Marx and Engels’ Theory of Relations of Production and Its Sinicization

Studying the contradictory movement of productive forces and relations of production is the theoretical foundation for deepening the understanding of the laws of human social development. Marx and Engels, from a critical perspective, profoundly analyzed the general laws, essential structure, and forms of expression of relations of production, providing scientific theoretical guidance for understanding the essence of human social development. The *Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese-Path Modernization* (hereinafter referred to as the *Decision*) adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC explicitly states: “Promote better alignment between relations of production and productive forces, between the superstructure and the economic base, and between national governance and social development, so as to provide strong impetus and institutional safeguards for Chinese-path modernization.” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. It focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and adopted a major decision on the matter. Looking back on the exploratory course of socialist relations of production in China, the Communist Party of China, adhering to the reality and requirements of China’s productive forces development and applying the basic positions, viewpoints, and methods of Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production, has not only thoroughly eradicated comprador and feudal relations of production and the decadent superstructure but has also gradually explored concrete forms of socialist relations of production suited to China’s national conditions, thereby realizing the Sinicization of Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production in the process of integrating theory with practice. Grounded in the great practice of China’s revolution, construction, and reform, in-depth research into Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production and the fruits of its Sinicization holds significant theoretical value and practical significance for adhering to the path of Chinese-path modernization, promoting common prosperity for all the people, and contributing to the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.

研究生产力和生产关系的矛盾运动是深化认识人类社会发展规律的理论基础。马克思恩格斯以批判视角深刻分析了生产关系的一般规律、本质结构、表现形式，为理解人类社会发展本质提供了科学理论指导。党的二十届三中全会通过的《中共中央关于进一步全面深化改革、推进中国式现代化的决定》（以下简称《决定》）明确提出：“推动生产关系和生产力、上层建筑和经济基础、国家治理和社会发展更好相适应，为中国式现代化提供强大动力和制度保障。”回望中国社会主义生产关系的探索历程，中国共产党坚持从中国生产力发展实际和要求出发，运用马克思恩格斯生产关系理论的基本立场、观点和方法，不仅彻底破除了买办的、封建的生产关系以及腐朽的上层建筑，而且逐步探索出适合中国国情的社会主义生产关系的具体形式，在理论联系实际的过程中实现了马克思恩格斯生产关系理论的中国化。立足中国革命、建设和改革的伟大实践，深入研究马克思恩格斯生产关系理论及其中国化的成果，对于坚持走中国式现代化道路、推进全体人民共同富裕、助力强国建设和民族复兴伟业，具有重要的理论价值和实践意义。

I. The Basic Connotations of Marx and Engels’ Theory of Relations of Production

一、马克思恩格斯生产关系理论的基本内涵

Relations of production are a fundamental category of historical materialism. From the perspective of general laws, relations of production and productive forces are dialectically unified. From the perspective of essential characteristics, relations of production are the economic relations among social subjects in the process of direct material production, that is, “the totality of the relations within which production takes place.” [2]2 The “Six Upholds” are: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, upholding institutional building as the main thread, upholding law-based governance in all respects, and upholding a systems approach. They were articulated as the basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform in the decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. From the perspective of forms of expression, ownership of the means of production is the foundation of relations of production, centrally embodying the social nature and characteristics of relations of production of a given social formation. It was precisely in the process of constructing the theoretical system of historical materialism that Marx and Engels formed their scientific understanding of the fundamental issues of relations of production, revealing the basic laws of human social development.

生产关系是唯物史观的基本范畴。从一般规律上看，生产关系与生产力是辩证统一的。从本质特征上看，生产关系是直接物质生产过程中社会主体间的经济关系，即“借以进行生产的各种关系的总体”。从表现形式上看，生产资料所有制是生产关系的基础，集中体现着一定社会形态的社会性质及其生产关系特点。马克思恩格斯正是在建构历史唯物主义理论体系的过程中，形成了对生产关系基本问题的科学认识，揭示出人类社会发展的基本规律。

(A) The General Laws of Relations of Production

（一）生产关系的一般规律

“The social relations within which individuals produce, the social relations of production, change and transform with the changes and development of the material means of production, of the productive forces.” [3]3 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. Elucidating the general laws of relations of production from the perspective of the development of productive forces is the generative logic of Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production; that is, relations of production and productive forces are in a dialectical unity.

“各个人借以进行生产的社会关系，即社会生产关系，是随着物质生产资料、生产力的变化和发展而变化和改变的。”基于生产力发展的角度阐明生产关系的一般规律，是马克思恩格斯生产关系理论的生成逻辑，也就是说，生产关系与生产力是辩证统一的关系。

Unlike the traditional theories of productive forces of bourgeois economists such as Adam Smith and Friedrich List, Marx and Engels constructed a scientific theoretical system of productive forces within the context of the scientific view of practice and the materialist conception of history, based on multiple dimensions of human historical development and social structural change. Standing from the broad perspective of human history, taking “real individuals” as their starting point, they understood the essence of relations of production from the relational category of the unity of natural relations and social relations, pointing out that productive forces are the determining factor of relations of production: “a certain mode of production, or industrial stage, is always combined with a certain mode of co-operation, or social stage, and this mode of co-operation is itself a ‘productive force’; further, that the multitude of productive forces accessible to men determines the nature of society.” [4]4 The “new development pattern” was first proposed by Xi Jinping in 2020. As a given force that is independent of human will and not freely chosen by humans, productive forces possess objective reality and social historicity, constituting both the material foundation of all social history and the fundamental driving force of human social development. At the same time, because “at a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or — this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms — with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto,” [5]5 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Ceremony Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Marx,” May 4, 2018. the transformation of relations of production becomes a prerequisite for the sustained development of productive forces.

