Xi Jinping and CPC: On the New Development Stage Concept of the 20^th Congress and the Primary Stage of Socialism (2022)

China will Move from the Primary Stage of Socialism to a Higher Stage around 2050s

Liu Wei and Liu Shouying, June 2023

Author: Prof. Liu Wei, former president of Renmin University of China, director of the National Research Center for Socialist Political Economy with Chinese Characteristics at Renmin University of China

Author: Prof. Liu Shouying, Party Secretary and Dean of the School of Economics, Renmin University of China, Member of the Academic Committee of the National Research Center for Socialist Political Economy with Chinese Characteristics, Renmin University of China

Abstract: The 20th CPC National Congress in 2022 has drawn up a grand blueprint for comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization and has pointed out the direction and established a guide for action for comprehensively building a modern socialist country in the new era and achieving the second centenary goal. From the time when the proletariat took power to the arrival of the advanced stage of communism, whether social development should be divided into stages and how to divide them, and after the development stage is established, whether to divide different small stages and how to divide them, are not only theoretical issues of great significance, but also practical issues that affect development performance. The recognition and judgment of stages have always been a major issue with far-reaching impact on the transformation of China’s socialist system and the process of modernization. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and China has entered a new development stage.

Correctly understanding the relationship between the new development stage and the primary stage of socialism and clarifying the orientation and historical status of the new development stage in the primary stage of socialism are of great significance for the Communist Party of China, which has embarked on a new journey of building a modern country, to achieve the second centenary goal. Based on the classic works of Marx and Engels and the practice of socialist countries, this article raises the issue of the stages of socialism and the basis for their division, emphasizes the essential characteristics and significance of the primary stage of socialism, discusses that the new development stage is a stage of the primary stage of socialism, clarifies the tasks, phased goals and implementation paths for building a socialist modern power in the new development stage, and discusses several major issues that must be correctly understood and grasped in the new development stage.

1. The question of the stages of socialism and the basis for their division

The 20th CPC National Congress in 2022 has drawn up a grand blueprint for comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization and has pointed out the direction and established a guide for action for comprehensively building a modern socialist country in the new era and achieving the second centenary goal. Thus socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era and China has entered a new stage of development. The Party has put forward a series of new concepts, ideas and strategies for governing the country. The report of the 20th CPC National Congress clearly pointed out that “the next five years will be a critical period for the start of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way”, emphasizing the continuous writing of new chapters in the sinicization and modernization of Marxism and the continued promotion of theoretical innovation based on practice. On the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, how to correctly understand the historical position and development stage of our country is a major theoretical issue in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, which is related to the historical process of comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization and the realization of the second centenary goal.

1. Proposal of development stages in Marxist Classics

The classical Marxist writers Marx and Engels discussed the stage issue from capitalism to the realization of communism, namely the so-called three-stage theory of transition period, lower stage of communism (socialism), and higher stage of communism. In Critique of the Gotha Program, Marx first divided the development stages of human social forms after capitalist society. First, he made a clear explanation of the transition period between capitalist society and communist society.

“Between capitalist society and communist society, there is a revolutionary transformation period from the former to the latter. Corresponding to this period is also a political transition period.” It should be said that this “transition period” is not of the nature of communist society, nor is it of the nature of scientific socialism as Marx said. Socialism and communism mentioned by the classical writers of Marx and Engels are synonymous, and the “transition period” mentioned here should not be understood as the period of “socialist society” as people later said. This transition period from capitalist society to communist society is, to be precise, a “revolutionary transformation period” for the establishment of the political, economic and other systems of communist (socialist) society after the proletarian revolution overthrows the capitalist mode of production and the rule of the bourgeoisie.

This “revolutionary transformation period” has institutional characteristics different from those of communist (socialist) society in terms of politics and economy. In the discussion of the classic writers of Marx and Engels, this “period of revolutionary transformation” has the nature of transition from the old society (capitalism) to the new society (communism), and is therefore not a stable, long-term social form. Second, for the communist society that has achieved the transition to the new society after the “period of revolutionary transformation”, Marx further proposed a stage division, namely the “first stage of communist society”. This stage has the nature of communist society, but the level of productive forces is not yet developed enough. Although all exploitation arising from the private ownership of the means of production and capital has been eliminated in the system, only distribution according to work can be implemented, and distribution according to work based on labor as the measure of equality before labor is essentially a formal rather than a real factual equality. After the development of the “first stage of communist society”, Marx divided the communist society into the “advanced stage of communist society”, which has a series of new characteristics different from the first stage, has a different basis for the development of social productive forces, and replaces “distribution according to need” with “distribution according to work” in the distribution system. Although “Critique of the Gotha Program” divides communist society into the “first stage” and the “higher stage”, it still refers to it as “communist society” and does not distinguish it from “communist society” by “socialist society”. The so-called “first stage of communist society” was not called “socialist society” by “Critique of the Gotha Program” written by Marx.

Lenin pointed out: “What is usually called socialism, Marx called the ‘first’ or lower stage of communist society. Since the means of production have become public property, the term ‘communism’ can also be used here, as long as we do not forget that this is not yet complete communism. The great significance of Marx’s explanations lies in the fact that he also thoroughly applied the materialist dialectics, that is, the theory of development, and regarded communism as developed from capitalism. Marx did not scholastically fabricate and ‘fabricate’ various definitions, nor did he engage in meaningless literal debates (what is socialism, what is communism), but analyzed what can be called two stages of the economic maturity of communism.”

Lenin was the first to strictly distinguish the different categories of “communism” and “socialism” and the characteristics of different historical stages. In “The State and Revolution”, Lenin called what Marx called “the first stage of communism” “socialism”, pointing out that “in the first stage of communist society (usually called socialism), ‘bourgeois rights’ are not completely abolished, but only partially abolished, and only abolished within the limits of the economic changes that have been achieved, that is, only abolished in relation to the means of production.” However, the scientific difference between socialism and communism is very obvious. In the chapter “The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State”, he discussed that after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, it will go through three stages of development: the first is the “labor pains”, that is, the socialist transition from capitalism to the first stage of communism; the second is the “first stage of communist society”; and the third is the “advanced stage of communist society”. At the same time, Lenin also foresaw that the difficulty of transition between development stages in countries with backward economic development and institutional development is different. After the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin not only realized that in a country like Russia where the petty bourgeoisie is dominant, the transition to a socialist society is much more difficult than in developed capitalist countries, but also mentioned that “the transition to socialism in a small country like Estonia, where everyone is literate and the whole country is engaged in large-scale agriculture, cannot be the same as the transition to socialism in a country like Russia where the petty bourgeoisie is dominant.

2. The level of development determines the stage of development

The developed socialism envisioned by Marx includes not only the improvement of the level of economic development, but also the sublimation of the ideological level. The former is manifested in the great development of productive forces, the great improvement of mechanization and automation, and the extremely abundant material products; the latter is manifested in the great improvement of communist consciousness, the elimination of the habitual power and psychology of small producers, and the great abundance of spiritual products. Marx envisioned that the developed capitalist countries would enter this stage first. The United States and Western European countries with highly developed capitalism would achieve the victory of the proletarian socialist revolution, and they might enter the developed socialist society directly after a relatively short period of “pain” without going through underdeveloped socialism. In countries where the petty bourgeoisie is dominant, such as Russia and China, even after the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production is completed, it will take a long period of underdeveloped socialism before entering developed socialism.

Lenin made a groundbreaking contribution to the theory and practice of backward countries entering the advanced socialist stage through the proletariat overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie.

First, Lenin pointed out that the revolution of the proletariat to overthrow the capitalist mode of production can occur (or first occur) in the weak links of the capitalist world chain. For example, Russia at that time. Therefore, although the fundamental motivation for overthrowing the capitalist mode of production lies in the contradiction between productive forces and production relations, and in the fundamental requirement of liberating and developing social productive forces, the level of productive forces does not have to (or only has to) reach the social and economic level of the most developed capitalist countries. On the contrary, it is more likely that changes will first occur in the weak links of the capitalist world where the level of social productive forces is relatively backward, breaking through the prediction of the classical writers of Marx and Engels that the proletarian revolution will first occur in the most developed and thus the most acute capitalist countries with the contradiction between productive forces and production relations (such as Western Europe at that time).

Second, Lenin pointed out that overthrowing capitalist rule and establishing a socialist society through the practice of proletarian revolution can be something that individual countries first practice (such as Russia at that time). As long as the conditions required for such a revolution are met in individual countries, a revolutionary practical movement may occur. Therefore, the practice of the socialist system replacing the capitalist system is not international from the beginning, or a movement that occurs universally in all countries, but is national in individual countries, such as the October Revolution in Russia. As Lenin said, “For reasons of an economic and political nature, which we have repeatedly mentioned in the press and which are already known to everyone, and because of the different speed and basis of development from Western Europe, our Russian Socialist Soviet Republic is still temporarily an isolated island in the turbulent sea of ​​imperialist robber forces.”

