Meng Lanying: The Unknown History Behind and Discussions in the Formation of the Theory of the Primary Stage of Socialism (1979-1987)

April 29, 2024

Meng Lanying, December 6, 2017

Source: People’s Daily Online

The theory of the primary stage of socialism is a significant theoretical innovation in the process of sinicization of Marxism and is the cornerstone of Deng Xiaoping Theory. It accurately defines the development stage and historical orientation of Chinese socialism, ensuring the stability and continuity of the Party’s line, principles, policies, and development strategies in the new era after 1978. On the day when we are participating the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, let us revisit the proposal of this theory and its inclusion in the Central Party documents, scientifically grasp the national conditions of our country, and continuously promote the great cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. As early as September 1979, Party leader Ye Jianying explicitly stated in his speech at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China: “The socialist system is still in its infancy… To achieve modernization in our country, there must be a process from primary to advanced.” This is the first time in central party literature that the term “socialist system is still in its infancy” was used. In June 1981, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed the Resolution on Several Historical Issues of the Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Resolution), which clearly pointed out for the first time that “China’s socialist system is still in its primary stage.” Six years later, at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October 1987, the theory of primary stage of socialism was systematically expounded, indicating the arrival of a new era of socialist construction. From the initial proposal of the theory of the primary stage of socialism to becoming the overall basis for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, there were very little-known twists and turns in the process.

Proposal of the “underdeveloped stage of socialism”, a speech which stirred up big waves    

Since the 1960s, the authoritative view in the CPC on the stage of socialist society has been that the whole period from the victory of the proletarian revolution to the advanced stage of communist society, will belong to the transitional period from capitalism to communism, and there will be no longer a division of stages in between. And this entire transitional period belongs to the period of proletarian dictatorship. With the development of the times and the continuous liberation of people’s thinking, this authoritative viewpoint was challenged after the 1978 discussion on the issue of “what is the criterion of truth?” Less than half a month after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the Central Committee held a theoretical work retreat meeting. This meeting lasted for three months and was attended by hundreds of theoretical and propaganda workers from various provinces and cities. At this meeting, two theoretical workers put forward different views from the mainstream ideas on the issue of the socialist stage at that time. One was Feng Lanrui from the Political Research Office of the State Council, and the other was Su Shaozhi, who was then the deputy director of the Marxism-Leninism Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They had previously collaborated and jointly written some articles, and this time they also participated in the theoretical study conference. The two theory workers agreed to give a joint speech on the issue of the socialist stage at this meeting.

This speech presented a different view on the prevailing view at the time, stating that the view about the socialist society as the “entire transitional period from capitalist society to communist society” and as the “period of proletarian dictatorship without dividing stages” for a long time in the past was one-sided and incorrect, neither in line with the principles of scientific socialism nor in line with socialist reality. They argued that the long historical period from capitalism to communism should be divided into stages, that is, China was still in the “underdeveloped socialist stage” at that time, and this stage should first transit to developed socialism, and then transit to communist society. The editor in charge of the Economic Research Journal who attended the meeting saw the speech in the briefing and believed that the viewpoints were good. After obtaining consent, they published their speech in the Economic Research Journal.  It should be noted that in the political atmosphere of that time, proposing such insights demonstrated a rare theoretical courage.  Once the issue of the stages of socialism was raised, it was like a stone stirring up a thousand waves, immediately causing a huge response.

 Putting the expression of the primary stage of socialism into the Party’s resolution

On April 21, 1980, Deng Xiaoping said during a meeting with the Algerian National Liberation Front delegation, “We must fully study the issue of how to carry out socialist construction.”. Now we are summarizing the experience of the 30 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Generally speaking, first of all, we should not leave reality and adopt some ‘leftist’ methods and not go beyond the stage, because this attitude will not lead to socialism. We used to suffer losses from being left. Secondly, no matter what is done in socialism building, it must be conducive to the development of productive forces.” The words “we are summarizing the experience of the 30 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China” referred to here referred to the “Resolution” drafted under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang, chaired by Hu Qiaomu. At that time, Yu Guangyuan was also a member of the drafting group.

Yu Guangyuan argued that there is a significant difference between Chinese society and the socialism described by Marx and Engels, but he also did not agree with the statement that China was in the transitional stage towards a communist society. Yu Guangyuan’s  conclusion was that China was currently in the primary stage of socialism. He also argued that it will be better to say that China is in the “primary stage of socialism” than to say “underdeveloped socialism”. So, Yu Guangyuan advocated that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China should recognize that China is still in the primary stage of socialism.

