The Centennial Construction and Logical Evolution of the Productivity Theory of the Communist Party of China

Sun Mengzi, Liu Zhiyang

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 46, Issue 09, pp. 121 - 133 (2024)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20240807.101

Summary

The liberation and development of productive forces is the central issue of promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through the Chinese path to modernization. In the process of struggle and governance, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has constantly explored and summarized the law of the development of productive forces, and enriched the Marxist productivity theory with the times. Based on the perspective of historical evolution, this paper systematically combs the development of the productivity theory of the CPC in different periods, and focuses on the theoretical origin and historical contribution of new quality productive forces. This paper holds that: (1) The productivity theory of the CPC has gone through the stage of embryonic development during the period of New Democratic Revolution, the stage of initial formation during the period of socialist revolution and construction, the stage of steady development during the period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, and the stage of innovation and deepening during the new period of socialism with Chinese characteristics. (2) The main line of the productivity theory of the CPC has undergone the core transformation of “focusing on the change of production relations–emphasizing the incremental development of productive forces–stressing the high-quality development of productive forces”. (3) The theory of new quality productive forces inherits the productivity theory achievements of the CPC in various periods of modernization construction, and develops the Marxist productivity theory from the perspectives of productivity factors and their combinations, which is a scientific innovation of the Marxist productivity theory based on what has worked in the past and the latest achievement in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.

Keywords

new quality productive forces; historical evolution; Chinese path to modernization; adapting Marxism to the Chinese context