不同于亚当·斯密、弗里德里希·李斯特等资产阶级经济学家的传统生产力理论，马克思恩格斯是在科学的实践观和唯物主义历史观的语境下，基于人类历史发展和社会结构变化的多重向度，建构起科学的生产力理论体系。他们站在人类历史的宽广视野中，以“现实的人”为出发点，从自然关系和社会关系相统一的关系范畴理解生产关系的本质，指出生产力是生产关系的决定因素，“一定的生产方式或一定的工业阶段始终是与一定的共同活动方式或一定的社会阶段联系着的，而这种共同活动方式本身就是‘生产力’；由此可见，人们所达到的生产力的总和决定着社会状况”。作为不以人的意志为转移、不由人自主选择的既得力量，生产力具有客观现实性和社会历史性，既构成全部社会历史的物质基础，又是人类社会发展的根本动力。同时，又由于“社会的物质生产力发展到一定阶段，便同它们一直在其中运动的现存生产关系或财产关系（这只是生产关系的法律用语）发生矛盾”，生产关系变革就成为生产力持续发展的前提条件。

The unity of relations of production and productive forces constitutes the contradictory movement of the mode of production. *Capital* takes “the capitalist mode of production, and the relations of production and exchange corresponding to it” [6]6 The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of the Chinese people” originates from Mao Zedong’s 1945 report “On Coalition Government.” The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of socialist society” is one of Deng Xiaoping’s “three criteria for judging the success or failure of reform and opening up,” proposed during his 1992 southern tour talks. as its starting point, pointing out that capitalist relations of production are the root cause hindering the further development of large-scale socialized production. The fundamental opposition between the two is the structural contradiction of the capitalist mode of production. Ultimately, “the productive forces revolt against the mode of production which they have outgrown,” [7]7 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 11th Collective Study Session of the Political Bureau of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC,” January 31, 2024. and it is necessary to resolve the contradiction between relations of production and productive forces that are incompatible through social revolution or social reform. Thus, Marx and Engels put forward the scientific theses of “the two inevitables” and “the two never will,” [8]8 “Large scale, high degree of public ownership, and pure form” (yi da er gong er chun) refers to the characteristics of the people’s commune system and the state-owned sector during the Mao era, emphasizing large collective units, a high level of public ownership, and the exclusion of non-public elements. which became important principles for analyzing and resolving issues in the historical development of human society. It is worth noting that although Marx and Engels emphasized the foundational material role of productive forces, they never regarded productive forces (or economic factors) alone as the sole determining factor of historical development. To completely deny the active counter-effect of relations of production is “meaningless, abstract, absurd nonsense.” [9]9 The household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output (lian chan cheng bao ze ren zhi), introduced in the early 1980s, contracted collectively owned land to individual households, who could keep surplus output after meeting state quotas, replacing the collective farming of the people’s communes. The dialectical unity of relations of production and productive forces — that is, productive forces generally play the primary determining role, while relations of production can, under certain conditions, play a major counter-role — the two-way logic of “determination and counter-effect” must never be replaced by the one-way logic of “determination and being determined.” “Productive forces only” or “relations of production only” are distortions of historical materialism.

生产关系与生产力的统一构成生产方式的矛盾运动。《资本论》以“资本主义生产方式以及和它相适应的生产关系和交换关系”为切入点，指出资本主义生产关系是阻碍社会化大生产进一步发展的根源所在，二者的根本对立是资本主义生产方式的结构性矛盾，最终“生产力起来反对已经被它超过的生产方式”，必须通过社会革命或社会改革解决生产关系与生产力不相适应的矛盾。由此，马克思恩格斯提出“两个必然”和“两个决不会”的科学论断，成为分析和解决人类社会历史发展问题的重要原则。值得注意的是，马克思恩格斯虽然注重强调生产力的物质基础作用，但从未只把生产力（或者说经济因素）作为历史发展的唯一决定性因素，完全否认生产关系的能动反作用是“毫无内容的、抽象的、荒诞无稽的空话”。生产关系与生产力的辩证统一，即生产力一般地表现为主要的决定作用，生产关系在一定条件下又具有主要的反作用，二者“决定与反作用”的双向逻辑绝不能被“决定与被决定”的单线逻辑取代，“唯生产力”“唯生产关系”是对唯物史观的曲解。

(B) The Essence and Structure of Relations of Production

（二）生产关系的本质与结构

Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production matured gradually along with the formation of historical materialism. From exchange or intercourse relations, to monetary relations, to the relations of division of labor, and finally to the formulation of social relations, this marked a leap in Marx and Engels’ understanding of the essence of relations of production, thereby providing the ideological premise for their analysis of the structural levels of relations of production from the social attributes of production.

