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In this time period, there were many different views and opinions about China’s path for development. Some said the country should abandon the Four Cardinal Principles and embrace a Western approach. Others called for maintaining an older, traditional route, as they were concerned such a new way forward bordered on capitalism.
This became a critical point on the path to socialist modernization and the experimental model for achieving this, particularly in terms of China’s efforts not to be left behind. If the country failed to get through this difficult phase quickly or experienced a kind of development that was detrimental, it was possible that the undertaking of the socialist reform and opening up would be thrown off course. Deng Xiaoping was able to take a courageous stand at this critical juncture and overcome all other objections in order to set China’s course in the right direction and steer socialism with Chinese characteristics toward a bright future.
In 1992, Deng Xiaoping visited Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shanghai, and other cities in turn. He made a series of addresses, which were collectively known as the Southern Speeches and responded to the widespread doubts and confusion in many people’s minds at that time. Such was his political foresight that he stated there would only be one path for China if it failed to adhere to socialism, implement reform and opening up, develop the economy, and improve people’s lives, and that path would lead to ruin. He inspired people by saying, "We need to be more courageous in our pursuit of reform and opening up, and we must dare to try–we can’t act like women with bound feet. We must be decisive and be both bold in our experiment and bold as we break new ground."
Deng Xiaoping also addressed long-standing questions and conventional thinking about whether the market economy should be seen as a socialist or capitalist phenomenon. He said that the chief criterion for judging whether the road of reform and opening up is capitalism or socialism should be whether it promotes socialism’s productive forces, increases a socialist country’s overall national strength, and improve people’s living standards. These considerations, which became known as the“Three Advantages”, dispelled the doubts clouding people’s minds and sped up the pace at which the structural reforms of the Chinese economy were carried out.
Deng Xiaoping was a pioneer of China’s path. Its route was not simply a unique and inevitable choice in history, it was also a well-thought-out and rational decision. As he stood at a historical crossroads, he used his own courage, insight, far-sightedness, and experience to address the historical question of what defined socialism and how it could be built, and he provided clear yet profound answers. In this process, he significantly improved people’s understanding of China’s path and helped the Party and the Chinese nation to have a clearer view of how to follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics in order to support China’s aspirations and prospects. Any other course of action would have been fatal.
Deng Xiaoping set out a critical definition of socialism by saying that its essence was not poverty or under-development, but that its main aim was to develop productive forces. Nor was the ultimate goal of socialism to achieve egalitarianism or polarization, but rather to attain common prosperity. It would not be possible to develop socialism in a country that was backward and cut-off from the rest of the world. However, the ideal’s development would not be made possible by slavishly copying foreign nations either. A planned economy would not equate to socialism either, given that capitalism also involved some planning in this regard. Similarly, a market economy would not necessarily mean a capitalistic one, as socialism also enjoyed a market. Further, without democracy, there could be no socialism or any realization of its modernization. Socialism was neither poverty nor an impoverished mindset, and it could not be built without cultural progress. The nature of socialism is to liberate and develop productive forces, abolish exploitation and polarization, and attain widespread wealth for all people.
One of the important means for the development of the global economy was through market forces, which could distribute resources more freely and develop the economy. Shifting from a planned economy to a market economy was a revolutionary change in China’s path. It would constitute an unprecedented experiment to take socialism on the one hand and a market economy on the other and then bring them together.
In 1992, the report to the CPC’s 14th National Congress on China’s path was a landmark with historical significance. It offered a means of overcoming the largest obstacle in the path and make the path wider and smoother. At the congress, the CPC declared, "The objective behind the reform of our country’s economic structure is to create a system of a socialist market economy whereby we can take a further step in unleashing and developing our productive forces."
Although China did succeed in stepping onto the path of a market economy, many still had doubts about the change. If China had indeed switched to a market economy, why was it still necessary to use the term "socialism" in the new system?Members of the Party responded that "socialism" was a word that was absolutely necessary and, far from being a redundant expression, it was le mot juste, as it reflected the essence of this kind of market economy.
The facts went some way to prove this. Before the period of reform and opening up, Shenzhen, known as Bao’an County at that time, was a little-known area with a recorded output value of only RMB196 million in 1979. However, after the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, there was a dramatic development of its economy. By 1997, the city’s GDP had grown at an average annual rate of 35.5 percent under the socialist market economy. The development of Shenzhen’s economy and society was a strong indication of the strength and vitality of the Chinese path.
Clearly, integrating a market economy with socialism was like trying to superimpose two dominant forces on top of one other. It made for a collision and a fusion that released a tremendous amount of energy and accelerated the speed of China’s fast-paced development. The establishment of the socialist market economy system and the basic economic activity in the primary stage of socialism effectively removed the institutional obstacles for China’s path to development.
How did Shenzhen’s miraculous growth come about? What kind of experience and character did the city have? Deng Xiaoping said, "The most important characteristic that Shenzhen has is that it is brave enough to charge ahead." He continued, "Without even some courage to venture or will to risk, without energy or strength, there is no good path to tread, there is no new way to follow, and there is no way to realize a new cause."Deng articulated Shenzhen’s secret to success– practice and a pioneering spirit. This kind of practice is one with pioneering spirit, and this kind of development is one based on practice. The central phenomenon in Shenzhen’s experience is the repeated undertaking of practice and pioneering. It was an important method for implementing reform in China and was crucial for the country’s success in following its own path.
The expansion of China’s developmental path goes hand-in-hand with reform and opening up. The policy is the inner driving force for the Chinese road. It has made the transformation of the economic system possible and has provided the impetus for economic development. In other words, China’s reform and opening up has led to two significant achievements–the successful merger between socialism and a market economy, and the establishment and continued improvement of a socialist market economy system. This is also the most important manifestation of the socialist system’s innovation. The policy created a connection between China’s development and that of the world, it expanded the space given over to development, and it also provided an external influence. Reform and opening up allowed China to move out from its closed state, strengthened the relationship between its own development and that of the outside world, and brought it in line with the greater course of human civilization.
The kind of road to development that a particular country takes is ultimately based on reality and the choices of its own people. Since reform and opening up, China has continued to follow its own route and achieved consistent, fast-paced economic growth. Within the past 40 years, China has made the same achivements in development that took more advanced Western nations several hundred years to complete. Starting from a "poor and blank" condition, with an extreme shortage of goods and materials, as well as underdeveloped industries, the country has made great progress toward becoming a prosperous and strong nation, even pulling off the feat of transforming itself into the engine of world economic growth.
In our present time, continuing to uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics means genuinely adhering to socialism. This involves: following the leadership of the CPC, basing decisions on the country’s real conditions, putting economic development at the center, adhering to the Four Cardinal Principles, persisting in reform and opening up, freeing up and developing social productive forces, strengthening and improving the socialist system, fully promoting the "Five-point Strategy" and the "Four-pronged Strategy", and building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally-advanced, harmonious, and beautiful. This is the right path because it is the one that leads to the country’s prosperity, the nation’s rejuvenation, and the people’s happiness.