Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has combined the basic principles of Marxist political economy with the practice of China’s economic development in the new era, with a strong historical initiative and responsibility, gained a keen insight into the new situation and trend of China’s economic and social development, with the fundamental purpose of meeting the people’s growing needs for a better life, profoundly summarized and fully utilized the successful experience of China’s economic development around the major theoretical and practical issues of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s economic development in the new era, creatively put forward a series of new ideas, new ideas and new strategies for governing the country, and formed and developed the Supreme Leader’s economic thought. The economic thoughts of the Supreme Leader profoundly answered the important theoretical and practical questions such as how to look at and do economic development in the new era, enriched and improved the theoretical system of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s political economy, and opened up a new realm of Marxist political economy in contemporary China. The supreme leader’s economic thought is the latest theoretical achievement of the modernization of Marxist political economy in China, and it is a very precious spiritual wealth of the party and the country, which must be persisted for a long time and continuously enriched and developed.
People’s nature is the most important theoretical character of Marxist political economy. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "The people are the deepest foundation and the greatest confidence of our party in power. Seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation is not only the starting point and the end result of our party’s leadership of modernization, but also the new development concept ‘ Root ’ And ‘ Soul ’ . Only by adhering to the people-centered development thinking, insisting that development is for the people, development depends on the people, and development results are shared by the people, will we have a correct concept of development and modernization. " The supreme leader’s economic thought adheres to the value orientation of people first, which has distinct people’s nature, and its theoretical system runs through a distinct main line from beginning to end, that is, insisting on taking people as the center. Only by deeply understanding the fundamental position of people-centered, can we deeply understand, grasp and apply the supreme leader’s economic thought, deepen our understanding of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s development law, deepen our understanding of the current world development situation and the development law of human society, scientifically answer the new situations and problems faced by China’s economic and social development in the new stage, more consciously rely on the majestic power of the people to develop Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s economy, and forge ahead towards the grand goal of building a socialist modern power in an all-round way.
Insisting on taking the people as the center embodies the fundamental position of Marxist political economy.
Standpoint is the foothold for people to observe, analyze and deal with problems. Different positions have different views on the same thing, and the theories and strategic strategies for its establishment and application are also different.
Economics, as a theory to study social and economic phenomena, first has a position problem. British classical political economy is a theory that represents the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie. It is the first to study the capitalist mode of production and relations of production, and preliminarily discusses the movement law of capitalist economy. However, it obscures the historicity and sociality of human beings, only abstracts human beings as so-called "rational economic men" and conceals the exploitation essence of capitalism. It is an economic theory that stands on the position of the class interests of the bourgeoisie and maintains the capitalist mode of production and social system.
Adhering to the people as the center embodies the fundamental position of Marxist political economy. The people are the creators of social material wealth and spiritual wealth. Material production is the premise of all history. Without certain material production, there can be no human history. Marxism attaches great importance to the historical role of the people and explains that the people are the creators of history and the decisive force of social change. From the standpoint of the people, Marxist political economy profoundly reveals the contradictions and laws of movement of capitalism and the essence of exploitation, and points out that the proletariat and the working people are revolutionary forces to break the shackles of capitalism and develop productive forces. Starting from the production of material materials and centering on the production, realization and distribution of surplus value, Marxist political economy expounds the fact that the capitalist mode of production will inevitably lead to social polarization, and advocates that the proletariat will use its own political rule to seize all the capital of the bourgeoisie step by step, concentrate all production tools in the hands of the state, that is, the proletariat organized into the ruling class, increase the total productivity as soon as possible, and finally realize the free and all-round development of human beings.
Once the Communist Party of China (CPC) was born, he made it his initial mission to seek happiness for the people of China and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. He always adhered to the communist ideals and socialist beliefs, United and led the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country to make unremitting efforts for national independence, people’s liberation and the realization of national prosperity and people’s happiness. The people of China completely got rid of the fate of being bullied, oppressed and enslaved and became the masters of the country, society and their own destiny.
During the period of socialist revolution and construction, our party persisted in starting from the people’s standpoint, united and led the broad masses of people to concentrate on developing social productive forces, gradually solved the contradiction between the people’s needs for rapid economic and cultural development and the current situation that the economy and culture could not meet the people’s needs, established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system, and significantly changed agricultural production conditions. Our party led the people to complete the socialist revolution, eliminate all exploitation systems, realize the most extensive and profound social changes in the history of the Chinese nation, realize the great leap of a poor and populous eastern country into a socialist society, and obtain original theoretical achievements and great achievements, which provided valuable experience, theoretical preparation and material foundation for creating Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new historical period.
