The five aspects constitute a mutually reinforcing organic whole.

While leading the people in achieving the “Five-sphere” basic program, our Party shall cling to the top priority of governing and rejuvenating the country, take economic construction as the center, make overall plans and coordinate and promote political, cultural, social and ecological civilization construction on the basis of the sustained and healthy economic development. To realize the basic program in the primary stage of socialism, we shall correctly understand and handle the relationship between the maximum program and minimum program. We will be in no direction when the maximum program is neglected; when the minimum program is neglected, the maximum one will become empty talk. We must adhere to the dialectical unity of the two.