The reasons for the formation of the so-called “isolated island” are mainly due to two aspects. On the one hand, the level of economic and social development of Soviet Russia itself was relatively backward compared with Western Europe, where the level of development of capitalist productive forces was higher, so it was difficult to have a more important and extensive international influence on economic development. On the other hand, the Soviet regime established by the October Revolution was a victory of socialism in a country, and did not fundamentally change the capitalist world system. The socialist countries were still surrounded by the world capitalist system and were still isolated. In order to realize the survival, development and breakthrough of the socialist “isolated island” surrounded by the “ocean” of capitalism, it is necessary to first catch up with and surpass the developed capitalist countries in economic development. At the same time, it is necessary to strive to achieve mutual support and combination between the international proletarian communist movement and the socialist revolution in the country, and in this historical process, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between the socialist country and the international capitalist world.

Third, after the “military communism” society established on the basis of the Soviet regime established by the October Revolution in Russia suffered a serious setback, Lenin proposed the “New Economic Policy”, which made new developments in theory and practice on the idea of ​​the classical writers of Marx and Engels that there is a “transition period” from capitalism to communism (socialism), pointing out that this “revolutionary transition period” with the nature of transition to socialist society is different from socialist society. In terms of ownership of the means of production, it is not a simple public ownership, but a combination of ownership of various natures in a specific structure; in terms of resource allocation, it is not a simple central planned economy, but a market mechanism, and economic ties between workers and peasants, urban and rural areas, and all aspects are realized through market transactions; in terms of foreign economic relations, it is not to develop the economy in isolation, but to establish extensive ties with the capitalist world economic system, including utilizing the capitalist world market and introducing foreign capital; the fundamental reason for the existence of these characteristics is that the level of development of social productive forces is relatively backward (Liu Wei and He Xinqiao, 1990).

3. The stage of development determines the nature of the system

The change of development stage brought about by the different levels of development of productive forces will inevitably bring about changes in the institutional structure and institutional arrangements that are adapted to it. The communist society that Marx talked about in “Critique of the Gotha Program” has just emerged from capitalist society. The institutional characteristics of this society are that the means of production are collectively owned, producers do not exchange their products, and the labor spent on the production of products does not manifest itself as the value of these commodities and their certain material attributes. Individual labor exists directly as a component of total labor. After making various deductions, each producer receives back from society exactly what he has given to society. What he gives to society is his personal labor. In such a society, no class differences are recognized, because everyone is just a laborer like everyone else. However, this stage also defaults to unequal personal talents, that is, unequal working abilities are natural privileges. Lenin clearly gave the institutional characteristics of the “first stage of communist society” in “State and Revolution”, that is, the means of production are no longer personal private property, but belong to the entire society. It is no longer possible for man to exploit man, because then factories, machines, land and other means of production can no longer be considered private property; the state is disappearing, because there are no capitalists, no classes, and therefore no classes to suppress. However, the state has not completely disappeared, because it is still necessary to protect the “bourgeois rights” that allow for the existence of inequality in fact. However, in the first stage of communism (socialism), unequal rights are inevitable because of the different personal talents and thus the different working abilities of workers. Only in the advanced stage of communism, when social productive forces develops rapidly, the contradiction between mental and physical labor disappears, and labor itself becomes the first need of life, can society achieve “everyone doing their best and distribution according to needs” with the all-round development of individuals and the growth of productive forces.

4. Negative Consequences of Surpassing the Stage We Are In

The determination and correct implementation of stage issues directly affect the exploration process and development performance of the socialist system. Correctly determining the development stage and adopting institutional arrangements of appropriate nature can promote the development of productive forces. Conversely, exceeding the development stage and adopting institutional arrangements that exceed the institutional nature of that stage will hinder the development of productive forces.

Classic writers of Marxism, Marx and Engels had theoretically envisioned this historical process of stage division. In the “Letter of the Central Committee to the Communist League” in March 1850, it was pointed out that the development from capitalism to communism must go through different stages. The first stage is the stage of democratic republic, in which the democrats will gain power, but “some measures with a more or less socialist nature will have to be proposed” ; the second stage is the social republic, which is a “republic with socialist tendencies” (the transition period to the first stage of communism); the third stage is the social communist republic, which is a “republic with communist tendencies” (the first stage of communism); the fourth stage is the pure communist republic (the advanced stage of communism).

The October Revolution turned the idea of ​​”crossing the capitalist Caucasus Gorge” from theory into reality, but the Soviet Union’s socialist construction has evolved from direct transition to indirect transition. After the victory of the Russian proletarian revolution, Lenin proposed the idea of ​​”direct transition to state production and distribution according to communist principles”, using the policy of war communism to push the Russian proletariat to directly transform backward production relations into socialist production relations, but in the end it had to adopt the New Economic Policy and return to indirect transition, that is, to develop a market economy and a certain degree of private capitalism under the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in order to find a feasible path for the Russian proletariat to socialism. Direct transition ignored the reality of Russia’s backward productive forces and its level of development that was insufficient to support Russia’s direct entry into the socialist stage. Lenin pointed out that socialism could not ultimately be established on the backward basis of small-scale production. “Without highly developed large-scale industry, there can be no talk of socialism at all, and this is even more true for a peasant country.” Therefore, the socialist construction of Soviet Russia must determine the stage of underdeveloped socialism based on the degree of backward productive forces. It must adopt institutional arrangements that are compatible with underdeveloped socialism to develop the productive forces of underdeveloped socialist Soviet Russia, that is, through capitalist commodity production, gradually transition to a “pure socialist economic form” without commodity-money relations.

Lenin’s Ideas:

Lenin repeatedly stressed that: “We must be good at considering those intermediate links that facilitate the transition from the patriarchal system and small-scale production to socialism.” “Since we cannot yet achieve a direct transition from small-scale production to socialism, capitalism, as a spontaneous product of small-scale production and exchange, is inevitable to a certain extent, so we should use capitalism (especially to incorporate it into the orbit of state capitalism) as an intermediate link between small-scale production and socialism, as a means, way, method and way to improve productive forces.” In Lenin’s view, the New Economic Policy is a transitional policy, that is, the “intermediate link” required for the transition to socialism, and “Russia with the New Economic Policy will become socialist Russia.” Lenin pointed out: “We have to admit that our entire view of socialism has fundamentally changed.” On the other hand, Lenin emphasized: “After any profound political change, the people need a long time to digest this change” and “make it understandable to the masses”, including “the lessons they have learned.”

The Soviet socialist revolution and construction under Stalin’s leadership also attached great importance to the division of stages in theoretical and practical exploration, but the general judgment is that after a short transition period such as the New Economic Policy, the Soviet Union has built a socialist society and quickly transitioned to a communist society. In November 1936, Stalin officially announced in his report on the Draft Constitution of the Soviet Union: “Soviet society has basically realized socialism and established a socialist system, that is, it has realized the system that Marxists also call the first stage or lower stage of communism. That is to say, we have basically realized the first stage of communism, that is, socialism.”

 In Stalin’s view, from the October Revolution in 1917 and the victory of overthrowing capitalism to the establishment of the socialist system in 1936, the “revolutionary transition period” of the Soviet Union’s transition from capitalism to socialist society has ended. Furthermore, Stalin believed that socialism, as the first stage or lower stage of communism, is not a long process, but a short-term development process that will soon enter the communist stage. By March 1939, in the “Resolution of the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) on the Third Five-Year Plan”, Stalin announced that the Soviet Union had entered the “communist stage”, pointing out: “The Soviet Union entered a new stage of development in the Third Five-Year Plan, namely, completing the construction of a socialist society by the proletariat and gradually transitioning from socialism to the communist stage.” In other words, the socialist stage has been completed and the transition to communism has begun.

Khrushchev inherited Stalin’s viewpoint in judging that the Soviet Union had entered the communist stage, and proposed that the Soviet Union had entered “a new and extremely important period of development – a period of comprehensively carrying out the construction of a communist society.” Although Brezhnev had retreated from the judgment of entering the “communist stage”, he still insisted that the Soviet Union had “built a developed socialist society.” History shows that the Soviet Union’s historical judgment on the division of socialist development stages and entering the advanced stage of communism, from entering the communist stage to entering the period of comprehensively carrying out the construction of a communist society to the revised “built a developed socialist society”, obviously underestimated the long-term historical nature of socialist society as a lower stage of communism, and did not conform to the objective historical laws of the development of scientific socialism. In summarizing the experience and lessons of Soviet socialism, Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “What exactly socialism looks like, the Soviet Union has been working on it for many years, but it has not been fully understood. Perhaps Lenin’s ideas were better and Lenin had developed the NEP policy, but later the Soviet model became rigid.”

The theory and practice of the Communist Party of China on the transition period from the victory of the new democratic revolution to the entry into socialist society developed the Marxist thought on the revolutionary transition period from capitalist society to socialist society.

