Deng Xiaoping (June 30, 1984)
After smashing the "Gang of Four", starting from the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, we formulated a correct ideological line, political line, organizational line and a series of principles and policies. What is the ideological line? It means adhering to Marxism and integrating Marxism with China's reality, which means adhering to Comrade Mao Zedong's "seeking truth from facts" and adhering to Comrade Mao Zedong's basic thoughts. Adhering to Marxism is very important to China, and adhering to socialism is also very important to China. For more than a century since the Opium War, China has been invaded and humiliated. It was the Chinese people's acceptance of Marxism and their persistence in taking the road from new democracy to socialism that enabled the Chinese revolution to win.
People raise this question: if China does not pursue socialism but takes the road of capitalism, will the Chinese people stand up and China be able to turn over? Let's look at history. The Kuomintang has been in power for more than 20 years, but China is still a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, which proves that the capitalist road cannot succeed in China. The Chinese Communists adhered to Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought, which combined Marxism with China's reality. They followed their own path, that is, the path of encircling the cities from the countryside, and succeeded in the Chinese revolution. If we are not Marxists, do not have full faith in Marxism, or do not integrate Marxism with China's own reality and follow our own path, the Chinese revolution will not be successful, and China will still be divided, without independence or unity. Belief in Marxism is a spiritual driving force for the victory of the Chinese revolution. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, what we inherited from the old China was a mess, with almost zero industry, insufficient food, hyperinflation, and a very chaotic economy. We solved the problems of food, employment, price stability and financial and economic unification. The national economy was quickly restored, and large-scale economic construction was carried out on this basis. What does it rely on? It relies on Marxism and socialism. People say, what kind of socialism are you doing? We say that China cannot practice capitalism and must practice socialism. If we do not pursue socialism but take the road of capitalism, China's chaotic state will not end and its poverty and backwardness will not change. Therefore, we have reiterated many times that we must adhere to Marxism and adhere to the socialist road. However, Marxism must be Marxism combined with China's reality, and socialism must be socialism with Chinese characteristics that is in line with China's reality.
What is socialism and what is Marxism? Our understanding of this issue in the past was not entirely clear. Marxism attaches most importance to the development of productive forces. We talk about socialism as the primary stage of communism. The advanced stage of communism requires everyone to do his best and distribute according to his needs. This requires the high development of social productive forces and the great abundance of social material wealth. Therefore, the most fundamental task of the socialist stage is to develop productive forces. The superiority of socialism is ultimately reflected in the fact that its productive forces develop faster and higher than capitalism, and it continuously improves the people's material and cultural life on the basis of developing productive forces. If we have any shortcomings since the founding of the People's Republic of China, it is that we have neglected the development of productive forces. Socialism wants to eliminate poverty. Poverty is not socialism, let alone communism.
In China's current backward state, what path can we take to develop productivity and improve people's lives? This brings us back to the question of whether to adhere to socialism or take the road of capitalism. If we take the capitalist road, we can make a few percent of China's people rich, but it will never solve the problem of a prosperous life for more than 90 percent of the people. However, if we adhere to socialism and implement the principle of distribution according to work, there will not be an excessive gap between the rich and the poor. In another twenty or thirty years, when our country's productive forces have developed, there will be no polarization.
Our political line is to focus on the four modernizations, insist on developing productive forces, and never let go of this fundamental link unless there is a world war. Even if we fight a world war, we should still engage in construction after the war is over. The minimum goal we have proposed for the four modernizations is to achieve a moderately prosperous society by the end of this century. This was the first time I discussed this with former Japanese Prime Minister Masayo Ohira when he visited in December 1979. The so-called moderate prosperity, in terms of gross national product, means that the per capita annual GDP reaches 800 US dollars. That's low compared to you, but it's ambitious for us. China now has a population of one billion. By then, China will have a population of 1.2 billion and its GDP will reach one trillion US dollars. If the capitalist distribution method is followed, the vast majority of people will still be unable to escape poverty and backwardness. However, according to the socialist distribution principle, the people of the whole country can generally live a well-off life. This is why we must adhere to the principles of socialism. Without adhering to socialism, China's moderately prosperous society cannot be formed.
The world now is an open world. China has fallen behind after the industrial revolution in Western countries. An important reason is that it is closed to the outside world. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, people blocked us, and to a certain extent we still closed ourselves off, which brought us some difficulties. Thirty years of experience and lessons tell us that it is impossible to engage in construction behind closed doors, and development cannot occur. There are two types of closed doors, one is to foreign countries; the other is to close the door, that is, one region to another region, one department to another department. Neither type of closing works. We propose to develop faster. Too fast is unrealistic. We need to develop as fast as possible. This requires invigorating the economy internally and implementing an open policy externally.
Based on China’s reality, we first solve rural problems. Eighty percent of China's population lives in rural areas. The stability and instability of China must first depend on the stability and instability of this 80%. No matter how beautiful the city is, it will not work without the stable foundation of rural areas. Therefore, we first implemented the policy of revitalizing the economy and opening up in rural areas, mobilizing the enthusiasm of 80% of the country's population. We formulated this policy at the end of 1978, and it took a few years to bear fruit. The second session of the Sixth National People's Congress held not long ago decided that the reform should shift from rural to urban areas. Urban reform includes not only industry and commerce, but also science and technology, education, and all walks of life. In short, we must continue to reform internally and further open up to the outside world.
We have opened fourteen coastal cities, all of which are large and medium-sized cities. We welcome foreign investment and advanced foreign technology. Management is also a kind of technology. Will these impact our socialism? I don't think so. Because our country is based on the socialist economy. The economic foundation of socialism is huge, and absorbing tens or hundreds of billions of foreign capital cannot impact this foundation. Absorbing foreign funds can certainly serve as an important supplement to my country's socialist construction, and today it can be said to be an indispensable supplement. Of course, this will cause some problems, but the negative factors are much smaller than the positive effects of using foreign capital to accelerate development. There's a little danger, but not much.
If we talk about conception, this is our conception. We also need to accumulate new experience, encounter new problems, and then come up with new solutions. In general, this path is called the path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. We believe that this path is feasible and the right one. It has been going for five and a half years and has developed well, faster than expected. If this continues, the goal of quadrupling by the end of this century will surely be achieved. Now we can tell our friends that our confidence has increased.
Comment
[1] The Opium War was an aggressive war launched by the capitalist colonialist British against China from 1840 to 1842. Starting from the late eighteenth century, Britain smuggled large amounts of opium into China, poisoning the Chinese people and causing a large outflow of Chinese silver. At the end of 1838, the Qing government sent Lin Zexu as an imperial envoy to Guangzhou to ban opium. In June 1839, Lin Zexu ordered the public destruction of more than 2.3 million kilograms of opium seized from unscrupulous traders in Britain, the United States and other countries. In 1840, the British launched a war of aggression against China under the pretext of protecting w88. The Qing government wavered and compromised during the war, and only part of the army rose up together with the people to resist the invaders. In addition to successively harassing and invading the coasts of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang, the British army captured Wusong, broke into the Yangtze River, and approached Nanjing, forcing the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Nanjing in August 1842, which was a humiliation and loss of power. Since then, China has gradually become a semi-colonial country.
[2] On May 4, 1984, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council approved the "Minutes of the Forum on Some Coastal Cities" regarding the recommendations on further opening up the 14 coastal port cities. The fourteen coastal cities are: Tianjin, Shanghai, Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai.
