The Diverse Ways of Realization of Public Ownership

The realization of public ownership refers to the way of the operation and organization of enterprise capital and property under the premise of public ownership of the means of production. The realization of public ownership belongs to the category of production relations and should be determined by the development of productivity. The realization of public ownership is a question of means and methods, the core of which is the management of means of production as well as income distribution. The report of the Fifteenth CPC National Congress in 1997 clarified the basic economic system of the primary stage of socialism and at the same time emphasized in particular the diversification of public ownership. In the practice of deepening reform, distinguishing the nature of public ownership and the realization of public ownership have important theoretical and practical significance. The means of production are owned by the country and collectively owned by the laboring masses, which defines the possession of the means of production from a social macro perspective, reflecting the nature of public ownership. The realization of public ownership refers to the specific organization and management of public property, that is, the concrete embodiment of public ownership in the micro-sphere. The good realization of public ownership is related to the exertion of the superiority of public ownership and its position and role in market competition. Due to the differences in the degree of socialization of production and the characteristics of production and operation in different regions and industrial sectors, the organization and operation of public assets should be diversified. Public ownership of the same nature can have different ways of realization, and the same way of realization can also be adopted by different public ownership. Under the conditions of the socialist market economy, all operation methods and organizational ways that reflect the laws of large-scale social production can be used boldly.

Public ownership not only includes state-owned economy and collective sector of the economy, but can also take the form of shareholding system, cooperative system, shareholding company and so on, and the ways of operation can be leased or contracted. In October 2003, the “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Issues Concerning the Improvement of the Socialist Market Economy System” passed by the Third Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China further stated that it is necessary to adapt to the trend of continuous economic marketization and further enhance the vitality of the public sector of the economy, vigorously develop a mixed-ownership economy in which state-owned capital, collective capital and non-public capital hold shares, realizing the diversification of investment entities and making shareholding the main form of public ownership. In specific practice, companies that need to be controlled by state-owned capital should have absolute or relative control in different situations. Improve the mechanism for the rational flow of state-owned capital and further promote the investment of state-owned capital in important industries and key areas that are related to national security and the lifeline of the national economy to strengthen the control of the state-owned economy. Through asset restructuring and structural adjustments, fittest state-owned enterprises in other industries and fields will survive in the fair market competition. Build large companies and enterprise groups with international competitiveness. Continue to open up and invigorate state-owned SMEs. Deepen the reform of collective enterprises with the focus on clarifying property rights and develop various forms of collective economy. The realization of public ownership can and should be diversified, which has been an important achievement made by the Communist Party of China in earnestly summing up the experience and lessons on economic development and ownership issues since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It is a major contribution to the theory of socialist ownership and lays a solid theoretical foundation for the organic compatibility of socialism and market economy. Practice has proved that public ownership can be full of vitality as long as it finds a suitable form of realization, which can realize the effective combination of socialist public ownership and the market economy so that public ownership enterprises have an advantageous position in market competition and can truly consolidate the dominant position of public ownership, giving play to the leading role of the state-owned economy and better reflect the essence of socialism.