Jiang Zemin's speech on Party's 80th anniversary (part III)

Productive forces are the most dynamic and the most revolutionary factor. It is also the ultimate decisive force of social development. The contradictions between productive forces and the relations of production and between economic base and superstructure constitute the basic social contradiction.

The movement of this basic contradiction determines the direction of the changes in the nature of society and the direction of social, economic, political and cultural development. The fundamental difference between socialism and capitalism lies in the difference between their relations of production and superstructures.

The establishment and constant improvement of the socialist system has opened up a broad road for the release and development of our country's social productive forces. All relations of production and superstructures, irrespective of their nature, develop with the development of productive forces.

If they fail to keep up with the requirement of the development of productive forces and have thus become obstacles to the development of productive forces and social progress, readjustments and changes are sure to take place.

To be sensitive to and quickly come to grip with the development trend and requirements of our country's productive forces and take practicable steps to promote the constant development of the advanced productive forces by taking economic development as the central task and by formulating and implementing correct lines, principles and policies these are the fundamental expression and fundamental requirements for our Party to stand in the forefront of the times and maintain its advanced nature.

As the vanguard of the working class, our Party emerged in the historical arena as the representative of China's advanced productive forces at its very inception. The purpose of the new democratic revolution led by our Party was to abrogate the privileges of imperialism in China, eliminate exploitation and oppression by the landlord class and the bureaucrat-capitalist class, change the comprador feudal production relations and the rotten political superstructure rooted in such economic base, establish a new political superstructure with the people's democratic dictatorship as the core and release from the roots the fettered productive forces.

After the founding of New China, we carried out socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry and the capitalist industry and commerce in order to establish the socialist relations of production, and, on that economic base, bring the socialist superstructure to perfection so as to further release and develop productive forces.

It is for the same purpose that we have since the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Central Committee carried out reforms and opening up policies to adjust and reform the part of the socialist relations of production that is incompatible with the demand of the development of the productive forces and to adjust and reform the part of socialist superstructure that is incompatible with the economic base.

Over the past twenty-plus years, we have made bold explorations and practice and pushed forward the reforms in economic and political structures and other areas and greatly released and developed the country's social productive forces, bringing about tremendous changes in the national economic development and social progress. The fundamental task of socialism is to develop productive forces, enhance the comprehensive national strength of our socialist country and improve the people' s living standards and in this way reflect the superiority of socialism over capitalism.

In all historical stages of the socialist society, it is necessary to make the socialist system improve and develop itself through reforms in line with the demand of the economic and social development.

Only by so doing, is it possible to make the socialist system filled with vigor and vitality. All comrades in the Party should firmly implant in mind this basic viewpoint and awareness on socialist reform and development.

The development of human society is a historical process of advanced productive forces replacing the backward ones. Socialist modernization must be built on the basis of developed productive forces. Our purpose of realizing modernization is, fundamentally, to obtain developed productive forces through reforms and development. All comrades in the Party, no matter what posts they are in, should check and review their work regularly to see whether it conforms to the requirements of the development of advanced productive forces. If it does, hold on to it without wavering. If it does not, correct it where necessary. Only by doing so, is it possible for Communists to give a full expression to their advanced nature and to the spirit of the times.

Man is the most decisive factor in productive forces. The Chinese working class, including intellectuals, is the basic force that pushes the advanced productive forces forward in China. The peasant class and other laboring people, closely united with the working class, constitute a major force that pushes the country's productive forces forward. To raise the ideological and ethical standards and scientific and cultural levels of the workers, peasants, intellectuals and other laboring people and the entire population and improve their labor skills and creativity and give full scope to their enthusiasm, initiative and creative power - these should remain the tasks of primary importance that our Party should perform in representing China's advanced productive forces.

Science and technology are the primary productive forces and a concentrated expression and a hallmark of advanced productive forces. The rapid progress in science and technology has given a powerful shove-ahead to the productive forces of the world and the economic and social development of humanity. The future development of science and technology will result in new and major leaps. We must quickly and accurately come to grip with this objective trend and give play to the superiority of China's socialist system and combine it with the mastering, application and development of advanced science and technology so as to make big progress in science and technology and innovation, use advanced science and technology to transform and upgrade the national economy and achieve a leap-frog expansion of our productive forces. This, too, is an important duty our Party should perform in representing the requirements of the development of productive forces.

