Mixed Ownership Economy

The ownership economy of different natures include state-owned capital, collective capital, non-public capital and other cross-shareholding and mutually integrated forms of ownership. Since the Reform and Opening-up, our country has formed the basic economic system with public ownership playing a leading role and all forms of ownership growing side by side. Throughout the initial stage of socialism, there are close ties between different forms of ownership. The public sector of the economy has a dominant share and the state-owned economy plays a leading role. At the same time, the development of the non-public sector of the economy is encouraged, supported and guided. In this process, an economy of mixed forms of ownership is gradually formed. Since the Reform and Opening-up, the Communist Party of China has continuously explored the effective realization of the basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism. In November 2013, the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform” passed by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed that the mixed ownership economy should be actively developed, the mixed ownership economy of cross-share-holding and mutual integration of state-owned capital, collective capital, and non-public capital should be emphasized, because it is the important realization of the basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism. It is conducive to the expansion of the function of state-owned capital, the maintenance and appreciation of value, and the improvement of competitiveness, which is also conducive to capitals of various types of ownership to complement each other, promote each other and develop together. This is an effective way and an inevitable choice for adhering to the dominant position of public ownership and enhancing the vitality, control and influence of the state-owned economy under the new situation. It is necessary to allow more state-owned economy and other sectors of economy to develop into a mixed ownership economy and allow non-state-owned capital to have shares of the state-owned capital investment projects. Allow the mixed ownership economy to have employee shareholding, forming a community of interests of capital owners and workers.

The nature of mixed ownership economy depends on which ownership economy is in control. The mixed ownership economy controlled by the state-owned and the collective economy has obvious public nature. The purpose of our mixed-ownership economy is to expand the dominance of public capital, consolidate the dominant position of public ownership, strengthen the leading role of the state-owned economy and guide the development of non-public ownership towards the direction of socialism. Historical experience tells us that there are two directions and two prospects for the development of a mixed-ownership economy. Guided by Marxism, actively developing a mixed-ownership economy controlled by a publicly-owned economy can enhance the vitality of the publicly-owned economy and guide the healthy development of the non-publicly-owned economy, thereby becoming a form of realization of the basic economic system and helping to consolidate and develop socialist undertakings with Chinese characteristics. If guided by neoliberalism, vigorously developing a mixed-ownership economy controlled by private economy and foreign-funded economy can make the development of a mixed-ownership economy a tool for capitalist economy to control, allocate and use the socialist public sector of the economy, becoming a form and means of privatization. Both are about the development of a mixed ownership economy, but their intentions and purposes are completely different. The decisive issue here is the guiding ideology of reform. In actual work, it is which controls which. Either the public sector of the economy controls and guides the non-public sector of the economy, or the private sector of the economy controls and uses the public sector of the economy. Therefore, how to develop a mixed-ownership economy has a bearing on the future and destiny of our country’s socialism, and we must have a clear-cut stand and clear boundaries.