Visitors to China invariably get an earful of two new slogans : "build socialism with Chinese characteristics ! " and "Adhere unswervingly to the general line of building socialism with Chinese characteristics for at least 100 years ! " What then is "socialism with Chinese Characteristics "?

Ma Jiaju : For a clear answer to the question, we should first of all, know what the "traditional model of socialism" is. It is known to all that the socialist system was first established in the Soviet Union following the October Revolution under Lenin's leadership. After Lenin's untimely demise, Stalin brought to completion the socialist system, generally known as the "Stalin model " of socialism." After World War II, a group of socialist nations sprang up in Asia and Eastern Europe. For all their differences, they were, one way or another, patterned after the same Soviet model.

In economic terms, the Soviet model of socialism is synonymous to centralized, planned economy based on public ownership of the means of production. Industries are state-owned, agriculture is primarily a collective domain, and non-public sectors are almost in nonexistence. The government runs the economy entirely by administrative means. In the course of economic and social development, the system revealed its serious defects : lack of vitality for the enterprises and motivation for the workers, low economic returns, tardy technological progress, a lopsided industrial structure and shortages of consumer goods. Why did the people look on with folded arms when the Soviet Union Collapsed suddenly ? Who would have supported this kind of socialism under which after decades of construction, even toilet paper and soap were hard to come by ? China had the same experience in the past, when many daily necessities were supplied though coupons.

He Wei : If the advantages of socialism cannot be brought into full play, it is impossible for people to enjoy a comfortable life.

Gao Shangquan : With the end of the traumatic Cultural Revolution (1966-76), the sober reality drove home to Chinese communists that, in building socialism, rigid dogmas and beaten tracks get nowhere. They have realized that the only way out is to build socialism with Chinese characteristics in a practical way and by integrating the universal principles of Marxism with China's specific conditions.

Tong Dalin : From an international point of view, socialism is facing severe challenges, and this has touched off a wave of reform in one socialist country after another. But the changes are unpredictable. Eastern Europe has experienced violent fluctuations and the Soviet Union has disintegrated. Only China advances steadily, thanks to the correct course it has chosen, the course of "building socialism with Chinese characteristics."

So, what is "socialism with Chinese characteristics "?
Ma : Socialism with Chinese characteristics is still in the making, and it will be some time before it can take complete shape. But the outline is showing itself after a decade of practice.

Economically, the concept points to the socialist market economy which is no longer the exclusive domain of public ownership but the combination of public ownership, which serves as the mainstay, with individual, private and foreign-invested sectors. Statistics show that China now has 14 million individual house-holds engaged in industrial and commercial activities, 1,20,000 private enterprises and more than 60,000 foreign-invested firms. The economic operational mechanism is shifting from a planned to a market economy. Moreover, with China taking an active part in international economic and technological exchange and cooperation, this economic structure is marked by an increasing openness to the outside world.

Politically, with the improvement of socialist democracy and the legal system, the status of the people as masters of the country has been guaranteed. The people's congress system, whereby the populace wields power, has been steadily strengthened with the enactment of one statue after another. Multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC are playing an increasingly larger role.

Culturally, the policy of "letting a hundred schools of thought contend" is being carried out to the letter, and as a result literature and the arts are flourishing. The entry of foreign cultures is also apparent in China.

Things in China today are entirely different from the past. A Japanese friend, on finishing his first trip to China, came to this conclusion : "So this is China. It's different from What I anticipated." Those who have visited China repeatedly will be more keenly aware of the changes.

Tong : I have one point to add. The theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics put forward by Deng Xiaoping marked yet another historic leap forward in the Chinese revolution. Mao Zedong masterminded the first historic leap forward in the Chinese revolution. Mao Zedong masterminded the first historic leap by combining the universal principles of Marxism with the specific conditions of the Chinese revolution. Mao founded New China and the Chinese people stood up, but despite his repeated probes he failed to discover an ideal path for building socialism in China-a comparatively economically and culturally backward nation. It is Deng who, in the spirit of seeking truth from reality and emancipating the minds, repudiated the erroneous line of taking class struggle as the key link and set economic construction as the central task. He initiated the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world and switched the nation's major efforts to developing production and raising the living standards while adhering to the socialist road and CPC leadership. Practice over the past dozen years has proved that only by following the course charted by Deng can China become a prosperous and strong country.