In the new era of reform, opening up and socialist modernization, our party made a historic decision to shift the work center of the party and the state to economic construction and implement reform and opening up, established the basic line of the primary stage of socialism, liberated and developed social productive forces, and made great efforts to solve the contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and backward social production. The great achievements have attracted worldwide attention. China has achieved a historic breakthrough from a relatively backward productive force to the second largest economic aggregate in the world, a historic leap in people’s life from insufficient food and clothing to a well-off society in general and towards a well-off society in general, and a great leap forward for the Chinese nation from standing up to becoming rich.
When Socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, our Party continued to firmly hold the economic construction as the center, concentrated its efforts on solving the contradiction between the people’s growing needs for a better life and the unbalanced development, achieved the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way as scheduled, and greatly increased the country’s economic strength. Under the scientific guidance of the supreme leader’s economic thought, China’s economic construction has made great achievements, and the balance, coordination and sustainability of economic development have been significantly enhanced. The supreme leader’s economic thought contains a distinct people’s position, which is a systematic theoretical summary of China’s economic development practice in the new era by using the basic principles of Marxist political economy, forming the innovative achievements of contemporary Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s political economy and laying a profound theoretical foundation for the people to live a happy and beautiful life.
Development is for the people, development depends on the people, and the fruits of development are shared by the people. This is the fundamental purpose of China to promote reform, opening up and socialist modernization, which fully embodies the fundamental position of Marxist political economy and realizes the inheritance and development of Marxist political economy. Only by persisting in taking the people as the center can we grasp the people’s thoughts, hopes and wishes, unite the people’s strength and strive to create a new situation in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must adhere to the economic thought of the Supreme Leader as the guide, take the people’s interests as the fundamental starting point and the end result of the party’s economic work, give full play to the people’s main role, stimulate their initiative, unite their wisdom and strength, constantly enhance their sense of gain, happiness and security, and strive to promote the common prosperity of all people and promote the development of various undertakings of the party and the country.
Adhering to the people-centered principle is the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s fundamental ruling philosophy.
Adhering to the people-centered principle is the fundamental ruling idea of our party and a basic strategy for upholding and developing Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Adhering to the people-centered development thought runs through the whole process of the party uniting and leading the people in revolution, construction and reform. The century-long struggle history of the Party is a development history in which the Party always stands on the position of the overwhelming majority of the people, serves the people wholeheartedly and creates a better life for the people.
Adhering to the people’s position is a fine historical tradition of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The people of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with Comrade Mao Zedong as the main representative, combined the basic principles of Marxism with the concrete reality of China, attached importance to the study, research and application of Marxist political economy, creatively put forward a new-democratic economic program during the period of new-democratic revolution, and implemented the requirements of caring for people’s lives and solving their vital interests in the whole process of winning the revolutionary war and building revolutionary base areas. In the revolutionary war years, our party adhered to the mass line, kept close contact with the masses, took serving the people wholeheartedly as its purpose, put the interests of the masses first, and shared weal and woe with the masses, thus winning one victory after another. After the founding of New China, our party inherited and carried forward the glorious tradition and political advantages of adhering to the mass line, United and led the people to concentrate on restoring the national economy, establishing the socialist system, and realizing that the people are masters of their own affairs. In the practice of socialist construction, it is emphasized that the socialist economy is an economy that serves the people, and both the development of production and the improvement of people’s lives must be taken into account. It has laid a solid foundation for the establishment and development of Socialism with Chinese characteristics by rallying the main strength of the overwhelming majority of the people.
The people of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with Comrade Deng Xiaoping as the main representative, combined the basic principles of Marxist political economy with the new practice of reform and opening up, based on the greatest reality of the primary stage of socialism, firmly stood on the people’s stand, and made a historic decision to shift the work center of the party and the state to economic construction and implement reform and opening up around the question of what socialism is and how to build it. Comrade Deng Xiaoping put forward such conclusions as "poverty is not socialism", "the essence of socialism is to liberate and develop productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization and finally achieve common prosperity" and "the greatest advantage of socialism is common prosperity", stressing that the masses are the source of our strength, and the mass line and views are our heirlooms. Our party takes whether it is conducive to developing the productive forces of socialist society, enhancing the comprehensive national strength of socialist countries and improving people’s living standards as the judgment standard, judges the gains and losses of all aspects of work, unites the strength of the people and liberates social productive forces to the maximum extent.