First, it demonstrated the possibility and necessity of a revolution led by the proletariat not only in individual capitalist countries and weak links in the capitalist chain, but also in China, a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. It demonstrated the special nature of this revolution in Chinese society, namely the new democratic revolution, and put forward the program of the new democratic revolution, clarified the goals to be achieved by the revolution and the ways and means to achieve the revolution, and formed the “common program” of new democracy.

Second, in the historical practice of “one transformation and three reforms”, CPC explored and developed the theory of the transition to socialist society of the classic writers of Marx and Engels. Soon after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, after three years of national economic recovery and development, China began to transition from a new democratic society to a socialist society. According to the initial idea of leaders, this transition period would take about 15 years, but in later practice, it took only three years to complete the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production and entered a socialist society by 1956.

Although there are different views on whether this transition period was too short, whether the new democratic society should be maintained as a relatively independent social form for a longer time, and whether the socialist transformation of China’s means of production ownership is too fast, during this transition period, whether compared with the previous history of China’s economic development or compared with the transition period from capitalism to socialist society in socialist countries such as the Soviet Union, China’s social productive forces has achieved unprecedented high-speed development, indicating that the institutional changes and policies and guidelines during this transition period are generally in line with the historical requirements of the development of China’s social productive forces (Liu Wei and Fan Xin, 2022).

After achieving victory in land reform, national economic recovery, and the three reforms, Mao Zedong began to consider the socialist stage and system construction to promote modernization. Mao proposed that the transition from capitalism to communism could be divided into two stages: one is from capitalism to socialism, which can be called underdeveloped socialism; the other is from socialism to communism, that is, from underdeveloped socialism to relatively developed socialism. The latter stage would take longer than the former. After the latter stage, material products and spiritual wealth are extremely abundant, people’s communist consciousness is greatly improved, and we can enter the advanced stage of communism. In 1953, Mao Zedong defined the period from the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the basic completion of socialist transformation as the transition period of socialist society.

Unfortunately, deviations occurred in the subsequent exploration and practice. One historical deviation was that after the transition to socialism was achieved, the objectivity and long-term nature of the underdeveloped stage of socialism were denied, and the “communist wind” was blown in a hurry to enter communism. Another historical deviation was to misinterpret the “transition period” as the transition to the advanced stage of communism.

The dominant view was that the transition from capitalist society to communist society was an entire historical period, and this historical period was called socialist society. The error in the development stage not only led to theoretical misleading, but also caused extremely serious consequences in practice. In theory, from capitalism to underdeveloped socialism, from underdeveloped socialism to developed socialism was regarded as the same historical period, and the contradictions of a certain stage were projected to the entire historical period; without distinguishing the stages and confusing the stages, the phenomena and factors existing in a certain stage were expanded into phenomena or factors that exist in several stages of socialist development, and it was argued that distribution according to work and socialist commodity production and money would be  the reasons for the emergence of new bourgeois elements, thereby fundamentally denying the socialist distribution according to work and socialist commodity money relations, and logically drawing the absurd conclusion that capitalist production relations would inevitably arise in socialist production relations (Su Shaozhi and Feng Lanrui, 1979).

In practice, not distinguishing between stages and confusing the stages led to a delay in shifting the focus of work, China missed economic development opportunities, and even deviated from the focus of socialist construction; not distinguishing between stages and confusing the stages led to doing things that should only be done in the developed socialist stage in the underdeveloped socialist stage, we prematurely eliminated individual economy, abolishing private plots and family sideline businesses, abolished distribution according to work, restricted commodity production and commodity exchange, opposed material interests, etc., thus dampened the socialist enthusiasm of the people, destroying production relations, and seriously undermining development of productive forces. We must learn this lesson deeply in any period of socialist exploration.

Part II. The Essential Characteristics of the Primary Stage of Socialism

1. How Did We Determine the Primary Stage of Socialism

In 1980s at the beginning days of reform and opening up, the Communist Party of China learned from the painful lessons of the past and regarded the establishment of China’s socialist stage as the basic issue that needed to be clarified first in promoting modernization. The establishment and persistence of the primary stage of socialism became the cornerstone for the Chinese people to formulate the basic system, basic line, and basic strategy from standing up to becoming rich. The “Resolution on Certain Historical Issues of the Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party in June 1981 was the first time that “our socialist system is still in the primary stage” was proposed in the documents of the Party Central Committee, and this document was used as the basis for the national conditions of China’s socialist cause. At the same time, it emphasized that socialism is a historical movement towards the advanced stage of communism. The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1987 established the primary stage of socialism as the basic line of the Party, demonstrated the importance and core essence of the stage issue, and expounded the basic theory of the primary stage of socialism.

  First, 13th National Congress made it clear that “correctly understanding the historical stage in which our society is currently located is the primary issue of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and the fundamental basis for us to formulate and implement correct lines and policies.”

  Second, 13th National Congress defined the connotation of the primary stage of socialism: “On the one hand, our society is already a socialist society. We must adhere to socialism and cannot leave it. On the other hand, our socialist society is still in the primary stage. We must proceed from this reality and cannot go beyond this stage”.

  Third, 13th National Congress emphasized the characteristics of the primary stage of socialism, that is, “this concept does not refer to the initial stage that any country will go through when entering socialism, but specifically refers to the specific stage that China must go through to build socialism under the conditions of backward productive forces and underdeveloped commodity economy”.

  Fourth, 13th National Congress stipulated the tasks and time interval of the primary stage of socialism, that is, “from the basic completion of the socialist transformation of the private ownership of the means of production in the 1950s to the basic realization of socialist modernization, it will take at least a hundred years, all of which belong to the primary stage of socialism”.

 The 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1992 affirmed the scientific conclusion made on the issue of the stage of socialist development that: “China is still in the primary stage of socialism, reiterated that this is a very long historical stage of at least a hundred years, and for the first time proposed that the primary stage of socialism reflects China’s basic national conditions and the basic line should be formulated according to this”.

  The 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that China is now in and will remain in the primary stage of socialism for a long time is the greatest reality, and emphasized the insurmountability of the primary stage of socialism, that is, socialism is the primary stage of communism, and China is in the primary stage of socialism, which is an underdeveloped stage and an insurmountable historical stage.

Our Party has been in a process of deepening its understanding of the historical stages of socialist society. After the socialist transformation was basically completed in 1956, the transformation period ended, and the socialist society was entered, this was influenced by various international and domestic factors.

Shortly after the establishment of the socialist system, socialist countries such as the Soviet Union announced the beginning of the transition to the advanced stage of communism and announced that they had built a communist society. In China  under the impact of the “Great Leap Forward” and other waves, people lacked a clear understanding of the objective laws of economic development, and thus developed an ideological tendency and policy pursuit of eagerness to enter communism. Although our Party later corrected this ideological sentiment and the reckless “communist wind” line. Although we emphasized the need to combine Marxism with the specific practice of China’s socialist revolution and construction (Comrade Mao Zedong called it the “second combination”), we still lacked a systematic and scientific understanding of the long-term nature of socialist society and the historical particularity of socialism in China in terms of guiding ideology and policy tendencies.

 This scientific understanding was truly systematically opened after entering the new historical period of reform and opening up. On the one hand, it was our understanding of the primary stage of socialism. It should be said that the idea of ​​the “primary stage of socialism” was an important sublimation of our Party’s scientific understanding of the historical stages and long-term nature and arduousness of socialist development. On the other hand, it was our understanding of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. Comrade Deng Xiaoping first proposed the term of “building socialism with Chinese characteristics” at the 12th National Congress of the Party in September 1982. As Comrade Xi Jinping summarized: “Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, the theme of our party’s entire theory and practice has been to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

It is important to understand the historical logical relationship between socialism with Chinese characteristics and socialism and between the primary stage of socialism and the advanced stage of communism. In general, socialism is the primary stage of communism, that is, the lower stage (Lenin). Or it is called the first stage of communism (Marx). Socialism under different historical conditions in different countries is divided into different stages of development. Our current stage is the primary stage of socialism. “The primary stage of socialism is the initial stage of the entire long historical process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Therefore, the so-called “primary stage of socialism” refers to socialism with Chinese characteristics. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a long-term historical process that can be divided into different stages of development.

 The primary stage of socialism is the initial stage of this long historical process. We are now in and will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time. After achieving the development goals and basic program of the primary stage of socialism, the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics will have to go through the long-term efforts and hard work of several generations, dozens of generations or even dozens of generations before it can enter the communist society.

2. Underdevelopment of China was the basis for determining the primary stage of socialism

As a specific historical stage, the basis for the existence of the primary stage of socialism is the main contradiction in this stage and the gap between underdevelopment of China and the modernization goal to be achieved. In 1987 the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China expounded on the primary stage of socialism, and the important basis was the main contradiction we were faced in this stage – the contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and the backward social production.

Our socialism was born out of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and the level of productive forces was far behind that of developed capitalist countries. This determined that we must go through a very long primary stage to achieve industrialization and the commercialization, socialization and modernization of production that many other countries have achieved under capitalist conditions. The 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made it clear that the main contradiction in the primary stage of socialism, the contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and the backward social production, should run through the entire process of the primary stage of socialism in our country and all aspects of social life. It clearly stated that “China is in the primary stage of socialism, that is, the underdeveloped stage. For a large eastern country like ours, it is a great victory to embark on the socialist road after going through New Democracy”.

