Firmly grasp the basic national conditions in the primary stage of socialism

　　A correct understanding and accurate grasp of the basic national conditions in the primary stage of socialism is the foothold and starting point for building a well-off society in an all-round way and winning the great victory of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that the changes in the main contradictions in our society have not changed our judgment on the historical stage of socialism in China, and the basic national conditions that China is still in the primary stage of socialism for a long time have not changed. This is a scientific judgment made by the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, accurately grasping the changing new features of the primary stage of socialism and the staged features of China’s social development in the new era, which provides a fundamental basis for formulating the Party’s principles and policies in the new era and enriches and develops Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s theoretical system.

　　First, our country is in the primary stage of socialism, which is a scientific conclusion drawn by our party from historical exploration.

　　China is now in the primary stage of socialism and will be in it for a long time. It is a major theoretical innovation of our party to make an overall and overall judgment on China’s national conditions in terms of social nature and development stage on the basis of inheriting and developing the theories of classical Marxist writers on the stages of socialist development and in the process of long-term socialist construction practice.

　　Marx believes that the communist society established after the elimination of private ownership has a process from low to high, from immaturity to maturity, from imperfection to perfection. He clearly divides the communist society into two different stages of development, namely, the first stage and the advanced stage, which are both interrelated and different. This idea of Marx has made clear the direction for future generations to continue to explore the stage of socialist development. Lenin proposed for the first time to replace the first stage of communist society and the advanced stage of communist society with socialist society and communist society, and distinguished socialism from communism. Lenin realized that socialism itself is a development process, which needs gradual transition in stages, and put forward the concepts of "primary form socialism", "developed socialism" and "complete socialism". Lenin’s formulation of "primary form of socialism" contains the thought of the primary stage of socialism, which reflects the complexity and arduousness of building socialism in countries with relatively backward economy and culture. Marx’s and Lenin’s theory on the stage division of socialism and communism provides a theoretical basis for our party to understand and deal with this problem.

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　　?The whole party should firmly grasp the basic national condition of the primary stage of socialism, firmly base itself on the greatest reality of the primary stage of socialism, and firmly adhere to the party’s basic line, the lifeline of the party and the country and the happiness line of the people.

　　Second, the changes of the main social contradictions in China in the new era and the basic national conditions in the primary stage of socialism remain unchanged

　　In the new era of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, with the development of China’s economy and society and the improvement of modernization level, the main social contradictions in China have changed. The change of the principal contradiction in our society has not changed our party’s judgment on the historical stage of our socialism.

　　Since the founding of New China, especially since the reform and opening up, historic changes have taken place in the cause of the party and the state, and historic achievements have been made in the reform and opening up and socialist modernization. The features of the party, the country, the people, the army and the Chinese nation have undergone unprecedented changes, and the Chinese nation is standing in the east of the world with a brand-new attitude. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. On the basis of stably solving the problem of food and clothing for more than one billion people and realizing a well-off society as a whole, China will build a well-off society in an all-round way. The people’s needs for a better life are increasingly extensive, which not only puts forward higher requirements for material and cultural life, but also increases the requirements for democracy, rule of law, fairness, justice, security and environment. On the whole, the level of social productive forces in China has been significantly improved. After the social productive capacity has entered the forefront of the world in many aspects, the more prominent problem it faces is insufficient development imbalance, which has become the main constraint to meet the people’s growing needs for a better life. This also fully shows that the original expression of the main contradiction in our society "the contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and backward social production" can no longer objectively reflect the new reality and new changes. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a new statement about the major social contradictions, that is, "Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the major social contradictions in our country have been transformed into contradictions between the people’s growing needs for a better life and the unbalanced development",This is a major judgment from the combination of history and reality, theory and practice, domestic and international.

　　The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes: It must be recognized that the changes in the main contradictions in our society have not changed our judgment on the historical stage of socialism in China, and the basic national conditions that China is still in the primary stage of socialism for a long time have not changed. We must grasp the dialectical relationship between "change" and "unchanged".

　　The understanding of the primary stage of socialism should not be viewed only from the level of economic development, but from the overall development of socialist cause, involving basic social contradictions, overall strategic layout, social development level, people’s requirements for fairness and justice and so on. From the basic national conditions in the primary stage of socialism, there are still various new problems and contradictions in China’s economy, politics, culture, society and ecology in the new era. It is mainly reflected in the following aspects: as the second largest economy in the world, China’s per capita GDP is only about 80% of the world average, some outstanding problems of insufficient development imbalance have not been solved, and there are still a long way to go in terms of development quality, innovation ability, public services and ecological protection. There are still many shortcomings in the field of people’s livelihood, the level of social civilization needs to be improved, the national governance system and governance capacity need to be strengthened, and some reform arrangements and major policies and measures need to be further implemented. This shows that the phased changes in the main contradictions in our society have not changed the situation of underdeveloped productive forces and imperfect production relations in China as a whole. The scientific judgment in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on the "change" and "invariability" of the main social contradictions and the basic national conditions in the primary stage is an important practice for our party to apply Marxist materialist dialectics to China’s social development, a significant development of the basic principles of Marxism and an important contribution to world socialism.

