"Three-Step" Development Strategy

So the major strategic plan of China’s socialist modernization can be basically realized. The “three-step” development strategy sprouted from the initial idea of realizing national modernization before or after the founding of New China, and experienced a process of gradual development and improvement. The Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee brought forth the vision of changing China from an agricultural country to an industrial country and realizing national modernization.

After the founding of New China, the CPC brought forth the vision of building China into a socialist country of “four modernizations” in two steps in the 20th century. In 1964, Zhou Enlai announced in the government work report of the First Plenary Session of the Third National People’s Congress that starting from the Third Five-Year Plan, China’s national economic development can be divided into two steps: the first step is to establish an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system; the second step is to fully realize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense and science and technology, so that China’s economy can be at the forefront of the world.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping further thought up how to speed up China’s modernization on the basis of China’s specific national conditions. In March 1979, he stressed that the construction should adapt to China’s situation and we should embark on a Chinese-style modernization path. In October that year, he brought it up to revise the originally determined specific modernization goals for the first time. He said that the original plan to realize the four modernizations in the late 20th century was like a daydreaming. Later, we lowered the standard and changed the plan to the realization of Chinese-style modernization. In particular, the gross national product will not be very high on average. In December that year, he used the concept of “well-off” for the first time. In April 1981, Deng Xiaoping proposed the concept of “a well-off society”.

The 12th CPC National Congress officially put forward the vision of quadrupling the total output value of industry and agriculture in two steps and realizing a well-off society by the end of the 20th century. In April 1987, Deng Xiaoping first put forward the strategy of basically realizing modernization in three steps. In October of the same year, the 13th CPC National Congress finalized Deng Xiaoping’s “three-step” development strategy and clearly put forward that the first step was to double the gross national product from 1981 to 1990 compared with 1980, and solve the problem of people’s food and clothing; the second step, from 1991 to the end of the 20th century, the gross national product will be doubled again and the people’s life will reach a well-off level; in the third step, by the middle of the 21st century, the per capita gross national product will reach the level of moderately developed countries and basically realize modernization. Then we will move forward on this basis.

In 1997, after China realized the first-step and second-step strategic goals of the “three-step” strategy ahead of schedule, the 15th CPC National Congress further specified the third step and put forward three phased goals. In the first decade of the 21st century, the gross national product will be doubled compared with that in 2000, so that the people’s well-off life will be richer and a relatively perfect socialist market economic system will be formed. After ten years of hard work, by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the national economy will be further developed and various systems will be more perfect. By the 100th anniversary of the founding of New China in the middle of the 21st century, we will basically realize modernization and build a prosperous, strong, democratic and civilized socialist country.

The “three-step” development strategy embodies the goal of China’s socialist modernization into practical steps, shows a bright future, unifies the will of the whole Party and the people of the whole country, and becomes the action program for the people of the whole country to strive for becoming a socialist modernization country and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

After the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core set it as the first-centenary goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and put forward new goals and requirements for it, emphasizing that such a society is featured with all-round development and the “five-sphere” comprehensive progress, and can benefit all people. Only when the first-centenary goal is realized as scheduled, the second one can start up smoothly. We should call on the whole Party and the people of the whole country to sprint to the finish line.