How does the Chinese Communist Party govern the country?

Chapter 37

In 1992, Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson predicted that China would become the second or third largest economic power in the world by 2020 as long as it followed the path of a socialist market economy.

In the 21st century, China's total economic volume has surpassed that of Germany and Japan, becoming the world's second largest economy after the United States. Samuelson's prediction 20 years ago has partially become a reality.However, China's economic development has not been a smooth road, but it has come to the present on the basis of constantly learning lessons and accumulating experience.I have not only experienced the era of shortage economy caused by the implementation of single public manufacturing, but also witnessed the vigorous development of the Chinese economy driven by the non-public economy; I have experienced the difficult choice of saying goodbye to the planned economic system, and I have also enjoyed the benefits brought by the establishment of a socialist market economic system. joy of success.State-owned enterprises with important missions have been on the road of reform and have made remarkable progress.

No one would have thought that a gathering of young people more than 90 years ago established the glory of the Chinese Communist Party decades later.At this gathering, the young communists used Marxism as a weapon and proposed the task of building a new type of country and a new type of society.For this mission, the CCP has worked hard for 28 years and established New China in 1949.The dream of establishing a new type of country in the revolutionary era has finally come true, and the task of establishing a new type of society is imminent.The Chinese Communist Party is going to go through the stage of New Democracy first, use the period of three to five five-year plans to lay a solid foundation before establishing a socialist society.As Mao Zedong said, "It will take another 20 years for our country to achieve national independence economically. We must work hard to develop the economy and transition from the development of a new-democratic economy to socialism." In the early days of the founding of New China, due to the implementation of the new-democratic economy Various economic components such as policy and private economy have developed rapidly. In 1951, compared with 1950, the number of private industrial households nationwide increased by 11%, the number of employees increased by 11.4%, and the total output value increased by 39%; the number of private commercial households increased by 11.9%, the number of employees increased by 11.8%, and the wholesale volume increased 35.9%, and retail sales increased by 36.6%. In 1951, the annual surplus of private industry and commerce was estimated at 31.17 billion yuan, an increase of 1950% over 90.8.However, with the gradual consolidation of the regime, the restoration and development of the national economy, and the contradictions between national industrialization and private capitalist industry and commerce and individual agriculture, Mao Zedong believed that the transition to socialism could be made directly without going through the new democratic society.

Therefore, in 1953 he proposed a general line for the transition period, announcing that instead of transitioning to socialism in 15 years, the transition would begin now.The country immediately carried out the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce. After the completion of socialist transformation in 1956, fundamental changes took place in China's economic structure.In national income, compared with 1956 in 1952, the proportion of the economy owned by the whole people rose from 19.1% to 32.2%; the proportion of the economy owned by the collective rose from 1.5% to 53.4%.Socialist public ownership of the economy has accounted for 93%.In the total industrial output value, socialist public-owned industries have accounted for 98.8%.This shows that China's economic structure has basically changed from an economy with multiple economic components to a single public ownership economy.

In the minds of Mao Zedong and other founders of New China, socialism is an organic combination of public ownership, planned economy and distribution according to work like the Soviet Union.Therefore, they pursue pure public ownership and a highly centralized planned economy.Under such circumstances, although the single public ownership system has played a considerable institutional role, it has ensured equal distribution, established a material foundation, and established an independent industrial system. It has also achieved major breakthroughs in the field of high-tech, such as the successful development of missiles. , atomic bombs, and artificial satellites, but they also brought many problems.

Due to the incompatibility between the ownership structure and the level of productivity in China at that time, the problems of insufficient incentives and lack of sense of responsibility are very prominent in both the state-owned economy and the collective economy.In the city, workers are not motivated to work more or less.Insufficient incentives in rural areas are even more serious, farmers don't work hard, and the collective economic benefits are very low.Through various strict systems, the state has deprived farmers of almost all economic rights, including autonomy in production and management, purchase and sale, distribution, population migration, and labor transfer.At that time, when Chinese farmers went out, they had to have a letter of introduction from the production team.In order to pursue the so-called pure public ownership, some places even stipulate that raising 3 ducks is socialism, and raising 5 ducks is capitalism.Under such circumstances, agricultural production developed slowly.In some years, the food in Anhui, a major grain-producing province, is not enough.During the holidays, farmers flock to the city to beg for food.By the end of the "Cultural Revolution" in 1978, there were still 2.5 million people in the country who were hungry.At a high-level meeting held in November of this year, someone pointed out that if the peasants' food problem was not resolved, the brigade party secretary would lead the team into the city to beg for food and rebel.China is a big agricultural country. It is puzzling that many people still go hungry 11 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it also makes the country's leaders feel uneasy.

A strange phenomenon brought about by the lack of impetus for economic development under the single ownership system is that there has been a shortage of everything in China since the mid-20s.

As a last resort, we can only adopt a rationing system and issue a large number of tickets such as oil tickets, cloth tickets, food tickets, and face tickets.Only RMB can't buy things without tickets.Food stamps are even called "the first currency".To eat in a restaurant, you only need RMB, and you must have food stamps.If you want to eat a piece of meat, you must provide a meat ticket when you go to the store to buy it.At that time, it was really hard to move without a ticket.This shortage continued until the early 20s.Taking Beijing as an example, the issuance of various tickets began in 90 and ended in 1953, a full 1993 years.Kornai, a Hungarian economist, called this unique phenomenon in socialist countries the shortage economy, pointing out that because of the single public ownership and no competition in socialist countries, the economy loses vitality and causes shortages.

Regarding the phenomenon of insisting on a single public ownership system leading to the loss of vitality in economic construction, Deng Xiaoping reflected: "We have summed up decades of experience in building socialism. In the past, we did not fully understand what socialism is and what Marxism is. Marxism Another term for communism is communism.... To realize communism, we must complete the tasks of the socialist stage. There are many tasks for socialism, but the fundamental one is to develop productive forces. On the basis of developing productive forces, it is better than capitalism. To create a material foundation for the realization of communism. We have neglected to develop the productive forces of a socialist society for a long time....What exactly is socialism, the Soviet Union has been working on it for many years, but it has not been fully understood. Perhaps Lenin’s thinking is comparable to Well, the New Economic Policy was launched, but then the Soviet model became rigid.” Deng Xiaoping raised a fundamental problem, that a single ownership system cannot bring about rapid development of productivity.The result of reflection is to reform the economic system, give full play to the role of non-public ownership, and change the layout of single public ownership.

(End of this chapter)