Q: In 1978, after 30 years on the socialist road, China
created the theory of "primary stage of socialism." Why was this
theory created? What are the contents and basis?
A: Any form of society goes through a process of birth,
development and maturation. Socialism as a brand new social form,
which is different from any other societies in human history,
requires all the more a long development process.
During a long time after the founding of the People's Republic
in 1949, we misjudged China's basic national conditions, ignoring
the fact that the country was and would for a long time be in the
primary state of socialism. The misjudgment resulted in the making
of unrealistic economic targets and policies that far surpassed the
national conditions.
With the deepening of China's reform and opening up since 1978,
we have come to have a better understanding of socialism and the
country's actual conditions, which serves as the basis for the
theory of “primary stage of socialism.” The understanding has two
meanings:
First, China has entered socialism and should persist in it;
Second, China's socialism is still at its primary stage and the
country could not simply overstep it. Instead, it should make
policies and take actions accordingly.
China has been building a socialist society on the basis of a
semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Its level of productivity
lagged far behind that of developed capitalist countries. So we had
to put the development of productivity ahead of everything else for
a long time. The country should strive to materialize
industrialization and socialization and commercialization
production activities, which had been achieved in many other
countries under capitalism, through reforming production
relationships and superstructure, which do not conform to the
development of productivity.
The primary stage of socialism is a period in which China would
gradually eradicate poverty, transform itself from a society in
which farmers dominate the majority of its population and economy
is primarily based on manual labor into a society in which
non-agricultural population holds the majority and the industry is
modernized; a society in which natural and semi-natural economy is
given way to market economy. It will take a very long time to
achieve these goals.
Before 1978, consumer
goods were supplied by fixed quantity in China. In the picture,
Beijing residents purchase non-staple food in 1978.