Gao : The theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics has been formulated and developed in the process of reform, opening up to the outside world and the socialist medernization drive on the basis of summing up China's successes and failures in building socialism and drawing on the positive and negative experience of other socialist countries. As the chief architect of China's policy of reform and opening up to outside world and modernization drive, Deng has made historic contributions to this theory, which is a crystallization of collective wisdom of the whole Party and the people. Deng's greatness lies in his readiness to the respect practise and take the interests and wishes of the majority of the people into full account, his extraordinary ability to generalize the experience and wisdom of the masses, his keen awareness of the development of the present world, his unusual flair for opportunities, as well as his vast aptitude for inheriting the legacies of his predecessors with out being inhibited by old taboos. Whether in blazing a new trail for socialist construction or breaking new ground in Marxist theory, he is undoubtedly a man of great courage.

He : In my opinion, the most salient feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the introduction of market economy. This a major conception and theoretical breakthrough for socialism, and an outstanding contribution from Deng.

Now let's switch our discussion to the topic of market economy. At the 14th Party Congress, General Secretary Jiang Zemin declared that the goal of China's economic structural reform is to establish a socialist market economic system. World opinion regarded this as the keynote of the congress, and an unparalleled decision with epoch-making significance in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. How did the term "socialist market economy" come about ?

He : The establishment of a target model for the reform of the economic structure has an important bearing on the drive for socialist modernization as a whole. At the core of the entire matter is how to correctly understand and deal with the relationship between planning and the market. By tradition market economy is believed to the a peculiar feature to capitalism while planned economy is the basic hallmark of socialist economy. Fortunately these hackneyed concepts have gradually become obsolete with the deepening of the reform that was kicked off at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee held in November 1978. The new ideas that have emerged in the process have given an important Impetus to reform and development.

At the 12th National Party Congress in September 1982, it was stressed that planned economy should hold the dominant position while market regulations is supplementary. At the Third Plenary Session of the 12th Party Central Committee held in October is an indispensable stage to the development of socialist economy which in China's case is a planned commodity economy based on public owner ship. The 13th National Party Congress in October 1987 stimulated that planing and market should be combined into a harmonious whole under planned socialist commodity economy. After the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Party central Committee held in June 1989, the entire nation was called upon to establish an economic system and operational mechanism attuned to the growth of planned commodity economy by combining central planning with the market's regulatory role.

But it was Deng Xiaoping who dismantled the creed that planned economy and market economy and market economy are two categorically different basic social systems and catalyzed a major breakthrough in our understanding of the relationship between planning and market. During his famous 1992 south China tour, he pointed out that planned economy is not synonymous to socialism because capitalism entails central planning and that market economy is not equivalent to capitalism because socialism also employs the role of the market. Planning and market are nothing but economic means, he said, and whether planning figures more prominently than the market or vice versa in an economic system is not the essential distinction between socialism and capitalism.

Why does China shift from planned economy to market economy ? What are the essential differences between China's market economy and those of Western Europe, the United States and Japan ?

Gao : The change should be understood in four aspects.
Fist, the old planned economy must be revamped completely because it can no longer serve the development of the productive force and has thus become a stumbling block.

Historically, the Soviet model of planned economy payed a positive role in the early stage of industrialization in China. During the First Five-Year Plan (1953-57) period, China completed the construction of 156 key projects by pooling the manpower, materials and funds throughout the country. As things stood then, it was impossible to complete such mammoth projects as the Changchun No.1 Auto Plant and the Anshan Iron and Steel Works by relying on the resources of a single locality or department.

However, under rigid state control, enterprises were turned into mere government adjuncts with no say in management ; commodity production, the law of value and the market were denied a proper role in the economy ; and in distribution egalitarianism was the rule. Thus the wind was taken out of the enterprises sails and the workers and staff were robbed of the initiative, motivation and creativeness. This situation was no better illustrated then one single example from the early days of the planned economy. Shanghai was hit by a summer heatwave and the factories badly needed to buy cooling apparatuses such as electric fans. Unable to make their own decisions for the purchases they had to get the seals of approval of 11 higher-up units. But by the time they had gone through the red-tape, the summer had passed.

Fan Jingyi : How could such a system fit the development of productivity ? What, then, accounted for the "Northeast Phenomena"? Enterprises in the northeast are all large mainstay firms under central planning. As the state control was steadily tightened up,. These enterprises became so enfeebled that some of them could not even pay the workers. Economist dubbed it the "Northeast Phenomena," which reflected the plight of virtually all large enterprises under central planning. Despite the preferential treatment and large sums of money the state had pumped into them, there was no way they could be revitalized. Why? Because they were under rigid state planning. Why are rural enterprises so alive the kicking? Because they have met the demands of economic development and attained common prosperity. Otherwise, socialism will have no vitality. What happened in some countries has long borne this out.