However, when our country entered socialism in 1956, it was still far behind developed countries in terms of the level of development of productive forces. This determined that it had to go through a fairly long primary stage under socialist conditions to achieve industrialization and the socialization, marketization and modernization of the economy. This is an insurmountable historical stage.” For this reason, we emphasized the general working principle of focusing on economic construction, and made it clear that the fundamental task of the primary stage of socialism is to develop social productive forces. We proposed that development is the hard truth, and the key to China’s solution to all problems lies in relying on its own development. While acknowledging that China has made great progress since reform and opening up, the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002 clearly stated that:  “we must face up to the underdevelopment that still exists and not ignore the gap with the goal of modernization, and admit that the well-off society achieved at that time was still a low-level, incomplete and very unevenly developed well-off society. The main manifestations of underdevelopment are that China’s productive forces, science and technology, and education are still relatively backward, and there is still a long way to go to achieve industrialization and modernization; the dual economic structure of urban and rural areas has not changed, the trend of widening regional gaps has not been reversed, and there are still a large number of poor people; the total population continues to increase, the proportion of the elderly population rises, and the pressure on employment and social security increases; the contradiction between the ecological environment, natural resources, and economic and social development is becoming increasingly prominent. We are still facing the pressure of developed countries’ advantages in economy, science and technology, etc.; consolidating and improving the current well-off level requires a long period of hard work. Precisely because of these gaps, China is in and will remain in the primary stage of socialism for a long time”.

The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2007 analyzed a series of new stage characteristics of China’s development after entering the new century, such as “China has significantly enhanced economic strength, people’s lives generally reaching a well-off level, coordinated development has achieved remarkable results, socialist culture has become more prosperous, social vitality has been significantly enhanced, and opening up to the outside world has been expanding. However, there is still a large gap between us and the goal of modernization, as shown by the fact that the overall productive forces level is not high, the independent innovation capability is not strong, the long-term structural contradictions and extensive growth mode have not been fundamentally changed; the trend of widening income distribution gap has not been fundamentally reversed, there are still a considerable number of urban and rural poor and low-income people, and it is more difficult to coordinate and balance the interests of all parties; the situation of weak agricultural foundation and lagging rural development has not changed, and the task of narrowing the urban-rural and regional development gaps and promoting coordinated economic and social development is arduous; the people’s spiritual and cultural needs are becoming increasingly strong, and the independence, selectivity, variability and diversity of people’s ideological activities have been significantly enhanced, which has put forward higher requirements for the development of advanced socialist culture; the social structure, social organization form and social interest pattern have undergone profound changes, and social construction and management are facing many new issues; the international competition we face is becoming increasingly fierce, the pressure of developed countries’ advantages in economy and science and technology has existed for a long time, and the foreseeable and unforeseen risks have increased, and the requirements for coordinating domestic development and opening up to the outside world are higher”. For this reason, the scientific outlook on development concept was proposed.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the cause of the Party and the country has achieved historic achievements and undergone historic changes, pushing China onto a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 fully affirmed the remarkable achievements made in the cause of the Party and the country, while emphasizing that “we must be soberly aware that there are still some shortcomings in our work and we face many difficulties and problems”, including the fact that the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development is still prominent, there are still many bottlenecks in promoting high-quality development, the ability of scientific and technological innovation is still not strong, and the gap between urban and rural regional development and income distribution is still large.

3. Reform is the fundamental driving force for China’s development in the primary stage of socialism

Classic Marxist writers have had a very profound understanding of the innovation of the socialist system. Engels once said: “So-called ‘socialist society’ is not a static thing but should be regarded as a society of constant change and reform, just like any other social system.”

This can be regarded as a classic Marxist exposition of the innovation of the socialist system. When leading China’s socialist reform, Deng Xiaoping also proposed that “after the basic socialist system is established, it is necessary to fundamentally change the economic system that restricts the development of productive forces, establish a socialist economic system full of vitality and vigor, and promote the development of productive forces. This is reform.” Adapting to the level of development of the socialist cause, establishing and continuously improving the basic socialist system is the fundamental guarantee for achieving the development tasks of the primary stage of socialism.

 The Sixth Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee of the Party in September 1986 established the basic institutional principles of the primary stage of socialism: first, it is clear that for a considerable historical period, a variety of economic elements must be developed under the premise of public ownership as the main body; second, distribution according to work must be implemented; third, the socialist commodity economy and competition must be developed. The prototype of the socialist basic economic system was established with the trinity of ownership system, distribution system and economic system.

The 13th CPC National Congress in 1987 proposed that the primary stage of socialism should solve the system problems through reform, based on the fact that the degree of socialization of production required for the development of socialist public ownership in China was still very low, the commodity economy and domestic market were very underdeveloped, the natural economy and semi-natural economy accounted for a considerable proportion, and the socialist economic system was immature and imperfect. The 14th CPC National Congress in 1992 clearly proposed that the goal of economic system reform was to “establish and improve the socialist market economic system on the basis of upholding public ownership and distribution according to work as the main body and other economic elements and distribution methods as supplements.”

The 15th CPC National Congress in 1997 proposed the need to further improve the socialist basic economic system, based on the fact that China’s socialist system was still imperfect and the socialist market economic system was still immature. The 16th CPC National Congress proposed the idea of ​​improving the socialist basic economic system: first, uphold and improve the basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of multiple ownership economies; second, deepen the reform of the distribution system and improve the social security system; third, continuously improve the socialist market economic system, adhere to the reform direction of the socialist market economy, and enable the market to play a fundamental role in resource allocation under the macro-control of the state.

The 17th CPC National Congress in 2007 proposed “combining upholding the socialist basic system with developing the market economy” to promote the development and improvement of the socialist basic economic system.

First, we should improve the ownership system, “uphold and improve the basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and multiple ownership economies developing together, unswervingly consolidate and develop the public ownership economy, unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public ownership economy, uphold equal protection of property rights, and form a new pattern of equal competition and mutual promotion among various ownership economies”.

Second, we should deepen the reform of the income distribution system, and “uphold and improve the distribution system with distribution according to work as the main body and multiple distribution methods coexisting, improve the system in which production factors such as labor, capital, technology, and management participate in distribution according to their contributions, and handle the relationship between efficiency and fairness in both primary distribution and redistribution, and pay more attention to fairness in redistribution”. In particular, we should gradually increase the proportion of residents’ income in the distribution of national income, increase the proportion of labor remuneration in the primary distribution, increase the income of low-income people, establish a normal wage growth mechanism and payment guarantee mechanism for enterprise employees, create conditions for more people to have property income, and gradually reverse the trend of widening income distribution gap.

Third, we should accelerate the formation of a unified, open, competitive and orderly modern market system, develop various production factor markets, and improve the production factor and resource price formation mechanism that reflects market supply and demand, resource scarcity, and environmental damage costs.

4. Realizing socialist modernization is the fundamental task of the primary stage of socialism

In the primary stage of socialism, the Communist Party of China has consistently led the people of all ethnic groups in the country to strive for modernization, and in light of China’s realities at each stage, has established historical tasks for achieving modernization that are appropriate to each stage. The Third Plenary Session of the 12th CPC Central Committee pointed out that the fundamental task of socialism is to develop social productive forces, that is, to make social wealth emerge more and more, and to continuously meet the people’s growing material and cultural needs. The 13th CPC National Congress in 1987 proposed to vigorously develop the commodity economy, improve labor productive forces, gradually realize the modernization of industry, agriculture, national defense and science and technology, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through reform and exploration. The 14th CPC National Congress in 1992 clearly pointed out that the essence of socialism is to liberate productive forces, develop productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity, and through the three-step strategy, basically realize socialist modernization by the middle of the 21st century, when the People’s Republic of China celebrates its 100th anniversary.

The 15th CPC National Congress in 1997 emphasized that the primary stage of socialism is a historical stage for basically realizing socialist modernization. As socialism with Chinese characteristics in the primary stage of socialism, the highest program is to gradually realize the lofty goal of communism, and the basic program is to realize socialist modernization (i.e., the second centenary goal). The realization of this basic program, that is, the realization of the goal of socialist modernization (national rejuvenation), means that the historical mission stipulated in the basic program of the Party in the initial stage of socialism with Chinese characteristics, that is, the primary stage of socialism, has been achieved. The century-long process from the establishment of the socialist system in China to the realization of the goal of socialist modernization is an extremely important stage in the great course of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and is the historical connotation and epochal node of the primary stage of socialism. After the realization of the basic program of the primary stage of socialism and the establishment of a socialist modernization power, the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics still needs long-term hard work.

Realizing socialist modernization and catching up with the level of developed countries in the world in economic and social development are only the goals of the initial stage of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The report of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that the primary stage of socialism is “a historical stage for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on the basis of socialism. Such a historical process will take at least 100 years. As for consolidating and developing the socialist system, it will take much longer, requiring several generations, dozens of generations, or even dozens of generations of unremitting efforts.”