马克思恩格斯生产关系理论是伴随着唯物史观的形成而逐渐成熟的。从交换或交往关系，到货币关系、分工关系，直至社会关系的提出，标志着马克思恩格斯对生产关系本质的认识实现了飞跃，进而为他们从生产的社会属性分析生产关系的结构层次提供了思想前提。

Logically, relations of production manifest as the interrelations formed between “real individuals” and nature and society in the process of material production, marking a shift from a philosophical theme to the search for the ultimate concern of “real individuals,” and representing the unity of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. The term “relations of production” explicitly appears in *The German Ideology*, used to explain that “definite individuals who are productively active in a definite way enter into these definite social and political relations,” [10]10 The 15th National Congress of the CPC, held in September 1997, formally enshrined the “basic economic system for the primary stage of socialism” in the Party constitution, legitimizing the non-public sector as an integral part of the socialist market economy. serving as an important marker for the establishment of historical materialism. In *The Poverty of Philosophy*, Marx directly elucidated the methodological principle for studying the issue of relations of production. By employing the concept that “the relations of production of every society form a whole” [11]11 Karl Marx, “Letter to Vera Zasulich (First Draft),” in Collected Works, vol. 24 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1989), p. 346. and the historical movement of relations of production, he criticized Proudhon’s idealist conception of history, which saw “real relations as merely the incarnation of certain principles and categories.” [12]12 Ibid. In the “Preface” to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy*, Marx’s category of “relations of production” truly acquired the social character of the production process. He argued: “In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production.” [13]13 Karl Marx, “Preface” to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy*. In this process, Marx and Engels insisted on grounding their analysis in the real activities of humans, emphasizing the fundamental role of practice in the mode of human existence and social life. On the basis of scientifically answering that the essence of man “is the ensemble of the social relations,” [14]14 Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” Thesis VI. they revealed the essence of relations of production. In the practice of material production, “real individuals” as the subjects of practice first manifest as social beings. Definite relations of production are not only the essential expression of the social attributes of humans but also constitute the field in which all practical activities exist. Moreover, the contradictory movement between productive forces and relations of production existing within the practice of material production becomes the essence and driving force of social historical development, centrally embodying the essence of social life and the objective laws of historical development.

从逻辑上看，生产关系表现为物质生产过程中“现实的人”与自然、社会之间形成的相互关系，标志着由哲学主题转向寻求“现实的人”的终极关切，是辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义的统一。“生产关系”一词明确出现于《德意志意识形态》一文中，用以说明“以一定的方式进行生产活动的一定的个人，发生一定的社会关系和政治关系”，是唯物史观确立的重要标志。在《哲学的贫困》中，马克思直接阐明了研究生产关系问题的方法论原则，通过运用“每一个社会中的生产关系都形成一个统一的整体”以及生产关系的历史运动来批判蒲鲁东“现实关系只是一些原理和范畴的化身”的唯心史观。在《〈政治经济学批判〉序言》中，马克思的“生产关系”范畴真正具有生产过程的社会性质。他认为：“人们在自己生活的社会生产中发生一定的、必然的、不以他们的意志为转移的关系，即同他们的物质生产力的一定发展阶段相适合的生产关系。”在这一过程中，马克思恩格斯坚持立足人的现实活动，强调实践之于人的存在方式和社会生活的根本作用，在科学回答人的本质“是一切社会关系的总和”的基础上揭示出生产关系的本质。在物质生产实践中，作为实践主体的“现实的人”首先表现为社会的人，一定的生产关系不仅是人的社会属性的本质表现，更构成一切实践活动存在的场域，而在物质生产实践内部存在的生产力与生产关系的矛盾运动又成为社会历史发展的本质和动力，集中体现着社会生活本质和历史发展客观规律。

Structurally, it is precisely based on the profound understanding that relations of production are the essence of social relations that Marx and Engels comprehend relations of production from the social attribute of production, that is, the dialectical unity of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption in the process of social reproduction and the economic relations or relations of production contained therein. First, the unity of production and consumption. Production is directly consumption; the process of production is the process of consuming various factors of production. Consumption is directly production as well; the consumption of means of subsistence by people is simultaneously the production and reproduction of themselves. Production and consumption are mutually dependent and mutually productive. Second, the unity of production and distribution. For example, taking capital as the base point, distribution in the process of production appears both as a factor of production and as a source of income in different forms such as interest, profit, and wages, the essence of which remains the value and surplus value created by wage workers in the process of production. In terms of object and form, “the structure of distribution is completely determined by the structure of production. Distribution itself is a product of production.” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. It focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and adopted a major decision on the matter. Third, the unity of production with exchange and circulation. Circulation manifests as the sum total of exchange. In the process of social reproduction, exchange is the mediating bridge connecting production, distribution, and consumption. The mode of exchange is determined by a certain level of production development and structure. “Exchange, in all its elements, is either directly contained in production or determined by production.” [2]2 The “Six Upholds” are: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, upholding institutional building as the main thread, upholding law-based governance in all respects, and upholding a systems approach. They were articulated as the basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform in the decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. This fundamentally changed the long-standing phenomenon of blurred boundaries between exchange relations and relations of production. On this basis, Marx systematically expounded the structure of relations of production: production is the starting point, exchange and distribution are intermediate links, and consumption is the endpoint; they are unified as different segments of a totality. “A definite production determines a definite consumption, distribution, and exchange as well as definite relations between these different elements. Admittedly, however, in its one-sided form, production is itself determined by the other elements.” [3]3 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024.