Although we have made tremendous achievements in socialist modernization, the productive forces in China have generally remained underdeveloped as China is still at the primary stage of socialism and it has a large population, a weak foundation and uneven economic and cultural development. To release and develop our productive forces will remain our central task for a long period of time to come.

We must develop the advanced productive forces without letup. As to some existing backward modes of production that do not go along with the requirements of the development of advanced productive forces and the development of the times, we can not repel them summarily and unrealistically; nor should we take the attitude of being contented with what the things are and protecting what is backward. Instead, we should be realistic and prepare the conditions for transforming, improving and upgrading them and, through long-time efforts, gradually make them advanced and applicable.

We must, under the guidance of the Party's basic theories, basic line and basic program, stick to and improve the basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of multiple sectors; we must persist in and improve the socialist market system; we must hold on to and improve the multiple ways of distribution with the distribution of "to each according to work done" as the main distribution modality; we must continue to improve our opening-up program; we must hold on to and improve the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on worker-peasant alliance; we must hold on to and improve the people's congress system and multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party and the system of regional autonomy of minority nationalities while actively and steadily promoting the reform of the political structure to further expand socialist democracy, rule the country by law and build a socialist state under the rule of law.

Through unremitting efforts, we shall constantly improve the socialist relations of production and superstructure and open up a broader thoroughfare for the release and development of productive forces.

To make our Party forever represent the orientation of the development of China's advanced culture is to make the Party's theory, line, program, principles, policies and all its work reflect the requirements of the national, scientific and popular socialist culture that develops toward modernization, the world and the future, enable them to upgrade the ideological and ethical qualities and scientific and cultural qualities of the whole nation and to provide the motive power and support culturally and intellectually.

Socialist society is a society for the development and progress in all areas of endeavor. The socialist modernization is an undertaking that features mutual supplementation and harmonious development of material civilization and spiritual civilization. The comrades of the whole Party must have a comprehensive mastery of the dialectical relations between the two civilizations and while promoting material civilization, it is necessary to promote socialist spiritual civilization. In contemporary China, to develop advanced culture is to develop culture with distinct Chinese characteristics and to build socialist spiritual civilization.

We should have a firm grip on the development trend and requirements of China's advanced culture. We must persist in taking Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as the guide, base ourselves on the practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, fix our attention on the frontline of the development of the world's science and culture, develop healthy, progressive, rich and colorful socialist culture with Chinese styles and characteristics to meet the increasing demands of the people, and direct the people to get mentally equipped and upgraded with correct ideas. That is also the fundamental expression and requirement for our Party to remain in the forefront of the times and maintain its advanced nature.

The kind of cultural orientation a political party follows and the kind of culture it promotes constitute the party's ideological and spiritual banner. Over the past 80 years, our Party has held high the marching banner of China's advanced culture, worked hard to build and carry forward the new culture that reflects the requirements of revolution, construction and reform, and cleaned up the old decadent and dying culture which was left over from the old society and infiltrated into China from abroad. As a result, the cadres and masses have been emancipated and encouraged ideologically and mentally, and a correct guiding ideology and a common ideal have taken shape among the whole Party and the people throughout the country to rally popular feeling and unify public wills.

The fundamental task for developing the socialist culture lies in cultivating citizens from generation to generation who have lofty ideals, moral integrity, a better education and a good sense of discipline. We should persevere in arming the people with scientific theories, guiding the people with correct public opinions, molding the people with noble minds, and inspiring the people with superior works. We must stick to and consolidate the guiding status of Marxism, help people build up the correct outlook on the world and life and values, have firm belief in Marxism and socialism, increase confidence in the reform, opening- up and modernization drive, strengthen trust in the Party and the government, and increase the awareness about self-reliance, competition, efficiency, and democracy and the rule of law, as well as the pioneering and innovation spirit. We should continue to implement the strategy of invigorating the country through science and education, further popularize education, enhance its quality and level of the whole society, and make greater efforts to develop scientific and cultural undertakings. We should double our efforts to publicize scientific knowledge, scientific approaches, scientific thinking, and scientific spirit. A vital principle we must follow in developing China's advanced culture is to emphasize the central theme of the socialist culture, persevere in serving the people and socialism, and let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend. We should master and develop various kinds of modern communication means and promote the spreading of the advanced culture.

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