 The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002 proposed that the historical task of the primary stage is to “build a well-off society in an all-round way, accelerate the advancement of socialist modernization, make socialist China develop and become prosperous, and make greater contributions to the cause of human progress”, and basically realize modernization by the middle of the 21st century and build our country into a prosperous, democratic and civilized socialist country. The 17th CPC National Congress in 2007 clearly stated that “we have taken solid steps towards the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects which was decided at the 16th CPC National Congress. We must continue to work hard to ensure that the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects is achieved by 2020” and “the per capita GDP will quadruple that of 2000 by 2020.”

The theory of the primary stage of socialism is an important component of the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is the theoretical foundation for China’s reform and opening up. It is a scientific summary of China’s basic national conditions from the establishment of the basic socialist system in the 1950s to the construction of a developed socialist modern country. The theory of the primary stage of socialism is the fundamental starting point for the Party and the state to formulate development strategies and various principles and policies for socialist modernization.

Part III. The New Development Stage and the Primary Stage of Socialism

III. 1. The CPC First Used the New Development Stage Concept in October 2020

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Correctly understanding the historical position and development stage of the party and the people’s cause is the fundamental basis for our party to clarify the central tasks of the stage and formulate lines, principles and policies. It is also an important experience for our party to continuously achieve victory in leading the revolution, construction, and reform.” In October 2020 the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed that after building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving the first centenary goal, we must seize the opportunity to embark on a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country and march towards the second centenary goal. This marked that China has entered a new stage of development by 2020.

Corresponding to the classical Marxist theory texts and the primary stage of socialism, the basis for determining the new development stage is mainly based on the level of development, on major contradictions and on institutional characteristics of the society.

First, the level of development has improved. After more than 40 years of unremitting efforts in reform and opening up, China’s comprehensive national strength and economic strength have leaped to a new level. It has become the world’s second largest economy, the largest industrial country, the largest commodity trading country, and the largest foreign exchange reserve country. Its GDP exceeds 100 trillion yuan, its per capita GDP exceeds 10,000 US dollars, its urbanization rate exceeds 60%, and its middle-income group exceeds 400 million people. The people’s living standards have improved significantly. The per capita disposable income of residents nationwide has increased from 171 yuan in 1978 to 32,189 yuan in 2020, and the Engel coefficient of urban and rural residents has dropped from 57.5% and 67.7% in 1978 to 29.2% and 32.7% in 2020 respectively.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 pointed out that we “have won the largest battle against poverty in human history, all 832 impoverished counties in the country have been lifted out of poverty, nearly 100 million rural poor people have been lifted out of poverty, and more than 9.6 million poor people have been relocated. The problem of absolute poverty has been solved historically, making a major contribution to the global poverty alleviation cause.” These substantial changes have laid a solid foundation for our country to enter a new stage of development and advance towards the second centenary goal. They indicate that the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has taken a new step forward and achieved a new leap from lagging far behind the times to catching up with the times in great strides.

Second, the main contradiction has undergone profound historical changes. With the major changes in the economy and society, the main contradiction in our society has also changed from the original contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and backward social production to the contradiction between the people’s growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. On the one hand, the change in the level of productive forces requires a change in the expression of the main contradiction. China’s scientific and technological innovation and application have entered the forefront of the world in many aspects. As of 2021, the national R&D expenditure has reached 2.8 trillion yuan, and the basic research expenditure has increased to 181.7 billion yuan.

China already has the most complete industrial chain and the most powerful industrial manufacturing capacity in the world. The production capacity of more than 220 major industrial and agricultural products ranks first in the world. The long-standing shortage economy and insufficient supply have undergone fundamental changes. On the other hand, changes in the demand structure and connotation also require a change in the expression of the main contradiction. As people’s living standards have significantly improved, the needs of the people are not limited to the level and scope of simple material culture, but are diversified, multi-level and multi-faceted. They expect better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher-level medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, more beautiful environment, and richer spiritual and cultural life. The people not only have higher requirements for material and cultural life, but also have growing demands for democracy, rule of law, fairness, justice, security, environment and other aspects beyond material and cultural needs. Therefore, the key factor that restricts the growing needs of the people for a better life is no longer simply the “socialization level of production”  but extends to the imbalance and insufficiency of the overall social development, including production development factors.

 The imbalance and insufficiency are prominently manifested in the imbalance of regional development, urban and rural development, industrial structure, real economy and virtual economy, economic growth rate and resource and environmental carrying capacity, insufficient development of innovation capacity and high-end industries, the level of the real economy needs to be improved, and the low-end supply is in excess while the high-end supply is insufficient, etc. It should be noted that although the expression of the main contradiction in the new development stage has changed, it is essentially the same as the main contradiction in the primary stage. Both face the contradiction between economic and social development and the needs of the people. It is the progression and sublimation of the main contradiction in the primary stage under the grasp of objective reality. The contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and backward social production still exists to a certain extent, but it no longer constitutes the main contradiction in China’s social development at present and in the future. The structural contradictions of Chinese society in the new development stage are more prominent, that is, the contradiction between the people’s diverse, multi-level, and constantly changing material and cultural needs and the unbalanced and insufficient development of social productive forces is becoming increasingly prominent (Wei Xinghua, 2018).

The third is the finalization and improvement of the basic system.

To achieve the goal of building a modern socialist country, it is necessary to provide institutional guarantees through a more perfect socialist system with Chinese characteristics. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, based on the fact that China is in the primary stage of socialism, established the distribution system with distribution according to work as the main body and multiple distribution methods coexisting, and the socialist market economic system, together with the ownership structure with public ownership as the main body and multiple ownership economies developing together, as the basic socialist economic system.

 This is a major measure to further improve the basic socialist economic system with Chinese characteristics. The finalization and improvement of the basic socialist system with Chinese characteristics in the new development stage, the three systems support and promote each other, which is not only conducive to better exerting the superiority of socialism, but also conducive to preventing the unrealistic tendency of changing the socialist system ahead of time, too fast, and against the law due to ignoring the stage of national conditions and leapfrogging the stage of social development. It also lays the foundation for further improving the basic economic system with ownership, distribution system and market economic system as the main content in the new era.

  First, the ownership of means of production is the foundation of the socialist economic system.

The distinctive feature of the primary stage of socialism is to give full play to the role of non-public ownership economy in developing productive forces under the premise of adhering to dominant position of public ownership. The ownership of means of production in the new development stage not only emphasizes that both the public economy and the non-public economy are important components of socialism, not only clarifies the ideas and paths for the expansion and strengthening of state-owned enterprises, but also clarifies that the mixed-ownership economy is the realization form of the basic economic system, which is more conducive to consolidating and developing the public economy, and is also more conducive to encouraging, supporting and guiding the development of the non-public economy.

 Second, the basic distribution system is the guarantee for the development and growth of socialist production.

 The focus of the basic distribution system in the primary stage of socialism is to ensure that the cake is bigger and the cake is well divided. On the one hand, the basic distribution system in the new development stage adheres to the distribution according to production factors, and through the further improvement of the market-oriented system of factor allocation, improves the mechanism for production factors such as labor, capital, land, knowledge, technology, management and data to participate in distribution according to their contributions.

On the other hand, it emphasizes the improvement of the redistribution adjustment mechanism and the importance of the role of the third distribution, especially the emphasis on the order of income distribution, requiring income distribution to reflect fairness and justice, and gradually achieve common prosperity.

 Third, the socialist market economic system is the mechanism for the operation of the socialist economy. The core issue of the market economic system is to correctly handle the relationship between the government and the market. The socialist market economic system in the new development stage better handles the relationship between the government and the market, making the “visible hand” and the “invisible hand” complement each other.

  On the one hand, the market’s “basic role” is further upgraded to a “decisive role”, “which is conducive to transforming the economic development model, transforming government functions, and curbing negative corruption phenomena.”

 On the other hand, it is emphasized that the market’s decisive role and the better role of the government complement each other, “emphasizing scientific macro-control and effective government governance are the inherent requirements for leveraging the advantages of the socialist market economic system.” The finalization and improvement of the basic system in the new development stage is an organic adjustment and optimization of the socialist basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism based on changes in national conditions and development stages. It will help to better liberate and develop socialist productive forces and thus promote high-quality development.

III. 2. Goals, objectives, connotations and phased (stage by stage) implementation of the new development stage

2.1. Objective.

The 20th CPC National Congress in 2022 declared to the world: “From now on, the central task of the CPC is to unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups in the country to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way and realize the second centenary goal.”

  The 20th CPC National Congress also clearly proposed to achieve this grand goal through Chinese-style modernization. The most fundamental task of the primary stage of socialism is to achieve modernization. As a stage of the primary stage of socialism, the main task of the new development stage is to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way. The goal of the new development stage is to clarify and further realize the fundamental tasks of the primary stage. Its focus is still to develop social productive forces that transcend capitalism and can reflect the superiority of socialism, and to embark on a Chinese-style modernization path that combines Marxism with China’s national conditions and the excellent traditional Chinese culture.