从结构上看，马克思恩格斯正是基于生产关系是社会关系本质的深刻认识，从生产的社会属性去理解生产关系，即社会再生产过程中生产、交换、分配和消费之间的辩证统一及其内含的经济关系或生产关系。一是生产和消费的统一性。生产直接是消费，生产的过程就是消费各种生产要素的过程；消费直接也是生产，人对生活资料的消费同时是对自身的生产和再生产，生产和消费是相互依赖、相互生产的。二是生产和分配的统一性。例如，以资本为基点，分配在生产过程中既作为生产要素，又作为收入源泉表现为利息、利润、工资等不同形态，其本质仍是雇佣工人在生产过程中创造的价值和剩余价值。从对象和形式上讲，“分配的结构完全决定于生产的结构。分配本身是生产的产物”。三是生产与交换和流通的统一性。流通表现为交换的总和，交换在社会再生产过程中是联结生产、分配以及消费的中介桥梁，由一定的生产发展和结构决定交换的方式。“交换就其一切要素来说，或者是直接包含在生产之中，或者是由生产决定”，这就从根本上改变了长期以来交换关系和生产关系模糊不清的现象。在此基础上，马克思对生产关系结构进行了系统性论述：生产是起点，交换和分配是中间环节，消费是重点，它们统一于一个总体的各个环节。“一定的生产决定一定的消费、分配、交换和这些不同要素相互间的一定关系。当然，生产就其单方面形式来说也决定于其他要素。”

(III) Forms of Manifestation of Relations of Production

（三）生产关系的表现形式

It is precisely from the essence of relations of production as social relations that Marx and Engels, based on the determination of forms of ownership by the social division of labor, took relations of production as the basis for judging the forms of human society and their stages of development, namely, pre-capitalist society, capitalist society, and communist society. Focusing their research on the relations of production of capitalist society, they scientifically expounded the conditions for the realization and basic characteristics of the relations of production of future communist society.

正是从生产关系的社会关系本质出发，马克思恩格斯根据社会分工决定所有制形式，把生产关系作为判定人类社会形态及其发展阶段的依据，即前资本主义社会、资本主义社会、共产主义社会，并以资本主义社会生产关系为研究重点，对未来共产主义社会生产关系的实现条件和基本特征进行了科学阐述。

On the basis of an overall analysis of the structural levels of relations of production, Marx and Engels delved deeper into the interior of the structure of relations of production, focusing on the position and role of ownership of the means of production within relations of production. They explicitly stated that “the various stages of development in the division of labor are just so many different forms of ownership; that is, every stage of the division of labor also determines the relations of individuals to one another with respect to the material, instrument, and product of labor.” [4]4 The “new development pattern” was first proposed by Xi Jinping in 2020. At the same time, they pointed out that “the totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure.” [5]5 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Ceremony Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Marx,” May 4, 2018. Here, relations of production become the key basis for judging the nature of the economic structure of society. Ownership of the means of production determines the nature of relations of production, mainly including two forms of relations of production: private ownership and public ownership. In the capitalist relations of production under private ownership, the means of production are separated from the laborers. Capitalists enjoy the right to control wage laborers. Its essence is that capital, as a specific relation of production, appropriates without compensation the surplus value created by living labor, possessing an exploitative and antagonistic character. The contradiction between “the tendency to develop productive forces absolutely” and “the preservation of existing capital value and the maximization of its valorization” constitutes the fundamental contradiction of capitalist relations of production. Capitalist relations of production will inevitably be replaced by more advanced relations of production. In socialist society, public ownership of the means of production becomes the main form of ownership. However, because socialism emerges from capitalism, its relations of production inevitably bear certain capitalist characteristics. The “equal right” embodied in distribution according to work “is still, in principle, a bourgeois right.” [6]6 The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of the Chinese people” originates from Mao Zedong’s 1945 report “On Coalition Government.” The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of socialist society” is one of Deng Xiaoping’s “three criteria for judging the success or failure of reform and opening up,” proposed during his 1992 southern tour talks. Only in the higher phase of communist society, when labor becomes life’s prime want, through the reshaping of relations of production under the goal of the free and comprehensive development of the individual, and when the productive forces of society have greatly increased, can bourgeois right be completely abolished, truly realizing “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” [7]7 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 11th Collective Study Session of the Political Bureau of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC,” January 31, 2024.

马克思恩格斯在整体分析生产关系结构层次的基础上，继续深入到生产关系结构的内部，着重研究生产资料所有制在生产关系中的地位和作用。他们明确提出“分工的各个不同发展阶段，同时也就是所有制的各种不同形式。这就是说，分工的每一个阶段还决定个人在劳动材料、劳动工具和劳动产品方面的相互关系”的同时，又指出“生产关系总合起来就构成所谓社会关系，构成所谓社会，并且是构成一个处于一定历史发展阶段上的社会，具有独特的特征的社会”。在这里，生产关系成为判定社会经济结构性质的关键依据，生产资料所有制决定生产关系的性质，主要包括私有制和公有制两种生产关系形式。在私有制的资本主义生产关系中，劳动者与生产资料相分离，资本家享有对雇佣劳动者的支配权，其实质是作为特定生产关系的资本无偿占有活劳动创造的剩余价值，具有剥削性和对抗性。“绝对发展生产力的趋势”与“保存现有资本价值和最大限度地增殖资本价值”之间的矛盾构成资本主义生产关系的基本矛盾，资本主义生产关系必然会被更加先进的生产关系所取代。而在社会主义社会，生产资料公有制成为主要所有制形式，但由于脱胎于资本主义的社会主义在生产关系方面必然带有一定的资本主义色彩，按劳分配所体现的“平等的权利按照原则仍然是资产阶级权利”。直至共产主义高级阶段，劳动成为生活的第一需要，通过人的自由而全面发展目标下对生产关系的重塑，社会生产力极大增长，资产阶级权利才得以完全废除，真正实现“各尽所能，按需分配”。