 Note: Yu Guangyuan was an economist, philosopher, and he was a senior member of the Political Research Office of the State Council, a deputy president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a deputy director of the State Science and Technology Commission of the State Council. Yu Guangyuan was recognized as one of the first proponents of the socialist market-oriented economic system in China and the theory of “the Primary Stage of Socialism”.

So the in drafting group of the resolution there was a strong proposition to include a sentence to criticize the stage naming idea advocated by Feng Lanrui and Su Shaozhi in the Resolution, but Yu Guangyuan had firmly opposed this proposition.

According to Gong Yuzhi, a member of the drafting group for the Resolution and deputy director of the Central Party History Research Office, the discussion draft of the Resolution, which was submitted to 4000 members of the Party in October 1980, already included references to “how socialist production relations can develop from primary to advanced levels” and “our current socialist public ownership is still only the primary form of the socialist economic system.” In the revised draft prepared for discussion at the expanded meeting of the Central Political Bureau on May 16, 1981, there was also a mention that “our socialist system is still in its early stages.”  Gong Yuzhi evalutaed that from the process of more than two years of ideological development, the emergence of the concept of the primary stage of socialism in the historical resolution of the party was not accidental, but has a long history.”

In this way, the Resolution on Several Historical Issues of the Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, passed at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in June 1981, clearly stated: “Although our socialist system is still in its early stages, there is no doubt that our country has established a socialist system and entered a socialist society. Any viewpoint that denies this basic fact is wrong.” The resolution made a completely different judgment on the historical stage of China’s socialist system, with the mention that “the socialist system is still in its primary stage.” But these sentences were not yet a complete description of the primary stage of socialism.

Exploration of “What is Socialism” before and after the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China

The drafting of the report of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was carried out under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang, with Hu Qiaomu presiding over the work. Yu Guangyuan also participated in the drafting group of the report . During the discussion of the draft, there were disagreements among various parties, mainly including three aspects: first, was should we emphasize reform or rectification; the second was to develop a commodity economy or adhere to a planned economy; the third issue is was the primary stage of socialism . During a discussion, Hu Yaobang was also present. Yu Guangyuan suggested that it should be clearly pointed out in the Congress report that China’s socialist society is still in the primary stage of development. Hu Yaobang repeatedly said, “Very good, this should be written. “

But the report of the 12th National Congress only included the statement affirmed by Hu Yaobang, and did not elaborate on the special problems that the primary stage of socialism will bring to the comprehensive implementation of the goals and policies of socialist modernization construction; on the contrary, a lot of space was devoted to discussing the “communist ideology” and a considerable amount of sentences which included the word “communist” and “communism” was used. For example, the report said: “As a social system, it will take several generations of long-term hard work for communism to be fully realized in our country. However, communism is first and foremost a movement.”……..” Now this movement has developed in our country to establish a socialist society as the primary stage of communist society”.  However, communism is first and foremost a movement, and now this movement has developed to establish a socialist society as the primary stage of communist society in our country. Our daily life contains communism and we cannot live without communism. There are so many heroic models within and outside our Party, so many people who risk their lives and sacrifice everything for this revolutionary ideal (communism). “China’s socialist society is still in the primary stage of development, and material civilization is not yet developed. However….”……”the spread of communist ideas and people’s movements for the ultimate realization of communist ideals began as early as the founding of the Communist Party of China and the leadership of the New Democratic Revolution. Now this movement has developed in our country to establish a socialist society as the primary stage of communist society.”  In this way, on the one hand, the report to the 12th Congress states that China is in the primary stage of socialism, and on the other hand, it particularly emphasizes communist ideology, which seems very inconsistent.  As we know the “primary stage of communism” and the “primary stage of socialism” are two completely different historical development stages.  This lack of consistency was particularly evident in later literature and implementation. During the drafting process of the 12th National Congress report, another important member of the drafting group repeatedly told the Party cadres of the propaganda organization that the spirit of the 12th National Congress report is communism, and the “communist spirit” runs through the entire Congress report. When arranging propaganda after the closure of the 12th National Congress, he also emphasized that the spirit of the 12th National Congress is “communism” and that the 12th Party Congress runs through the red line of practicing communism. When studying and promoting the documents of the 12th National Congress, it is necessary to highlight the education of communist ideology. After the end of the 12th National Congress, the propaganda department took this as the “outline” to organize the entire party to study the documents of the 12th National Congress, requiring the government’s propaganda, education, and ideological front to implement and follow this evaluation. These explanations had inevitably led to some misunderstandings within the party and society. For example the propaganda department evaluated that the spirit of the 12th National Congress was communism, which not only failed to effectively implement the spirit of the 12th National Congress, but also made the construction of socialist spiritual civilization stick to the slogan of “communism”, making it difficult to form conscious actions of the masses.