2.2. Mission.

In the new development stage of the primary stage of socialism, the Chinese-style modernization we want to achieve is firstly modernization with a huge population. The biggest factor affecting a China’s modernization is its national conditions. The biggest national condition facing Chinese-style modernization is that more than 1.4 billion people need to enter a modern society as a whole, which is larger than the total population of existing developed countries. This super-large population has nurtured agricultural civilization for thousands of years and is also subject to the baptism of modern civilization. This is a modernization sprint with world significance in human history and faces huge challenges.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 reminded the whole party and the people of the whole country that to achieve modernization with a super-large population, “the difficulty and complexity are unprecedented, and the development path and promotion methods must also have their own characteristics. We always think about problems, make decisions, and do things based on national conditions. We are neither too ambitious nor too conservative. We maintain historical patience and insist on seeking progress in stability, gradual progress, and continuous advancement.”

 Secondly, our modernization pursues common prosperity for all people.

The report of the 20th CPC National Congress stressed that “common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics and a long historical process.” The characteristics of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics determine that China’s modernization must adhere to the development concept of people-centeredness, insist on realizing people’s yearning for a better life as the starting point and foothold of modernization, strive to maintain and promote social fairness and justice, strive to promote common prosperity for all people, and resolutely prevent polarization.

Third, our modernization coordinates material and spiritual civilization.

 Both material abundance and spiritual abundance are the fundamental requirements of socialist modernization. Material poverty is not socialism, and spiritual poverty is not socialism. We must continue to build a solid material foundation for modernization and continuously consolidate the material conditions for people’s happy life. At the same time, we must vigorously develop advanced socialist culture, strengthen education on ideals and beliefs, inherit Chinese civilization, and promote the comprehensive enrichment of things and the comprehensive development of people.

  Fourth, modernization with harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

 Man and nature are a community of life. We must simultaneously promote the coordination of material civilization and ecological civilization, build ecological civilization, adhere to sustainable development, adhere to conservation priority, protection priority, and natural recovery as the main priority, and take the path of civilized development with production development, affluent life, and good ecology.

  Fifth, our modernization follows the path of peaceful development.

  China’s modernization does not follow the old path of some countries that achieved modernization through war, colonization, plunder, etc. It is different from the Western modernization path that adheres to expansionism, hegemonism, the theory of clash of civilizations, and the theory that a strong country must dominate. It emphasizes mutual benefit and win-win cooperation with all countries in the world, promotes the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and strives to contribute to human peace and development. It seeks its own development while firmly safeguarding world peace and development, and better safeguards world peace and development with its own development.

3. We Will Advance in Stages.

The phased (stage by stage) approach is a distinctive feature of the modernization drive of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It not only reflects the grasp of the basic national conditions that keep pace with the times but also reflects the consistent pursuit of the essential requirements of socialism. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a two-step strategic arrangement for building a socialist modern power in an all-round way, namely, basically realizing socialist modernization from 2020 to 2035; and building China into a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful socialist modern power from 2035 to the middle of the 21st century.

 By 2035, China’s economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and comprehensive national strength will leap forward, and its per capita GDP will take a new big step and reach the level of moderately developed countries; it will achieve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and enter the forefront of innovative countries; it will build a modern economic system, form a new development pattern, and basically realize new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization; people’s lives will be happier and better, the per capita disposable income of residents will reach a new level, the proportion of the middle-income group will increase significantly, basic public services will be equalized, rural areas will basically have modern living conditions, society will maintain long-term stability, and more obvious and substantial progress will be made in the all-round development of people and the common prosperity of all people. On the basis of basically achieving modernization, by the middle of the 21st century, we will build China into a modern socialist country with leading comprehensive national strength and leading international influence.

III.3. Several major issues that need to be correctly understood and addressed in the new development stage

The 20th CPC National Congress in 2022 reminded the whole Party and the whole nation that “China is a large developing country, still in the primary stage of socialism”. The new development stage is a critical stage in our new journey towards a socialist modern power. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “A journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will never be achieved easily or with fanfare. The whole Party must be prepared to make even more arduous and difficult efforts.” In our “new journey”, on the one hand, we must work hard in accordance with the set goals, and on the other hand, we must proceed steadily and guard against risks, especially to prevent reckless and unrealistic actions that go beyond the development stage, which will only lead to failure. In the new development stage, we must base ourselves on the fact that China is and will remain in the primary stage of socialism for a long time, and that its international status as the world’s largest developing economy will not change for a long time, and correctly solve the major issues that affect the overall situation and future that we must face in the new stage.

First, firmly grasping high-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way.

Focusing on economic construction is the requirement of the basic line of the Communist Party of China in the primary stage of socialism. This basic line was gradually formed by the Chinese Communists represented by Deng Xiaoping since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Party, emancipating their minds, seeking truth from facts, and profoundly summarizing the positive and negative experiences of socialist construction. In October 1987, the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China summarized the basic line of China’s primary stage of socialism: leading and uniting the people of all ethnic groups in the country, focusing on economic construction, adhering to the four basic principles, adhering to reform and opening up, relying on self-reliance, and working hard to build China into a prosperous, democratic, and civilized socialist modern country. In his southern tour in early 1992, Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “The basic line must be managed for a hundred years and must not be shaken.”

In October 1992, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China formally included this basic line in the Constitution of the Communist Party of China. In December 2021, the Central Economic Work Conference once again emphasized that “adhering to economic construction as the center is the requirement of the party’s basic line, and the whole party must concentrate on implementing it.” The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 unswervingly stated that “development is the top priority of the Party in governing and rejuvenating the country. Without a solid material and technological foundation, it is impossible to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way. We must fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, adhere to the direction of socialist market economy reform, adhere to high-level opening up, and accelerate the construction of a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the main body and domestic and international circulations mutually promoting each other.” “Adhere to the theme of promoting high-quality development, organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening supply-side structural reforms, enhance the endogenous driving force and reliability of the domestic circulation, improve the quality and level of international circulation, accelerate the construction of a modern economic system, focus on improving total factor productive forces, focus on improving the resilience and security level of the industrial chain and supply chain, focus on promoting urban-rural integration and regional coordinated development, and promote the effective improvement of economic quality and reasonable growth in quantity.”

Second, correctly understand and solidly promote common prosperity for all people.

Under the socialist system of China, we must not only continuously liberate and develop social productive forces, continuously create and accumulate social wealth, but also prevent polarization, and effectively promote the all-round development of people and the common prosperity of all people to achieve more obvious and substantial progress. The common prosperity in the new development stage has its own stage characteristics, that is, it is the common prosperity promoted at a higher level, and it is necessary to move from the middle-income stage to the high-income stage, basically realize socialist modernization, promote common prosperity on a larger scale, cover urban and rural areas, regions and all people, and promote common prosperity in a broader sense, not only to achieve material prosperity and affluent life, but also to achieve spiritual prosperity and the all-round development of people. To achieve common prosperity, we must first make the “cake” bigger and better through the joint efforts of the people of the whole country, and then correctly handle the relationship between growth and distribution through reasonable institutional arrangements and cut and share the “cake”. Common prosperity, first of all, is “prosperity”, to achieve an overall improvement in the quality of life of all people on the basis of the development of social productive forces, and second, “common”, all people share the fruits of economic development, the degree of inequality is narrowed, and the gap between the rich and the poor is prevented from becoming wider and wider, and an insurmountable gap between the rich and the poor appears. Specifically, common prosperity means that “children have access to education, students have access to education, workers have income, the sick have access to medical care, the elderly have access to care, the homeless have access to housing, and the weak have access to support”, ensuring that all people have a greater sense of gain, happiness, and security in the co-construction and sharing of development. It should be emphasized that socialism is the primary stage of communism, and socialism with Chinese characteristics is in the primary stage of socialism.

The common prosperity in the new development stage is the common prosperity in the primary stage of socialism under socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the new development stage, China cannot go beyond the stage and pursue “common” unilaterally, but pursue “prosperity” based on existing conditions. This is a long historical process. We must create conditions, improve the system, accumulate small victories into big ones, and implement it in stages. In line with the modernization goal of “two steps”, by the end of the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the common prosperity of all people will take solid steps, and the gap between residents’ income and actual consumption level will gradually narrow; by 2035, the common prosperity of all people will make more obvious and substantial progress, and basic public services will be equalized; by the middle of the 21st century, the common prosperity of all people will be basically achieved, and the gap between residents’ income and actual consumption level will be narrowed to a reasonable range. Continue to move towards the goal of common prosperity for all people.

