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Economic
Restructuring
The Third Plenary Session
of the CPC 11th Central Committee, held in 1978, made the decision
to shift the policy stress to socialist modernization, and implement
the strategic decision on reform and opening to the outside world.
The reform began in the countryside: The contracted household responsibility
system linking remuneration to output and the two-layer management
system featuring the integration of centralization and decentralization
began to be implemented; centralized and assigned purchases of agricultural
and sideline products were gradually eliminated, and controls on the
prices of most agricultural and sideline products were relaxed; the
adjustment of the industrial structure in rural areas, the development
of diversified operations and township enterprises mobilized the peasants’
socialist enthusiasm for production. The Third Plenary Session of
the CPC 12th Central Committee, held in 1984, adopted the Decision
on Restructuring the Economic System, which signaled the elevation
of the reform of China’s economic system to an urban-centered stage.
The 14th National Congress of the CPC held in 1992 established Deng
Xiaoping’s theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics
as the guiding policy in China, and put forward the goal of China’s
economic reform as establishing a socialist market economy system.
Its principal contents may be summarized as follows: Adopting a series
of macro-adjustment and control measures to carry out the reform in
depth and in all aspects, public ownership will continue to be the
main form of ownership as various types of ownership are jointly developed;
the operation mechanism of state-owned enterprises will be further
transformed to meet the requirements of the market economy; the property
rights and responsibilities of enterprises will be clearly defined,
the functions of the government separated from those of enterprises,
and enterprises scientifically managed; an open and unified national
market system will be established, closely integrating urban and rural
markets, providing for reciprocal flows between domestic and international
markets, and promoting the optimization of resource allocation; changing
the government's functions in economic management and establishing
an optimal macro-regulatory system chiefly employing indirect means;
an income distribution system based on distribution according to work
will be established in which efficiency is given precedence and fairness
in distribution is taken into account; a multi-tier social security
system will be set up to accelerate the development of China’s economy.
The 15th National Congress of the CPC, held in 1997, put forward the
viewpoint that the non-public- ownership sector is an important component
part of China’s socialist economy. Encouraging essential production
factors, such as capital and technology, to participate in the distribution
of gains enables the reform of China’s economic system to take bigger
steps. By 1999, the reform had gone smoothly in every aspect, and
remarkable progress had been made. For instance, much work had been
done to deepen the reform of the grain circulation system, the reform
of state-owned enterprises and the reform of the banking system, and
new achievements had been made. Reforms had been proposed for the
housing and medical insurance systems; and plans for the reform of
the investment, banking, financial and taxation systems were being
formulated. The institutional restructuring of the State Council has
been going smoothly, and has achieved important results. Now, China’s
socialist market economy system is being set up, the basic functions
of the market in resource allocation have been obviously strengthened,
and the initial framework of the macro-adjustment and control system
has taken shape. Moreover, the form of economic growth is changing
from the extensive to the intensive type. By 2010, China will have
established a comparatively sound socialist market economy, which
will be comparatively mature by 2020. |