The people of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with Comrade Jiang Zemin as the main representative, emphasize that our party should always represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China, always adhere to the party’s mass line, do everything for the masses, rely on the masses, come from among the masses, and go among the masses, and regard safeguarding the economic, political and cultural rights and interests of the working class and the broad masses of working people as the fundamental starting point of all the work of the party and the state.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) people, with Comrade Hu Jintao as the main representative, promoted practical innovation, theoretical innovation and system innovation in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way, put forward the people-oriented Scientific Outlook on Development, and emphasized that the fundamental purpose of building Socialism with Chinese characteristics is to constantly realize, safeguard and develop the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. All the Party’s struggles and work are aimed at benefiting the people, and development should be for the people, dependent on the people and shared by the people.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in the face of complicated and ever-changing domestic and international situations, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has persisted in combining the basic principles of Marxist political economy with the reality of China’s economic development in the new era, persisted in the pursuit of the people’s supremacy, persisted in the people’s position, persisted in the people’s dominant position, took the overall situation as a whole and bravely shouldered heavy burdens with great historical initiative, demonstrating the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s initial mission of seeking happiness for the people of China and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized that our Party comes from the people, and its foundation and blood are in the people. Being born for the people, prospering for the people, always being with the people and striving for the people’s interests are the fundamental starting point and foothold of our party. The people are the fundamental force that determines the future and destiny of the party and the country. The CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has always adhered to the people-centered development thought, taking the people’s longing for a better life as the goal of struggle, putting people’s interests at the highest position, taking solving the most concerned, direct and realistic interests of the people as the top priority, taking people’s support, disapproval, happiness and unhappiness, and agreeing or not as the fundamental criteria to measure the gains and losses of all work, and overcoming all kinds of difficulties and challenges. To promote the all-round development of human beings and the common prosperity of all people, to promote the national economic strength, scientific and technological strength and comprehensive national strength to a new level, and to write a new chapter in Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s economic development in the new era.
For more than 100 years, our party has always adhered to the people as the center, and all its work is aimed at realizing, safeguarding and developing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. From the party’s century-long struggle, we can see clearly why we succeeded in the past and how we can continue to succeed in the future, so as to more firmly and consciously practice the people-centered development thought and continuously meet the people’s needs for a better life.
Putting people first into the great practice of modernization.
At present, we are striding forward to the goal of building a socialist modern power in an all-round way in the second century. To do a good job in economic work in the new era, we should follow the economic thought of the supreme leader, always adhere to the people-centered development thought, and implement it in the great practice of the party’s governance of the country, rely on the people closely, give full play to the initiative, enthusiasm and creativity of the people, and create new glory in economic and social development on the new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.
Always put the people in the highest position in your heart. The people are the supreme arbiter and final judge of our party’s work. In economic work, we must put people’s interests in the highest position, always stand on the people’s side to understand, analyze and solve economic development problems, and respond to economic problems that people expect and care about in a timely manner. In the final analysis, some western capitalist countries have fallen into economic crisis in the process of development because they let capital exploit workers, safeguard the interests of a few people, cause polarization and trigger social contradictions and turmoil. The Communist Party of China (CPC) was born and prospered for the people, and has no special interests of its own. It never represents the interests of any interest group, any powerful group or any privileged class. It always represents the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, adheres to the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, and always wants to be with the people and work together to create a richer material life and a richer spiritual and cultural life for the people.
Always adhere to development for the people. Always bear in mind the "country is the biggest", deeply understand the new features and new requirements brought about by the changes in major contradictions in our society, deeply understand the internal relationship between the people’s needs for a better life and high-quality development, and unswervingly follow the road of high-quality development. We will closely integrate the economic development goal with meeting the people’s growing needs for a better life, continuously improve the quality and efficiency of development, persist in safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood in development, and constantly meet the people’s diverse, multi-level, diversified and personalized needs. Make overall consideration of the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, handle the relationship between local and global, current and long-term, key and non-key, focus on solving the practical problems that the people are in urgent need, focus on the outstanding problems in the fields of people’s livelihood that people are generally concerned about, such as employment, education, medical care, nursery, housing and old-age care, earnestly do a good job in benefiting the people, strengthen the construction of inclusive, basic and all-inclusive people’s livelihood, improve the basic public service system, and gradually realize the people.