In the new development stage, promoting common prosperity must better unify promoting efficiency and maintaining fairness, improve productive forces to achieve common prosperity, and build institutional guarantees for promoting common prosperity. It is necessary to realize that common prosperity is not equal prosperity, synchronous prosperity, or “robbing the rich to help the poor”. On the basis of accurately grasping the development stage, we must fully estimate the long-term, arduous and complex nature of common prosperity and adhere to the concept of “doing our best within our means” for common prosperity. Emphasize the initiative and creativity of workers, fully implement the principle of all production factors participating in distribution according to their contributions, make the remuneration of all production factors consistent with their respective contributions, further expand the wealth pie by improving production capacity and production efficiency, and form the social productive forces foundation for common prosperity; improve the balance, inclusiveness and coordination of development, build a basic institutional arrangement for the coordination of primary distribution, redistribution and tertiary distribution, strive to promote the expansion of the scale of the middle-income population, the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas and regions, and build institutional guarantees for common prosperity. To promote common prosperity, we must not engage in “welfareism” and rely on high welfare to support a group of “lazy people” and those who get something for nothing, so as to avoid the China’s finances being overwhelmed and falling into the “middle-income trap”, which will bring about serious economic and political problems.

Third, correctly handle the relationship between the government and the market.

After the establishment of the socialist system, what kind of economic system to choose was a major theoretical and practical issue, and the core is how to understand and handle the relationship between the government and the market. One of the keys to the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to develop a market economy under the socialist system and constantly straighten out the relationship between the government and the market. The liberation and development of productive forces in the primary stage of socialism requires that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation and the government plays a better role. This is a new breakthrough in the understanding of the laws of the socialist market economy since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and an important part of Xi Jinping’s new era of socialist economic thought with Chinese characteristics. Better understanding and handling of the relationship between the government and the market is of great significance for building a socialist modern country in an all-round way in the new era and new development stage. Making the market play a decisive role in resource allocation is the key to further improving the socialist market economic system. The market economy is essentially an economy where the market determines resource allocation. The market determines resource allocation is the general law of the market economy.

The market is the most effective form of resource allocation. Enterprises are the main body of market resource allocation, and the price mechanism is the core of market resource allocation. Better playing the role of the government is the outstanding advantage of the socialist market economy. China is developing a market economy under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system. It is necessary to give full play to the superiority of the socialist system, adhere to the leadership of the party, and better play the role of the government. At present, there are still many drawbacks that restrict the vitality of market entities and hinder the full play of the market and value laws. In the operation of the socialist market economy, there are problems such as market segmentation and local protectionism, lack of transparency in market operation, lagging development of factor markets, strict invisible barriers to the market, and unclear access systems. There is also the problem of unstable market order caused by direct intervention by local governments. The key to dealing with the relationship between the government and the market in the new development stage is to establish a systematic and high-standard market economic system, improve the supply capacity and economic efficiency to meet the people’s increasingly changing high-quality needs, and resolve the contradiction of unbalanced and insufficient development. The high-level socialist market economic system is a set of institutional norms and arrangements on property rights, market and order. Its core is the modern market economic property rights system, high-standard market system and transaction rules. The establishment of a modern property rights system ensures that property rights are clearly defined and fully empowered to give full play to the institutional constraints and incentives of property rights, improves the property rights allocation and transaction system to give full play to the function of the property rights system to effectively allocate resources, and improves the property rights protection system based on the principle of fairness to stimulate the market vitality of various market entities; forms a high-standard market system and transaction rules to promote the free flow of factors, the freedom of contracting in economic activities and the market-oriented allocation of factors, as well as to achieve impersonal transactions and equal access. The core of better playing the role of the government is to establish a good business environment under the rule of law with fair competition as the orientation and maintain a high-level market economic order. In particular, it is necessary to prevent the government from abusing public power and acting arbitrarily. Maintain macroeconomic stability through legal means, optimize public services, strengthen market supervision, ensure fair competition, and make up for market failures. On the basis of protecting property rights, maintaining contracts, and unifying the market, with equal transactions and fair competition as the basic orientation, improve the competition policy framework, establish and improve the competition policy implementation mechanism, and promote fair competition and innovation.

Fourth, correctly understand capital and the socialist market economy.

“The socialist market economy is a great creation of our party. Since it is a socialist market economy, various forms of capital will inevitably occur and be generated. There are many differences between capital in capitalist society and capital in socialist society, but capital always pursues profits.” (Xi)

 Marxist political economics analyzes the profit-seeking, accumulation, expansion and liquidity of capital, affirms the objective role of capital as a link between production factors and economic operation, and reveals the drawbacks of the barbaric and unchecked growth of capital. In the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the CPC has made a great creation of combining socialism with the market economy, and at the same time has carried out a great practice of combining socialism with capital as a production relationship. Capital is the link of the operation of the modern market economy, and like the market, it is not a watershed that distinguishes the capitalist system from the socialist system.

In the primary stage of socialism, including the new development stage, due to the ownership structure of the co-development of multiple ownership economies, the distribution structure of the coexistence of multiple distribution methods, and the socialist market economic system, it is inevitable that there will be a contradiction between the profit-seeking nature of capital and the fundamental purpose of socialist production, which requires seeking benefits and avoiding harm and dialectical treatment.

Since the reform and opening up, capital has created wealth as a factor and improved resource allocation as a combination of factors, playing a role in improving social productive forces. We need to explore how to give full play to the positive role of capital under the socialist market economy and effectively control its negative role. Recognizing that capital is not only a factor of production, but also a production relationship, Marx’s “Das Kapital” points out: “Capital is not a thing, but a social relationship between people mediated by things.”

In other words, capital does not exist in the market economy in an abstract way but depends on certain economic relations determined by the nature of the ownership of the means of production. The characteristics and movement laws of capital in capitalist production relations and socialist production relations are not exactly the same. In socialist production relations, socialist public ownership occupies a dominant position. The fundamental purpose of capital movement to bring capital appreciation is to meet the people’s needs for a better life. In recent years, due to insufficient understanding and lack of supervision, some areas of China have seen disorderly expansion of capital, wanton manipulation, and profiteering. This requires regulating capital behavior, seeking benefits and avoiding harm, not allowing “capital crocodiles” to act recklessly, but also giving full play to the function of capital as a factor of production.

This is a major political and economic issue that cannot be avoided. We must face up to the negative effects of capital monopoly, polarization of the rich and the poor, and systemic financial risks brought about by capital expansion and corporate mergers and acquisitions in the process of capital seeking profits, accumulation, expansion and flow.

We must fully understand and grasp the duality of capital. On the one hand, capital can be unified with socialism, which is an important feature of the basic economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the primary stage.

We must face up to and attach importance to the positive role of capital. In accordance with the requirements of the socialist market economy, we should provide equal property rights protection, fair contract execution, a unified market system, equal market exchange, and a fair competition environment for capital of different natures, eliminate discrimination between private enterprises and private enterprises, and make good use of the profit-seeking nature of capital to better meet the people’s needs for a better life; on the other hand, we should give full play to the superiority of socialism, strengthen effective supervision of capital, and prevent the barbaric growth of capital. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 emphasized: “Strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition, break local protection and administrative monopoly, and regulate and guide the healthy development of capital in accordance with the law.”

We must adhere to and improve the socialist basic economic system, unswervingly consolidate and develop the public economy, unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public economy, and promote the healthy development of the non-public economy and the healthy growth of non-public economic personnel. We must prevent the phenomenon of only paying attention to state-owned enterprises and despising private enterprises, which makes private entrepreneurs’ expectations unstable.

Fifth, correctly understand and grasp the laws of development mode transformation.

China’s economic development has shifted from a high-speed growth stage to a new stage of high-quality development. With the transition of economic development stages, labor costs have risen, resource and environmental constraints have increased, and the extensive development model became unsustainable. China’s economic development were faced problems such as intensified structural contradictions, insufficient endogenous growth momentum, and sluggish economic circulation. China is at a critical stage of transforming its development model. China’s economic development needed to achieve a fundamental leap from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement and move from a middle-income society to a high-income society in the transition from high-speed growth to high-quality development.

In the process of transforming the economic development mode, we had to grasp the adaptability and coordination of the economic system and pay attention to the rhythm of the transformation of new and old kinetic energy. For example, achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality has been a profound revolution in development mode and lifestyle. As a new form of human civilization, China’s modernization is different from that of Western developed countries.

With the realization of “natural peak” in modernization, we must be more proactive and conscious in promoting carbon reduction and development, coordinating development and security, promoting the transformation of green development mode, and encouraging technological innovation oriented towards emission reduction and green. However, since the dual carbon goals were proposed, some wrong practices that go beyond the development stage and lack scientific understanding have appeared across the country, such as “carbon charge”, “one-size-fits-all” carbon reduction, campaign-style “carbon reduction”, adding layers of carbon reduction targets, and even “power outages”. These unrealistic practices attempt to reduce pollution and carbon in one fell swoop, causing huge losses to the social economy.