In the process of revealing the essence and laws of motion of capitalist relations of production, Marx and Engels scientifically envisioned the economic operational form of future society, theoretically elucidating the planned economy as a basic characteristic of socialist relations of production. They believed that in capitalist relations of production based on commodity production (market economy), “the law of value operates as an internally imposed law vis-à-vis the individual agent, as a blind law of nature.” [8]8 “Large scale, high degree of public ownership, and pure form” (yi da er gong er chun) refers to the characteristics of the people’s commune system and the state-owned sector during the Mao era, emphasizing large collective units, a high level of public ownership, and the exclusion of non-public elements. The contradiction between the planned nature of production within individual enterprises and the anarchy of social production, and the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, become increasingly acute. The imbalance in the proportions between the two major departments of social production leads to periodic economic crises, inevitably causing enormous waste of social wealth and productive forces. Capitalist private ownership becomes a fetter hindering modern large-scale production. In their view, to open the broadest possible space for the increase of labor productivity, it is very necessary to distribute social labor time in definite proportions. “Only where production is subject to the genuine, predetermined control of society does society establish a connection between the quantity of social labor time employed in producing a given article and the magnitude of the social need to be satisfied by that article.” [9]9 The household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output (lian chan cheng bao ze ren zhi), introduced in the early 1980s, contracted collectively owned land to individual households, who could keep surplus output after meeting state quotas, replacing the collective farming of the people’s communes. The entire national economy achieves a balance between production and consumption under the principle of planned, proportionate development. At the same time, all this must be based on the proletariat seizing state power and realizing public ownership of the means of production. As Marx and Engels pointed out when envisioning the “association of free individuals”: “Once society takes possession of the means of production, commodity production is abolished, and with it the domination of the product over the producer. The anarchy within social production is replaced by a planned, conscious organization.” [10]10 The 15th National Congress of the CPC, held in September 1997, formally enshrined the “basic economic system for the primary stage of socialism” in the Party constitution, legitimizing the non-public sector as an integral part of the socialist market economy. It should be noted that in the context of Marx and Engels, although capitalist elements such as capital, commodity production, and market regulation are opposed to socialist relations of production, the socialist relations of production they envisioned presuppose developed productive forces as their material prerequisite. Socialist planned economy is the result of the maturation of various preconditions. In the concrete process of practice, it must be creatively applied and developed based on the objective reality of the development of productive forces in each country.

马克思恩格斯在揭示资本主义生产关系的本质及其运行规律的过程中，对未来社会的经济运行形式进行了科学设想，从理论层面阐明计划经济作为社会主义生产关系的基本特征。他们认为，在以商品生产（市场经济）为基础的资本主义生产关系中，“价值规律不过作为内在规律，对单个当事人作为盲目的自然规律起作用”，企业内部生产的有计划性与社会生产的无政府状态、无产阶级与资产阶级的矛盾日益尖锐，社会生产两大部类的比例失衡导致周期性经济危机爆发，必然造成社会财富和生产力的极大浪费，资本主义私有制成为阻碍现代化大生产的桎梏。在他们看来，如果想为劳动生产率的提高开辟最广阔的空间，按一定比例分配社会的劳动时间是非常必要的，“只有在生产受到社会实际的预定的控制的地方，社会才会在用来生产某种物品的社会劳动时间的数量和要由这种物品来满足的社会需要的规模之间，建立起联系”，整个国民经济在遵循有计划、按比例发展的原则下实现生产与消费的均衡。同时，这一切都必须建立在无产阶级夺取政权、实现生产资料公有制的基础上，正如马克思恩格斯在展望“自由人联合体”时所指出：“一旦社会占有了生产资料，商品生产就将被消除，而产品对生产者的统治也将随之消除。社会生产内部的无政府状态将为有计划的自觉的组织所代替。”需要指出的是，在马克思恩格斯的语境中，资本、商品生产、市场调节等资本主义要素虽然与社会主义生产关系相对立，但他们设想的社会主义生产关系是以发达生产力为物质前提的，社会主义计划经济是各种前提条件成熟的结果，在具体实践过程中必须从各国生产力发展的客观实际出发，加以创造性地运用和发展。

II. The Historical Evolution of the Sinicization of Marx and Engels’ Theory of Relations of Production

二、马克思恩格斯生产关系理论中国化的历史演进

The theory of relations of production founded by Marx and Engels primarily took the relations of production of Western developed capitalist countries as its research object, logically revealing the historical inevitability of socialism replacing capitalism, and thereby elucidating the general laws of human social development through the contradictory movement between relations of production and productive forces. At the same time, they also considered the particularity of world historical development, envisioning the possibility of a direct transition to socialism for backward Eastern countries, that is, “to be able to take possession of all the positive achievements of the capitalist system without having to pass through its Caudine Forks.” [11]11 Karl Marx, “Letter to Vera Zasulich (First Draft),” in Collected Works, vol. 24 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1989), p. 346. China was a large, semi-colonial and semi-feudal agricultural country with backward productive forces, achieving a historic leap from New Democracy to socialism. After the establishment of the socialist system in China, in order to fully unleash the immense superiority of socialist relations of production in liberating and developing social productive forces, the Communist Party of China has adhered to integrating Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production with China’s specific realities. Through the Sinicized theory of relations of production of Marx and Engels, it has scientifically answered the fundamental question of “what socialist relations of production are and how to build socialist relations of production,” achieving adherence to and innovative development of Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production in China’s socialist practice.