　　Three, based on the reality of the primary stage of socialism to implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress

　　The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a landmark congress in the history of our party. The political achievements, theoretical achievements, institutional achievements, major strategic arrangements and major innovative measures made by the congress will certainly have a significant and far-reaching impact on the development of the cause of the party and the country in the coming period. We should closely unite around the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, base ourselves on the greatest reality of the primary stage of socialism in China, closely follow the major contradictions and changes in our society, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th Party Congress, and make new contributions to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

　　Proceed from the basic national conditions and implement the basic strategy. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has taken charge of the "Four Greatness", promoted the overall layout of the "Five in One" as a whole, and coordinated the promotion of the "Four Comprehensive" strategic layout, thus forming a basic strategy for upholding and developing Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the New Era is the expression of guiding ideology, and it is called the basic strategy of Socialism with Chinese characteristics at the level of action program. This means upholding the Party’s leadership over all work, taking the people as the center, comprehensively deepening reform, adhering to the new development concept, insisting that the people are the masters of the country, upholding the rule of law in an all-round way, upholding the socialist core value system, upholding the protection and improvement of people’s livelihood in development, upholding the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, upholding the overall national security concept, upholding the Party’s absolute leadership over the people’s army, upholding "one country, two systems" and promoting the reunification of the motherland, upholding the building of a community of human destiny, and upholding the comprehensive and strict administration of the party. To uphold and develop Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, we must base ourselves on the greatest reality of the primary stage of socialism. We should not only fully see the great development achievements and increasing favorable conditions in China in recent years, but also clearly see the difficulties, problems and unfavorable factors in development, fully implement the Party’s basic theory, line and strategy, and better promote the all-round development of people and society.

　　Starting from the basic national conditions, winning the battle to build a well-off society in an all-round way. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a strategic plan for the development of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, from building a well-off society in an all-round way to basically realizing modernization, and then building a socialist modern power in an all-round way. Building a well-off society in an all-round way and achieving the goal of the first hundred years of struggle is a solemn commitment made by our party to the people and to history. From now until 2020, it is the decisive period for building a well-off society in an all-round way. Our party should base itself on reality, unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups in the country, focus on key points, fill shortcomings and strong and weak items in accordance with the requirements of building a well-off society in an all-round way, especially resolutely fight hard battles to prevent and resolve major risks, accurately get rid of poverty and prevent pollution, and make overall plans to promote economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and ecological civilization construction. Firmly implement the strategies of rejuvenating the country through science and education, strengthening the country through talents, innovation-driven development, rural revitalization, regional coordinated development, sustainable development and integration of defense and civilian technologies development, and strive to build a well-off society with more developed economy, more sound democracy, more advanced science and education, more prosperous culture, more harmonious society and more affluent people’s lives, and build a well-off society that is recognized by the people and can stand the test of history, and successfully achieve the goal of the first century. On this basis, we will continue to forge ahead, achieve the goal of the second century, and build China into a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful socialist modernization power.

　　Proceed from the basic national conditions and advance the great cause. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the theme of all the Party’s theories and practices since the reform and opening-up, the fundamental achievement made by the Party and the people through painstaking efforts and at great cost, and the fundamental direction for the development and progress of contemporary China. The general basis for building Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the basic national conditions in the primary stage of socialism. We should carry forward the past and forge ahead into the future, firmly grasp the basic national conditions that China is and will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time, firmly base ourselves on the greatest reality of the primary stage of socialism, firmly grasp the staged characteristics of China’s development, and firmly grasp the people’s yearning for a better life. We should not only avoid the problems of falling behind reality and the times, but also prevent us from entering the misunderstanding of being divorced from reality and surpassing the stage, being eager for success and being impatient. Neither take the old road of being closed and rigid, nor take the evil road of changing the flag. Put forward new ideas, new strategies and new measures, truly do our best and do what we can, maintain the style of hard struggle, more consciously enhance Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s road confidence, theoretical confidence, institutional confidence and cultural confidence, always adhere to and develop the biggest theme of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, constantly enrich Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s practical characteristics, theoretical characteristics, national characteristics and characteristics of the times, and comprehensively promote the great cause of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

　　(Author: Sun Di, Liu Xueli, Theoretical Research Center of the Party History Research Office of the CPC Central Committee)