Green and low-carbon development is a complex project and long-term task for the comprehensive transformation of economic and social development. The adjustment of energy structure and industrial structure cannot be achieved overnight, let alone divorced from reality. We must act within our means, balance the relationship between economic growth and low-carbon development, and proceed step by step. We must adhere to the coordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, greening and growth to achieve coordinated and sustainable development. For another example, with the exhaustion of the land-based development model, the digital economy is becoming a new development engine. The digital revolution, which is carried out by digital information technology, has given rise to the digital economy, and information and communication technology (ICT) represented by artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data has formed a new economic form.

Digital technology is bringing about a profound revolution in the economy, society, and governance. The digital revolution is conducive to improving government efficiency. Multi-dimensional and multi-layered data can improve the government’s macro-analysis and forecasting capabilities and improve the level of market supervision. However, the digital revolution has also produced a “utopian” worship of digital technology and governance, and even the fantasy of achieving the transcendence of the planned economy over the market economy through massive data, powerful computing, and centralized control. In fact, resource allocation and socio-economic development and the complex conflicts of interest behind them are far more complex than algorithms and data processing capabilities. The “multi-dimensional trap” is objective. The doubts people had about Oscar Lange’s “computer utopia” at that time still hold true at this stage. The decisive role of the market economy in the primary stage of socialism with Chinese characteristics cannot be denied by the improvement of digitalization and information capabilities. The foundation of artificial intelligence is big data, which is generated in the market economy. If the planned economy replaces the market economy, the foundation of big data and artificial intelligence will no longer exist, and the planned economy supported by artificial intelligence and big data will naturally cease to exist. The drawbacks of the planned economy are not only insufficient information, but also insufficient incentives. Big data and artificial intelligence can only solve the problems of information collection and calculation used for decision-making in the planned economy, but it is difficult to solve the problem of lack of incentives in the planned economy. Therefore, technological advances such as artificial intelligence and big data brought about by the digital revolution cannot become the basis for the planned economy to replace the market economy.

Finally, it should be emphasized that although the government can conduct more accurate economic regulation and more powerful market supervision with the support of artificial intelligence and big data, it still needs to be cautious and cannot arbitrarily interfere with the normal functioning of the market mechanism.

Part IV. Conclusion

The proposal of the new development stage reflects the dynamics and development of the primary stage of socialism, but it does not exceed the scope of the primary stage of socialism. In other words, the new development stage is a stage within the primary stage of socialism. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a long-term historical process of development, and the socialism with Chinese characteristics we are currently building is the initial stage of this long-term development process. This initial stage generally takes a hundred years, that is, from the establishment of the socialist system to the construction of a socialist modern power. Before achieving this goal, our socialism still belongs to the primary stage of socialism.

The primary stage of socialism is both long-term and dynamic. The judgment of the new development stage reflects the development, changes and dynamic characteristics of the primary stage of socialism on the basis of adhering to the long-term nature of the primary stage of socialism. Establishing and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics is not only a long-term historical process but also requires dividing the socialist cause into different historical stages according to the degree of development. The new development stage is a new stage in which our party leads the people to make a historic leap from standing up, getting rich to becoming strong. It is a stage in which the primary stage of socialism stands at a new starting point after decades of accumulation.

First, the primary stage of socialism is a dialectical unity of long-term and dynamic nature. On the one hand, the primary stage of socialism is long-term, and the socialist system in the primary stage of socialism must be adhered to for a long time. Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “We have only been practicing socialism for a few decades and are still in the primary stage. Consolidating and developing the socialist system will require a very long historical period, and we need several generations, dozens of generations, or even dozens of generations of unremitting efforts, and we must never take it lightly.”

That is to say, given China’s weak economic foundation and low level of development, it will take a long time of hard work to achieve modernization. Even after achieving the development goals of the primary stage of socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics will still need to go through a long period of development and will continue to grow from the primary stage to a new stage; on the other hand, the primary stage of socialism is not static, and it is dynamic during this stage. Comrade Xi Jinping profoundly explained the historical position and characteristics of the “primary stage of socialism”, pointed out: “the primary stage of socialism is not a static, is not unchanging, not a stagnant stage, nor is it a spontaneous, passive stage that can be crossed naturally without much effort, but a dynamic, active and vigorous process, a process of quantitative accumulation and development and change that is progressive, continuous development and progress, and increasingly close to a qualitative leap.”

We must deeply recognize that the primary stage of socialism itself, as a long historical stage, is not static. China is in and will remain in the primary stage of socialism for a long time, but in each small stage of this long historical period, China’s degree of development and institutional nature will develop and change accordingly with the development of social productive forces. Although this development and change has not broken through the threshold from the primary stage to the advanced stage, it is by no means static but shows different characteristics in each small stage. As pointed out in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the primary stage of socialism in which China is located is still “experiencing extensive and profound social changes and promoting reform and development and adjusting interest relations often affect the whole body.”

Secondly, the new development stage in China is a new stage of historic leap from standing up, getting rich to becoming strong within the primary stage of socialism. The new development stage is a new stage in the process of China’s socialist development that inherits the past and opens up the future and embodies the unity of the long-term and dynamic nature of the primary stage of socialism. The new development stage is a new stage for basically realizing socialist modernization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. “Comprehensively building a modern socialist country and basically realizing socialist modernization are both the requirements for China’s development in the primary stage of socialism and these targets are the requirements for China’s socialism to move from the primary stage to a higher stage.”

On the one hand, the new development stage embodies the long-term nature of the primary stage of socialism. Before building a socialist modern power and realizing the great rejuvenation of the nation, the socialist system in the new development stage adheres to the basic system, basic line, and basic strategy of the party in the primary stage and emphasizes improving social productive forces through high-quality development.

On the other hand, the new development stage embodies the dynamic nature of the primary stage of socialism. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China’s economic strength, scientific and technological strength, China’s comprehensive national strength and people’s living standards have leaped to a new level in the new development stage, and decisive achievements have been made in building a well-off society in an all-round way. These new changes in the degree of development of the primary stage of socialism make the new development stage different from the previous sub-stage. If we consider China’s current development trend, after the historical goal of the primary stage of socialism is achieved (around 2050), socialism with Chinese characteristics will “move from the primary stage to a higher stage”.

China will move from the primary stage to a higher stage around 2050s

It should be emphasized that this “higher stage” will still be socialist in nature but this “higher stage” will have a series of characteristics that are different from communist society. Therefore, at this “higher stage”, it is necessary to explore and understand its historical nature and development laws in long-term and arduous practice, constantly promote the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and ultimately realize the lofty ideal of gradually developing from socialism with Chinese characteristics to communism.

It must be clearly recognized that the historical process of socialism with Chinese characteristics moving from the primary stage of socialism to the higher stage of socialism is a long-term process. This long-term nature not only depends on the complexity of the contradictions and the arduousness of the historical mission in the socialist development stage, but also this long-term nature is profoundly affected by the relative backwardness of China’s economic and social development level compared with developed countries and the world’s advanced level and is also affected by changes in the world’s economic and social structure.

The new development stage we have entered in 2020 is still within in the primary stage of socialism, which is mainly determined by China’s current level of economic development and the relative economic development level of China and the world’s developed countries when modernization is achieved. It is generally advocated that the important standard for basically achieving a modern economy is that the per capita GDP reaches more than 20,000 US dollars.  

In 2020, China’s per capita GDP has reached 10,500 US dollars. According to China’s potential growth rate, the annual average GDP growth rate can still be maintained at about 5%. As long as the annual average growth rate of per capita GDP reaches 4.8%, it can double in 15 years and reach more than 20,000 US dollars per capita.

Therefore, it is possible to basically achieve modernization by 2035. In his “Explanation on the ‘Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Term Goals for 2035′”, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “From the perspective of economic development capabilities and conditions, China’s economy has the hope and potential to maintain long-term stable development. It is entirely possible to reach the current high-income country standards by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan and double the total economic volume or per capita income by 2035.”

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 pointed out: “Today, we are closer, more confident and more capable of achieving the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than at any time in history. At the same time, we must be prepared to make more arduous and arduous efforts.” After China basically realizes modernization in 2035, we will strive for another 15 years to maintain an average annual GDP growth rate of about 5%. By 2050, we will be able to achieve the goal of more than US$40,000 per capita, build a prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist country, realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and thus realize the party’s basic program in the primary stage.

It should be emphasized that although the new development stage can achieve the goals of basically realizing socialist modernization and building a socialist modern power in 2035 and 2050 respectively, there will still be a large gap with the modernization level of developed countries. In 2020, the per capita GDP of the United States has reached US$63,543, which is 6.05 times that of China in the same period. In 2035, China’s per capita GDP is expected to reach US$31,500, but it is expected to be only 38.29% of that of the United States (Liu Wei and Fan Xin, 2019).

Therefore, the new development stage is still a stage within the primary stage of socialism. The new development stage must adhere to the basic system, basic line, and basic strategy of the primary stage of socialism with Chinese characteristics, follow the objective laws of historical development in the primary stage, and only on the basis of practicing the basic program of the primary stage of socialism with Chinese characteristics and realizing the goal of national rejuvenation of building a modern power can we promote socialism with Chinese characteristics from the primary stage to a new and higher stage.