马克思恩格斯创立的生产关系理论，其主要研究对象是西方发达资本主义国家的生产关系，从逻辑上揭示出社会主义代替资本主义的历史必然性，进而以生产关系与生产力的矛盾运动阐明人类社会发展的一般规律。同时，他们也曾考虑到世界历史发展的特殊性，设想东方落后国家存在直接向社会主义过渡的可能性，即“不通过资本主义制度的卡夫丁峡谷，而占有资本主义制度所创造的一切积极的成果”。中国是一个生产力落后的半殖民地半封建的农业大国，实现了从新民主主义向社会主义的历史性跨越。中国建立社会主义制度之后，为充分发挥社会主义生产关系对于解放和发展社会生产力的巨大优越性，中国共产党坚持把马克思恩格斯生产关系理论同中国的具体实际相结合，以中国化的马克思恩格斯生产关系理论，科学回答了“什么是社会主义生产关系、怎样建设社会主义生产关系”的根本性问题，在中国社会主义实践中实现了对马克思恩格斯生产关系理论的坚持与创新发展。

(I) Innovation and Development of the Theory of Relations of Production during the Period of Socialist Revolution and Construction

（一）社会主义革命和建设时期生产关系理论的创新与发展

After the founding of New China, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, led the Chinese people in thoroughly breaking down comprador and feudal relations of production, thereby effecting the historic transition from New Democratic relations of production to socialist relations of production. They also raised the task of learning from the Soviet Union’s experience and exploring a path of socialist construction suited to China’s national conditions, carrying out reforms and adjustments in ownership, the distribution system, the economic system, and various institutional systems. Although this process experienced many twists and turns, it nevertheless achieved great successes in socialist construction and demonstrated the incomparable superiority of the socialist system. The Party’s theoretical innovations and practical explorations concerning socialist relations of production during this period provided valuable experience and a theoretical foundation for the formation, after reform and opening up, of concrete forms of socialist relations of production with Chinese characteristics.

新中国成立后，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人领导中国人民在彻底破除买办的、封建的生产关系的基础上，实现从新民主主义生产关系向社会主义生产关系的历史性转变，并提出以苏为鉴，探索适合中国国情的社会主义建设道路的任务，对所有制、分配体制、经济体制以及各方面制度体制进行改革和调整，虽然经历诸多曲折，但也取得了社会主义建设的伟大成就，彰显出社会主义制度的无比优越性。党在这一时期关于社会主义生产关系的理论创新和实践探索，为改革开放后形成具有中国特色的社会主义生产关系的具体形式提供了宝贵经验和理论基础。

First, implement the New Democratic economic programme and establish New Democratic relations of production. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, Mao Zedong, on the basis of a precise grasp of China’s national conditions and the characteristics of the revolution, applied the Marxist method of class analysis to examine the situation in which multiple relations of production coexisted in Chinese society and put forward the creative conception of a New Democratic republic. From the perspective of its economic form, in the early years of New China the economy was a New Democratic economy composed of three basic forms of ownership and five economic sectors [three basic forms of ownership and five economic sectors: state-owned enterprises of a socialist nature, semi-socialist cooperative enterprises, private capitalism, individual economy, and state-capitalist enterprises jointly run by the state and private capital.]. By establishing New Democratic relations of production, it restored and developed the productive forces. First, it confiscated imperialist capital and bureaucrat-monopoly capital and turned them into state ownership, making the state-owned sector the leading force in the national economy, while adopting a policy of peaceful and flexible differential treatment; this measure had the dual character of both the New Democratic Revolution and the socialist revolution. Second, it confiscated the land of the landlords and distributed it to the peasants, adhering to the general line and general policy of “relying on the poor peasants, uniting with the middle peasants, and eliminating the feudal system of exploitation step by step and in a differentiated manner” to carry out land reform, thereby restructuring rural relations of production on the principle of “land to the tiller.” Third, it protected national industry and commerce. In accordance with the general objective of “developing production, promoting economic prosperity, giving consideration to both public and private interests, and benefiting both labour and capital,” it adopted a dual strategy of both developing and restricting private capitalist industry and commerce, implementing a two-sided policy of “appropriately improving workers’ living conditions without hindering the legitimate development of capitalist enterprises.” The correct use of national-capitalist relations of production was a major feature of New Democratic relations of production. During this period, the New Democratic economy followed the path of “regulating capital” and “equalising land rights.” The main task of developing the New Democratic productive forces did not conflict with the principal contradiction in society, which was a class contradiction; this was concentratedly manifested in the positive reaction of relations of production of different natures on the development of the productive forces. With the completion of the task of restoring the national economy, the Chinese Communist Party, recognising that the New Democratic relations of production – especially individual-ownership relations of production and private-capitalist relations of production – could no longer meet the needs of large-scale socialised production and national industrialisation, began to concentrate its thinking on the major question of how to make the transition to socialist relations of production.

第一，贯彻新民主主义经济纲领，建立新民主主义生产关系。新民主主义革命时期，毛泽东基于对中国国情和革命特点的准确把握，运用马克思主义阶级分析方法考察中国社会多种生产关系并存的现状，提出新民主主义共和国的创造性构想。从经济形态上看，新中国成立初期是由三种基本所有制、五种经济成分三种基本所有制、五种经济成分：社会主义性质的国营经济，半社会主义性质的合作社经济，私人资本主义，个体经济，国家和私人合作的国家资本主义经济。共同构成的新民主主义经济，通过建立新民主主义生产关系，恢复和发展生产力。一是没收帝国主义资本、官僚垄断资本归国家所有，使国营经济成为国民经济的领导力量，同时采取和平、灵活的区别对待的政策，这一举措带有新民主主义革命和社会主义革命的双重性质。二是没收地主土地归农民所有，坚持“依靠贫农，团结中农，有步骤地、有分别地消灭封建剥削制度，发展农业生产”的总路线和总政策实行土地改革，以耕者有其田重构农村生产关系。三是保护民族工商业，按照“发展生产、繁荣经济、公私兼顾、劳资两利”的总目标，对私人资本主义工商业采取既发展又限制的双重策略，实行“适当地改善工人生活和不妨碍资本主义经济正当发展”的两重性政策，正确利用民族资本主义生产关系是新民主主义生产关系的一大特色。这一时期，新民主主义经济走的是“节制资本”和“平均地权”的道路，发展新民主主义生产力的主要任务与阶级矛盾为社会主要矛盾是不冲突的，集中表现为不同性质的生产关系对生产力发展的积极的反作用。随着国民经济恢复任务的完成，中国共产党根据新民主主义生产关系尤其是个体所有制生产关系、私人资本主义生产关系无法适应社会化大生产和国家工业化需要的情况，开始集中思考如何向社会主义生产关系过渡的重大问题。