Always insist that development depends on the people. The people are the creators of history and the fundamental driving force to promote the practice of reform and development. The foundation of the party lies in the people, the blood is in the people, and the strength is in the people. The people are the greatest confidence of the party in governing and rejuvenating the country. Development depends on the people, and development is the driving force. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has been able to grow and develop, and Socialism with Chinese characteristics has been able to keep moving forward precisely because we have always insisted on relying on the people. In the new era and new journey, we must persist in coming from the masses and going to the masses, adhere to the people’s dominant position, grasp the people’s wishes, respect the people’s initiative, stimulate the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of all the people, and form a majestic power to promote high-quality development. The people are rich in wisdom and unlimited creativity. We should vigorously carry out investigation and research, insist on asking the people about politics, planning and needs, think about what the people think, do what the people ask, respect the wishes expressed by the people, the experience they have created, the rights they have and the role they play, and always have a heart-to-heart relationship with the people, share weal and woe with them, and unite with them, and take people’s satisfaction as the yardstick to measure the effectiveness of the work. It is necessary to rely on the broad masses of people to implement the new development concept completely, accurately and comprehensively, build a new development pattern, realize high-quality development and high-quality life to promote mutual progress, and make all people enthusiastically devote themselves to the practice of building a socialist modernization power.
Always insist that the fruits of development are shared by the people. Let the fruits of development benefit all the people more fairly, which shows that the Communist Party of China (CPC) has always adhered to the value pursuit of people first. In the new era and new journey, we should always take meeting people’s new expectations for a better life as the starting point and the end result of development, focus on solving the problems of insufficient development imbalance and people’s urgent difficulties and worries, promote social fairness and justice, promote people’s all-round development, and make more obvious substantive progress in common prosperity for all people. At present, China is still in the primary stage of socialism and will be in it for a long time, and economic construction is still the central task of the whole party. On the one hand, we must firmly grasp the center of economic construction, make the "cake" bigger and better through the joint efforts of the people of the whole country, lay a more solid material foundation for ensuring social fairness and justice, and let all sources of social wealth flow in full. It is necessary to comprehensively deepen reform and opening up, encourage hard work and innovation to get rich, constantly optimize the economic structure, focus on promoting high-quality economic development, and continuously liberate and develop social productive forces. On the other hand, taking economic construction as the center does not mean paying one-sided attention to economic growth and wealth accumulation, but insisting on taking the people as the center, promoting common prosperity in high-quality development, correctly handling the relationship between efficiency and fairness, building a coordinated system of primary distribution, redistribution and third distribution, accelerating the improvement of redistribution adjustment mechanism with taxation, social security and transfer payment as the main means, and focusing on solving problems such as regional gap, urban-rural gap and income gap.We will build a new mechanism for inclusive development that is fair, just, co-constructed and shared, and adhere to the principle of universal sharing, comprehensive sharing, co-construction and sharing, and gradual sharing, so that development results will benefit all people more fairly.
On the new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, we must adhere to the people-centered development thought, unswervingly follow the Chinese modernization road, surpass the western capital-centered modernization road, create a new form of human civilization, let the development fruits be shared by all the people, and finally realize the common prosperity of all the people, so as to contribute China’s plan and China’s wisdom to solving the development problems in today’s world.
People-centered development thought is not an abstract and abstruse concept. It can’t just stay in words and stop at ideological links, but should be reflected in all aspects of economic and social development, and constantly realize, safeguard and develop the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of people. We must persist in promoting the overall layout of the "five in one", coordinate and promote the "four comprehensive" strategic layout, implement the policy of benefiting the people, do a good job in people’s livelihood, truly benefit the people, and constantly push forward the cause of benefiting the people.
(This article Source: The author of Economic Daily is a professor at China Academy of Social Sciences, a tenured professor at Nankai University, and Wang Weiguang, president of the 21st century Marxism Institute).