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An Outline and Analysis of the Politics and Economics of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics by Li Ma Canterbury Christ Church University Thesis submitted for the degree of MSc by Research 2019 Abstract The exploration of the socialist path by the Communist Party of China (CPC) has undergone a tortuous process from "taking the Russian road" to "taking China's own road". Combined with the change of the CPC's understanding of the Soviet model, it is thus of great significance to make a thorough and systematic study of the tortuous development process, experience and lessons of China's socialist path as a whole, especially the innovation of the socialist path with Chinese characteristics. Marx and Engels had not systematically studied what kind of socialist path backward countries might take after the victory of the revolution, which required socialist countries to continue to explore the path in practice. The Soviet State was the first country in the world to explore the socialist model. It was once a model for all socialist countries, including China. The CPC's understanding of the Soviet model has had a far-reaching impact on China's socialist path. The research contents of this paper include two interrelated parts. Firstly, it analyses the development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics from the political aspect, including the choice of political system, the political preferences of leaders in different periods, and the lessons learned from the failure of the Soviet Union as a whole. The second part is to analyse the socialist system with Chinese characteristics from the economic point of view. Including the establishment of the economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, its development background and course, etc. By comparing the failure of Soviet economic policy, this paper analyses the merits of socialist economic policy with Chinese characteristics. The CPC has developed from studying the Soviet model to socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is the origin of the CPC's exploration of a socialist road suitable for China. i Acknowledgements First of all, I want to give my thanks to the faculty and staff of Canterbury Christ Church University, who supported me a lot during the last year. I learned quite a lot from all of you over the last year and I plan to use them in my future career. I also would express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Professor David Bates. Professor David Bates offers me suggestions on how I can improve my research, for providing me guidance for the next steps forwards and for encouraging me to find out more about my research. I would also like to thank Dr Soeren Keil and Dr Simon Bransden for their support. This project would not have been accomplished without the assistance of every person who participated in the study to contribute to the work. Thank you for supporting me in my research. My deepest love goes to my parents and friends who supported me over the past years. ii Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................ii Introduction.................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Literature Review......................................................................................................5 Chapter 2: Methodology........................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 3: The Political Dimension of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics......................21 Chapter 4: The Economic Dimension of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics...................34 Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 42 Bibliography..............................................................................................................................45 iii Introduction Socialism develops differently in different countries. In China, Marxism, which had been introduced into China for many years, had two products: Mao Zedong thought; and the Theory of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. China is the largest socialist country in the world. After the 19th National Congress of the CPC (18th Oct 2017). Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, which is not only with distinctive features of the times and Chinese characteristics, but also has theoretical and practical values. After nearly forty years of reform and opening up, great changes have taken place in Chinese society, and the transition from a survival society to a developing society has been realised. It is obvious that there are a lot of ‘hot spots’ and difficulties in practice and theory that need us to answer and explore. To forefront socialism with Chinese characteristics, the main thing is not to solve what socialism is, and what characterises Chinese socialism theoretically, but focus on how to develop socialism in China and how to maintain the socialist nature of China through development, which is precisely the essence of the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a kind of socialism carried out under the leadership of the Communist Party of China according to the historical and realistic logic of China. It adheres to the basic principles of Marxism, to the leadership of Marxist political parties, to the guiding position of Marxist ideology and takes a socialist path. It is essentially different from democracy. Socialism does not copy the experience of other countries; it proceeds from China's reality and takes the road with Chinese characteristics, which is more different from the Soviet model of socialism. Adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics can achieve national prosperity, national rejuvenation and the people's happiness. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a kind of socialism carried out under the leadership of the CPC according to China's national conditions. The "characteristics" of socialism with Chinese characteristics are manifested in the socialist economic system with Chinese characteristics: a socialist market economy; the political pursuit of socialism with 1 Chinese characteristics – realising people's ownership; and a society with Chinese characteristics. At the origins of this socialist culture are: the guiding position of Marxism; the fundamental purpose of socialism with Chinese characteristics – to achieve common prosperity; the inherent requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics – to achieve social equity and justice; the fundamental guarantee of socialism with Chinese characteristics – the leadership of the CPC. From the perspective of 500 years of world socialism, before the maturity of new scientific socialism, there were three types of socialist practice: the Soviet Union model, democratic socialism (the Rhine model) and "the third road", which constituted the historical background of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Xi Jinping's new era. China's new scientific socialism practice, drawing lessons from the world's socialist practice, taking into account both "unity" and "diversity", opens up the fourth type of socialist practice, namely, socialist practice 4.0, which is also a new development model and can be called "the fourth road". In terms of China's practice, socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era is a reform. There is an upgraded version of socialism with Chinese characteristics since the opening up, socialism with Chinese characteristics 4.1. New scientific socialism has promoted the revival of world socialism, and its modernisation path has a reference significance for some developing countries. From the perspective of social history, we can know that different social forms have different historical periods and different stages of development. In terms of social formation, human beings have experienced slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and socialist society; in terms of historical periods, our nation has experienced the Spring and Autumn Warring States, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, starting from Yao, Shun and Yu. The history of the country includes the rule of the Han Dynasty, the rule of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, the prosperity of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty and the prosperity of Kang and Qian in the Qing Dynasty, all of which are relatively prosperous development stages in history. In this way, in different social forms, different historical periods and different stages of development, the main contradictions of social development are also different. 2 Socialist society is not a natural process of change in human society, but it is an emergence, a great outbreak of human thought, and it is also the result of a long-term exploration by advanced peoples of the basic problem of social relations between people since the history of human civilisation. The emergence of socialist thought and the opening of the path to socialist practice marked the beginning of the end of the division and confrontation of human social life, for a long time based on private ownership, and the coming of an era in which human groups jointly initiated innovative lives. The general layout of socialism with Chinese characteristics