Political Keywords Socialist Transformation ｜ When did China enter the socialist society？

[Editor’s note]

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, which is a major event in China’s political life. Politics is the key to understanding the modern country, and it is also the knowledge and accomplishment to deeply understand the daily life practice. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, following the first opening of the column "Political Keywords" during the two sessions of the National People’s Congress this year, The Paper once again jointly launched this column with the Shanghai Federation of Social Sciences and the Shanghai Political Society, aiming at popularizing political knowledge by explaining political keywords in news and life.

Today’s political key word is "socialist transformation".

When did China enter the socialist society? The establishment of People’s Republic of China (PRC) marked the victory of China’s new-democratic revolution. At this time, China was not a socialist society. In 1953, the Communist Party of China (CPC) formally put forward the general line for the transitional period, which, on the one hand, promoted socialist industrialization, on the other hand, gradually realized the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce. In 1956, the socialist transformation was basically completed, and China entered the socialist society. In this regard, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "Our party United and led the people to complete the socialist revolution, established the basic socialist system, promoted socialist construction, and completed the most extensive and profound social changes in the history of the Chinese nation, laying a fundamental political premise and institutional foundation for all development and progress in contemporary China, and realizing the great leap of the Chinese nation from continuous decline in modern times to fundamental reversal of destiny and continuous prosperity."

What happened to the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s understanding of when to transition to socialism in 1952? The original idea was that after the founding of New China, after 10 to 15 years of new democratic construction, we would take practical steps to enter the socialist society calmly. By 1952, Mao Zedong and other party leaders had a new understanding of the original idea: they thought that the time had come for the transition to socialism. On September 24, 1952, Mao Zedong put forward at the the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee Conference: We should basically complete socialism in ten to fifteen years, not make the transition to socialism after ten years. Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and others have also discussed the idea of "gradually transitioning to socialism from now on".

In 1952, what great changes took place in China’s economic internal relations? From 1949 to 1952, in the process of national economic recovery, great changes have taken place in the internal relations of China’s economy. On the one hand, in the first three years of the founding of New China, the socialist factors were growing. First, the proportion of public and private economy has changed fundamentally: the socialist state-owned economy has strengthened its leading position in the whole national economy, not only controlling important industries and industrial sectors related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, but also occupying an advantage over private industries in modern industry. Second, private industry and commerce are subject to state management and supervision to varying degrees: a considerable number of private industries and commerce are brought into the track of state capitalism through processing and ordering, distribution and consignment, and public-private partnership. Thirdly, the movement of agricultural mutual aid and cooperation has been widely carried out in rural areas: the land reform has been basically completed throughout the country, and farmers who have participated in mutual aid groups have accounted for 40% of the total number of farmers. The above changes, in Zhou Enlai’s words, are "the proportion of socialist elements is increasing day by day, and the leading position of the state-owned economy is strengthened day by day". On the other hand, new contradictions have emerged and accumulated between the state-owned economy and the private economy. With the industrial recovery and the start of new construction projects, the demand for commodity grain and industrial raw materials has increased greatly, but the ability of individual farmers to expand reproduction after land reform is very limited, which can not meet the requirements of large-scale industrialization. The state requires industrialization and concentrates limited resources on key construction projects; The private economy requires expanding the free market and free trade to develop itself.In a word, the growth of socialist factors and the contradiction between state-owned economy and private economy are superimposed, so the task of socialist transformation of national economy is put on the agenda.

What is the "general line in the transitional period"? On June 15th, 1953, Mao Zedong formally put forward the basic contents of the general line for the transitional period for the first time at the Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party. In December of the same year, after revision by Mao Zedong, the complete statement of the general line was determined: "It is a transitional period from the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the basic completion of socialist transformation. The party’s general line and task in this transitional period is to gradually realize the socialist industrialization of the country and gradually realize the socialist transformation of agriculture, rival industries and capitalist industry and commerce. " At that time, there was a popular explanation for the content of this general line: like a bird, it should have a subject, which is to develop socialist industry; It must have a pair of wings, which is the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and private industry and commerce. The sayings of "one body and two wings" and "one transformation and three changes" come from this. Since 1953, under the guidance of the general line in the transitional period, the Communist Party of China (CPC) led the people to carry out planned socialist construction and systematic socialist transformation.

What are the characteristics of China’s socialist transformation road? In the transitional period, the Communist Party of China (CPC) did not copy the experience of the Soviet Union, but creatively opened up a socialist transformation road suitable for China’s characteristics: First, individual agriculture mainly followed the principles of voluntary mutual benefit, typical demonstration and state help, from "mutual aid groups" to "primary cooperatives" and then to "advanced cooperatives". Second, a similar transitional method has been adopted for the transformation of individual handicrafts. Third, the transformation of capitalist industry and commerce, from the primary form of state capitalism (commissioned processing, planned ordering, unified purchase and underwriting, commissioned distribution and consignment, etc.), gradually transitioned to the advanced form of public-private partnership. Under the correct guidance of the party’s socialist transformation policy, China’s socialist transformation is generally progressing steadily and developing healthily. Of course, there are also shortcomings and deviations in socialist transformation. For example, after the summer of 1955, the socialist transformation of individual agriculture was too urgent, too rough, too fast, and the form was too simple and uniform, which left some problems for a long time. The Resolution on Some Historical Issues of the Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China pointed out that although there are some shortcomings and deviations in socialist transformation, "on the whole, such complicated, difficult and profound social changes have been successfully realized in a big country with a population of several hundred million, which has promoted the development of industry, agriculture and the whole national economy, and this is indeed a great historical victory".

(The author is an associate professor at the Party School of Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China)