Socialism with Chinese characteristics (; ) is a term used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) to encompass its political theories and policies.
The term was first established by Deng Xiaoping in 1982 and was largely associated with Deng's overall program of adopting elements of market economics as a means to foster growth using foreign direct investment and to increase productivity (especially in the countryside where 80% of China's population lived) while the CCP retained both its formal commitment to achieve communism and its monopoly on political power. In the party's official narrative, socialism with Chinese characteristics is Marxism adapted to Chinese conditions and a product of scientific socialism. The theory stipulated that China was in the primary stage of socialism due to its relatively low level of material wealth and needed to engage in economic growth before it pursued a more egalitarian form of socialism, which in turn would lead to a communist society described in Marxist orthodoxy.
According to the 2018 amendment to the state constitution, "[l]eadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics". Socialism with Chinese characteristics consists of a path, a theoretical system, a system, and a culture. The path outlines the policies guiding the CCP. The theoretical system consists of Deng Xiaoping Theory, Three Represents (Jiang Zemin), Scientific Outlook on Development (Hu Jintao), and Xi Jinping Thought. According to CCP doctrine, Xi Jinping Thought is considered to represent Marxist–Leninist policies suited for China's present condition while Deng Xiaoping Theory was considered relevant for the period when it was formulated. The term is seen by proponents as representing the Sinicization of Marxism.
Development The term was first used by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping on 1 September 1982 in the opening speech of the 12th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Deng said "We must integrate the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete realities of China, and blaze a path of our own and build Socialism with Chinese Characteristics". The 19th Party National Congress in 2017 declared that China and the CCP entered a "new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics" in 2012, which it said was both consistent with and significantly different from the past nearly 40 years of reform and opening up.
Content According to the State Council Information Office (SCIO), socialism with Chinese characteristics is "premised on the fact that China is in the primary stage of socialism" and that all reform initiatives and aspects of China's work should be taken in that context. The SCIO states that the "overall approach to building socialism with Chinese characteristics" is to "promote economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress" with "economic development as its central pillar". It also states the overall goal of socialism with Chinese characteristics is "socialist modernization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation".
Article 1 of the country's constitution states, "Leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics." According to official explanations, socialism with Chinese characteristics consists of a "path", a "theoretical system", a "system", and a "culture":
The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics establishes that, under the CCP's leadership, China must base it on the basic national conditions, focus on economic development, adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles and to Reform and Opening Up, liberate and develop social productive forces, construct a "socialist market economy, socialist democratic politics, socialist advanced culture, socialist harmonious society and socialist ecological civilization," promote the development of people, gradually realize common prosperity, build a "prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and beautiful socialist modern country", and achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the "scientific theoretical system", consisting of Deng Xiaoping Theory, Three Represents, Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought. It is officially described as the inheritance and development of Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics includes the system of people's congresses, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CCP, the system of regional ethnic autonomy, and the system of community-level self-governance. It additionally includes the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, the socialist market economic system, and various other systems in the economy, politics, culture and society. According to CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, the leadership of the CCP is "the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics". The culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, according to the 19th CCP National Congress, "originates from the excellent traditional Chinese culture nurtured by the Chinese nation's 5,000-year history of civilization, fusing with the revolutionary culture and the advanced socialist culture created by the Party in leading the people in revolution, construction and reform". It officially aims to "cultivate citizens with ideals, morality, culture and discipline, and develop a national, scientific and popular socialist culture that is oriented towards modernization, the world and the future".
Primary stage of socialism
During the Mao era The concept of a primary stage of socialism was conceived before the People's Republic of China introduced the reform and opening up. In the early 1950s, economists Yu Guangyuan, Xue Muqiao and Sun Yefang raised the question of socialist transformation in which China's economy of low productive force was in a transitional period, a position which Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, endorsed briefly until 1957. When discussing the necessity of commodity relations at the 1st Zhengzhou Conference (2–10 November 1958), for example, Mao said that China was in the "initial stage of socialism". However, Mao never elaborated on the idea and his successors were left to do this.
