The Six Stages in the Development of Socialist Market Economy in China

The socialist market economy has experienced six stages in its development in China: germination, setback, re-exploration, theoretical shaping-up, establishment of the institution and its improvement and maturing. The exploration began in 1956 when the CPC completed the three big socialist transformations. The exploration of socialist market economy by the first generation of collective leadership headed by MAO Ze-dong belong to the germinating stage of socialist market economy in China and serve as the source and starting point of DENG Xiao-ping's economic theory. Then the socialist market economy has developed in China step by step: from the principle of maintaining the leading role of the planned economy supplemented by market regulation to the theory of socialist planned commodity economy with integration of planning and market, then to the theory for setting up a system that adapts itself to the development of socialist planned commodity economy and combines planned economy with market regulation, all the way to the establishment of economic institution and operating mechanism of the socialist market economy. With the ever keener understanding of socialist market economy by the CPC the economic restructuring in China made important breakthrough and scored great achievements both in theory and in practice. The development of the socialist market economy in China suggests that the market economy is an important result of human civilization and an insuperable objective law in economic development.