Second, insist on simultaneously advancing socialist industrialisation and socialist transformation, and effect the transition from New Democratic relations of production to socialist relations of production. Centred on the key task of “steadily turning China from an agricultural country into an industrial country and building China into a great socialist state,” the Chinese Communist Party opened up a path of socialist transformation suited to China’s national conditions, namely the general line for the transition period of “one industrialisation and three transformations” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. It focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and adopted a major decision on the matter.. Its essence was to resolve the problem of backward relations of production, establish socialist relations of production, and accelerate the development of the social productive forces. First, realise socialist industrialisation. Through confiscating and transforming bureaucrat capital to establish the state-owned sector, establishing the strategic orientation of focusing on building heavy industry and the defence industry, and rationally adjusting the private capitalist economy, it gradually achieved control and management over key industries and fields vital to the national economy and the people’s livelihood. Second, realise socialist transformation. For individual agriculture, it adopted a form of gradual transition from mutual-aid teams to elementary cooperatives and then to advanced cooperatives, establishing collective land ownership in the countryside. For individual handicraft industry, it adopted steps of transformation from supply-and-marketing groups to supply-and-marketing cooperatives and then to production cooperatives, turning them into a socialist collective economy. For capitalist industry and commerce, it followed a path of peaceful transformation that went from “commissioned processing, planned ordering, unified purchase and distribution, and commissioned sales on a commission basis” to “joint state-private operation and joint state-private operation of entire trades – a series of forms of state capitalism from lower to higher levels” [2]2 The “Six Upholds” are: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, upholding institutional building as the main thread, upholding law-based governance in all respects, and upholding a systems approach. They were articulated as the basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform in the decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee., thereby realising Marx and Engels’ vision of the peaceful redemption of the bourgeoisie. The establishment of socialist relations of production in China was a process of gradual advancement and peaceful transition, aimed at realising public ownership of the means of production and the principle of distribution according to work, while at the same time safeguarding the people’s living standards and social stability. It creatively resolved the major difficulty of how to establish socialist relations of production in a large Eastern country that was economically and culturally backward. It is worth noting that after the basic completion of socialist transformation, Mao Zedong once again put forward the idea that “it is possible to eliminate capitalism and yet still have capitalism,” suggesting that “underground factories” could be legalised in order to stabilise society, enrich material goods, and develop the economy. This shows that he affirmed, to a certain extent, the positive role of the individual economy and the private economy within socialist relations of production.

第二，坚持社会主义工业化和社会主义改造同时并举，从新民主主义生产关系转变为社会主义生产关系。围绕“使中国稳步地由农业国转变为工业国，把中国建设成一个伟大的社会主义国家”的中心任务，中国共产党开辟了一条适合中国国情的社会主义改造道路，即“一化三改”的过渡时期总路线，其实质是解决生产关系落后的问题，建立社会主义生产关系，加快发展社会生产力。一是实现社会主义工业化。通过没收和改造官僚资本建立国营经济，确立重点建设重工业和国防工业的战略导向，以及合理调整私人资本主义经济，逐步实现对国计民生关键行业和领域的控制管理。二是实现社会主义改造。对个体农业采取由互助组到初级合作社再到高级合作社逐步过渡的形式，确立农村集体土地所有制；对个体手工业采取由供销小组到供销合作社再到生产合作社的改造步骤，将其转变为社会主义集体经济；对资本主义工商业走的是一条从“委托加工、计划订货、统购包销、委托经销代销”到“公私合营、全行业公私合营等一系列从低级到高级的国家资本主义”的和平改造道路，实现了马克思恩格斯对资产阶级进行和平赎买的设想。中国社会主义生产关系的建立是一个逐步推进、和平过渡的过程，旨在实现生产资料公有制和按劳分配原则，同时保障人民生活水平和社会稳定，创造性地解决了在一个经济文化落后的东方大国如何建立社会主义生产关系的重大难题。值得注意的是，社会主义改造基本完成后，毛泽东又曾提出关于“可以消灭了资本主义，又搞资本主义”的思想，指出可以使“地下工厂”合法化，用来稳定社会、丰富物质和发展经济，表明他在一定程度上肯定了个体经济和私营经济对社会主义生产关系的积极作用。