After Mao Zedong's death
On 5 May 1978, an article titled "Implementation of the Socialist Principle of Distribution According to Work" () elaborated on the idea that China was still at the first stage of reaching a communist society and that it had not become a truly socialist society. The article was written by members in the State Council's Political Research Office led by economist Yu Guangyuan on the orders of Deng Xiaoping so as to "criticize and repudiate" the beliefs of the communist left. After reading it, Deng himself authored a brief memo saying that it was "well-written, and shows that the nature of distribution by labor is not capitalist, but socialist [...] [and] to implement this principle, many things are to be done, and many institutions to be revived. In all, this is to give incentives for us to do better". The term reappeared at the 6th plenum of the 11th Central Committee on 27 June 1981 in the document "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of our Party since the Founding of the PRC". Hu Yaobang, the CCP General Secretary, used the term in his report to the 12th National Congress on 1 September 1982. It was not until the Resolution Concerning the Guiding Principle in Building Socialist Spiritual Civilization at the 6th plenum of the 12th Central Committee that the term was used in the defense of the economic reforms which were being introduced.
At the 13th National Congress, acting General Secretary Zhao Ziyang on behalf of the 12th Central Committee delivered the report "Advance Along the Road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics". He wrote that China was a socialist society, but that socialism in China was in its primary stage, a Chinese peculiarity which was due to the undeveloped state of the country's productive forces. During this phase of development, Zhao recommended introducing a planned commodity economy on the basis of public ownership. The main failure of the communist right according to Zhao was that they failed to acknowledge that China could reach socialism by bypassing capitalism. The main failure of the communist left was that they held the "utopian position" that China could bypass the primary stage of socialism in which the productive forces are to be modernized.
On 5 October 1987, Yu Guangyuan, a major author of the concept, published an article entitled "Economy in the Initial Stage of Socialism" and speculated that this historical stage will last for two decades and perhaps much longer. This represents, says Ian Wilson, "a severe blight on the expectations raised during the early 70s, when the old eight-grade wage scale was being compressed to only three levels and a more even distributive system was assumed to be an important national goal". On 25 October, Zhao further expounded on the concept of the primary stage of socialism and said that the party line was to follow "One Center, Two Basic Points"—the central focus of the Chinese state was economic development, but that this should occur simultaneously through centralized political control (i.e. the Four Cardinal Principles) and upholding the policy of reform and opening up.
General Secretary Jiang Zemin further elaborated on the concept ten years later, first during a speech to the CCP Central Party School on 29 May 1997 and again in his report to the 15th National Congress on 12 September. According to Jiang, the 3rd plenum of the 11th Central Committee correctly analyzed and formulated a scientifically correct program for the problems facing China and socialism. In Jiang's words, the primary stage of socialism was an "undeveloped stage". The fundamental task of socialism is to develop the productive forces, therefore the main aim during the primary stage should be the further development of the national productive forces. The primary contradiction in Chinese society during the primary stage of socialism is "the growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backwardness of production". This contradiction will remain until China has completed the process of primary stage of socialism—and because of it—economic development should remain the party's main focus during this stage.
Jiang elaborated on three points to develop the primary stage of socialism. The first—to develop a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics—meant developing the economy by emancipating and modernizing the forces of production while developing a market economy. The second—building socialist politics with Chinese characteristics—meant "managing state affairs according to the law", developing socialist democracy under the party and making the "people the masters of the country". The third point—building socialist culture with Chinese characteristics—meant turning Marxism into the guide to train the people so as to give them "high ideals, moral integrity, a good education, and a strong sense of discipline, and developing a national scientific, and popular socialist culture geared to the needs of modernization, of the world, and of the future".
When asked about how long the primary stage of socialism would last, Zhao replied "[i]t will be at least 100 years [...] [before] socialist modernization will have been in the most part accomplished". As with Zhao, Jiang believed that it would take at least 100 years to reach a more advanced stage.
Socialist market economy