Objectively speaking, during the period before and after the convening of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the concept of “primary stage of socialism” did not have a widespread impact, and an important reason was that the CPC was still exploring the question of “what is socialism”. It was not until June 1984 that Deng Xiaoping made classic judgments such as “the most fundamental task of the socialism stage is to develop productive forces” and “socialism must eliminate poverty, poverty is not socialism, let alone communism”, gradually formed a definition about “what socialism is”, which became the logical premise for establishing the theory of the primary stage of socialism. In August 1986, the Central Secretariat department of the Central Committee held a meeting to discuss the third revised draft of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPC on the Guiding Principles for the Construction of Socialist Spiritual Civilization, which was to be submitted to the Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee.

After this meeting, the relevant parties invited some leaders to propose a new revised version of the Resolution, who added many words and phrases such as “class struggle in the ideological field will continue to exist for a long time”, “resolute resistance and resolute struggle against bourgeois thought”, and “take communist thought as the core”. They also cited some paragraphs related to “communism” written in the Political Report of 12th National Congress and added words such as “there has been a history of capitalist exploitation in our country, and if we do not do well, there is still a possibility of capitalist restoration”. After reading the new revised draft, Hu Yaobang argued that the focus of the disagreement is whether to cite or not to cite the statement “socialist spiritual civilization construction with communist ideology as the core” from the report of the 12th National Congress. If this fundamental point is not clarified, this Resolution cannot be approved in the Central Committee meeting, and more importantly, there will still be “left” deviations in actual Party work. Hu Yaobang personally wrote a note to Deng Xiaoping, elaborating on the reasons for no longer using the concept of “communist ideology as the core”. Two days before the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau was about to discuss and adopt the Resolution, which was submitted to the Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee for deliberation, Hu Yaobang went to report to Deng Xiaoping to receive his instructions. After Hu Yaobang returned, he immediately talked to the drafting group about his conversation with Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping had suggested that such a change to include the phrase “socialist spiritual civilization construction with communist ideology as the core” would make people feel that our policies have changed towards “the old days again and reverse the reform path. The current path of the Party cannot be shaken. I have mentioned it multiple times recently.”  Comrade Deng Xiaoping also said: “We must pay attention to maintaining our political stability and not let carelessness lead to new turmoil in the entire situation. We should avoid the interferences from the “left” and right, do what you have to do according to the Marxist point of view.”

In September 1986, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPC on the Guiding Principles for the Construction of Socialist Spiritual Civilization. The resolution reaffirmed and made an elaboration on the social and economic characteristics of the primary stage of socialism, pointing out that “China is still in the primary stage of socialism, and not only must implement distribution according to work, develop socialist commodity economy and competition, but we should also for a considerable historical period, develop various economic components under the premise of public ownership being the main pillar, and encourage some people to become prosperous first under the goal of common prosperity.”.

These statements not only continued the statement in the Resolution and the report of the 12th National Congress that “China’s socialism is still in its primary stage”, but also took another step forward on this basis. It is worth mentioning that from the comprehensive adjustment of China’s development goals, to the exploration of the development stage of socialism in China, and then to the establishment of the theory of the primary stage of socialism, Deng Xiaoping, as the core of the second generation of leadership collective of the Party, had always played a primary role. It is under his guidance of seeking truth from facts and constantly thinking about how to carry out socialist construction that the theory of the primary stage of socialism has emerged as a new theoretical achievement on the theoretical domain of Marxism in China. In August 1987, Deng Xiaoping made a clear theoretical exposition on the “primary stage of socialism”: “Socialism itself is the primary stage of communism, and China is in the primary stage of socialism, which is an underdeveloped stage.” Everything should start from this reality and we should develop our plans based on this judgement.” Before the official exposition of the theory of the primary stage of socialism at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, this was the most complete and insightful theoretical summary which was made by Deng Xiaoping.

At the subsequent 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the two aspects meanings of the theory of the primary stage of socialism were elaborated in a systematic and detailed manner: “firstly, China has entered a socialist society, and we must adhere to it without any hesitation; secondly, China’s socialist society is still in an underdeveloped stage, and we must start from the reality of the primary stage and should not go beyond this stage. The former answers what stage of social development China is in, defines the basic nature and development direction of China’s social system. The latter aspect answers what kind of socialism we want to build, explaining the historical orientation and development strategy of China’s socialist system”.

On this basis, our party has innovatively formulated the basic line of “one center, two basic points” to be implemented in the primary stage of socialism. Deng Xiaoping proposed that the basic line should be upheld for a period of hundred years. It is precisely under the guidance of this theory that our party has correctly grasped the historical orientation and development stage of socialist construction, and based on China’s specific national conditions, has successfully depicted the reform blueprint for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese economy and society, achieving the remarkable development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.