"A Hundred Moments to Say a Hundred Years", 1984, Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Reform of the Economic System

——This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Xinhua Net launched a series of "100 Moments Say 100 Years" series of party history micro-classes, with precious materials and historical photos to take you back to the glorious course of the centennial party. The sixty-fourth issue is launched today.

In October 1984, the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Reform of the Economic Structure, which put forward and elaborated some major theoretical and practical issues in the reform of the economic system. The "Decision" breaks through the traditional concept of opposing the planned economy and the commodity economy, and proposes that China's socialist economy is a "planned commodity economy on the basis of public ownership"; breaks through the traditional concept of confusing ownership by the whole people with enterprises directly operated by state organs, and proposes that "ownership and management rights can be appropriately separated." This is a new understanding of the party's relationship between planning and the market.

Since then, the reform of the economic system focusing on cities has been carried out in an all-round way. The central link of the reform is to enhance the vitality of enterprises owned by the whole people, and one of the measures is to implement the responsibility system for contract management, and make clear provisions on responsibilities and rights, rewards and punishments, so as to enhance the sense of responsibility of enterprise operators.

By 1987, 80 per cent of the country's state-owned enterprises had implemented various forms of contract management responsibility systems. Some enterprises have also begun to try to reform the shareholding system. In November 1984, Shanghai Feile Audio Co., Ltd. publicly issued shares, becoming the first joint-stock limited company in Shanghai to pilot joint-stock operation after the reform and opening up. In November 1986, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange visited China, and Deng Xiaoping gave him a 50 yuan Feile stock. This symbolic move shows that stocks and shareholding systems are not exclusive to capitalism and can be used by socialist countries.

At the same time as the reform of state-owned enterprises, various economic sectors with different ownership systems have developed. The non-public economic components such as sino-foreign joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperatives, wholly foreign-owned enterprises and the individual economy and private economy of domestic workers have achieved rapid development under the permission and guidance of the state. The formation of the ownership structure with public ownership as the mainstay and the coexistence of various economic components has created a new situation in developing the national economy, facilitating the people's livelihood and expanding employment.

In accordance with the requirements of developing a socialist planned commodity economy, the state has gradually decentralized its authority over the planning and management of the economy, narrowed the directive plan, and expanded the guiding plan. The scope and methods of state macroeconomic regulation and control have been adjusted and improved, and both small commodities and unplanned commodities have been regulated by the market. The increasing role of economic levers such as prices, taxes, and finance in macroeconomic regulation and control has promoted the development of the commodity economy.

Planner: Zhou Hongjun

Producer: Zhu Yonglei An Chuanxiang

Coordinator: Zhai Zihe Wang Ying

Copywriter: Wang Ying

Design: Shanshan Fan

bibliography:

A Brief History of the Communist Party of China

A Century of Party History in literature

A Survey of the History of the Communist Party of China

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

Produced by Xinhua News Center