Third, exploring the laws of socialist economic construction and developing socialist relations of production. After establishing a highly centralized planned economic system in accordance with the Soviet model and laying the initial foundation for the industrial system and the national economic system, the CPC, also in view of the gradually emerging drawbacks of this system and the experience and lessons of Soviet socialist construction, put forward a series of new conceptions for developing socialist relations of production. First, reforming the overly centralized planned economic system. Mao Zedong both emphasized the necessity of “having unified national planning and unified discipline” and advocated for the central government to devolve power to local authorities and expand enterprise autonomy, taking into account the interests of the state, the collective, and the individual, and advocated mobilizing all positive factors to serve the socialist cause. Second, explicitly proposing the basic contradiction of socialist society. By elucidating the general laws of the contradictory movement between productive forces and relations of production, and between the economic base and the superstructure, Mao Zedong organically linked the revolution in the superstructure, the transformation of relations of production, and the development of productive forces, emphatically stressing the counteractive effect of changes in relations of production on the development of productive forces, thereby enriching and developing the theoretical foundation of social revolution (social reform). Third, clearly pointing out the importance of utilizing commodity production and respecting the law of value under socialist conditions. Based on the historical reality that China’s commodity production was very underdeveloped, Mao Zedong scientifically answered the question of the relationship between commodity production and the social system, pointing out that planned commodity production and commodity exchange during the socialist period conform to the objective laws of the economy, and that the economic base of public ownership and the superstructure of the dictatorship of the proletariat determine that commodity production will not lead to capitalism. At the same time, in the process of correcting the “Left” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. It focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and adopted a major decision on the matter., he focused on adjusting the unreasonable relations of ownership in rural areas, establishing a three-tier system of ownership with the production team as the base [2]2 The “Six Upholds” are: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, upholding institutional building as the main thread, upholding law-based governance in all respects, and upholding a systems approach. They were articulated as the basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform in the decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee., and repeatedly emphasized the important role of distribution according to work and the law of value, “opposing both egalitarianism and excessive disparity.” Fourth, attaching importance to the continuous transformation of interpersonal relations in labor production. Mao Zedong agreed with Stalin’s view that relations of production “include ownership of the means of production, the relations among people in the course of production, and the system of distribution,” and, proceeding from the perspective of “carrying out a fundamental transformation of all social relations,” thought about how to break down bourgeois right, rely on the masses to develop the productive forces, and creatively put forward ideas such as “leading cadres appearing in the posture of ordinary laborers, treating people with an equal attitude, and improving rules and regulations,” launching rectification campaigns [3]3 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024., and proposing the “two participations, one reform, and three combinations” [4]4 The “new development pattern” was first proposed by Xi Jinping in 2020.; in addition, there were Chen Yun’s advocacy of “three mainstays and three supplements” [5]5 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Ceremony Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Marx,” May 4, 2018., and Liu Shaoqi’s view that “the socialist economy has both planning and flexibility and diversity,” etc. These creative ideas were the Party’s innovative development of Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production based on the reality of China’s socialist construction, and became the direct theoretical source for breaking through the singular socialist planned economy model and establishing socialist relations of production with Chinese characteristics after reform and opening up.

第三，探索社会主义经济建设规律，发展社会主义生产关系。在按照苏联模式建立起高度集中的计划经济体制，奠定工业体系和国民经济体系的初步基础后，中国共产党还鉴于这一体制逐渐显现的弊端，以及苏联社会主义建设的经验教训，提出一系列关于发展社会主义生产关系的新构想。一是改革过度集中的计划经济体制。毛泽东既强调“有全国的统一计划和统一纪律”的必要性，又主张中央向地方分权和扩大企业自主权，兼顾国家、集体和个人三者利益，主张调动一切积极因素为社会主义事业服务。二是明确提出社会主义社会基本矛盾。毛泽东通过阐明生产力与生产关系、经济基础与上层建筑之间矛盾运动的一般规律，把上层建筑革命、生产关系变革、生产力发展有机联系起来，着重强调生产关系变革对生产力发展的反作用，丰富发展了社会革命（社会改革）的理论基础。三是明确指出社会主义条件下利用商品生产、尊重价值法则的重要性。基于中国商品生产很不发达的历史现实，毛泽东科学回答了商品生产与社会制度关系的问题，指出社会主义时期有计划的商品生产和商品交换符合经济客观规律，公有制的经济基础和无产阶级专政的上层建筑决定了商品生产不会导致资本主义。同时，他在纠“左”的过程中重点调整农村不合理的所有制关系，确立以生产队为基础的三级所有制，并反复强调按劳分配和价值法则的重要作用，“既反对平均主义，也反对过分悬殊”。四是重视劳动生产中人与人关系的不断变革。毛泽东认同斯大林关于生产关系“包括生产资料所有制、劳动生产中人与人的关系、分配制度”的观点，并着重从“进行一切社会关系的根本改造”的角度思考如何破除资产阶级权利，依靠群众去发展社会生产力，创造性地提出“领导人员以普通劳动者姿态出现，以平等态度待人，改进规章制度”，开展整风运动以及提出“两参一改三结合”等思想；此外，还有陈云“三个主体、三个补充”“三个主体、三个补充”的主张，刘少奇关于“社会主义经济既有计划性，又有灵活性、多样性”的观点等。这些创造性思想是党立足中国社会主义建设实际，对马克思恩格斯生产关系理论的创新性发展，成为改革开放后突破社会主义单一计划经济模式、建立中国特色社会主义生产关系的直接理论来源。

(II) Innovation and Development of the Theory of Relations of Production in the New Period of Reform and Opening Up and Socialist Modernization

（二）改革开放和社会主义现代化建设新时期生产关系理论的创新与发展

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee [6]6 The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of the Chinese people” originates from Mao Zedong’s 1945 report “On Coalition Government.” The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of socialist society” is one of Deng Xiaoping’s “three criteria for judging the success or failure of reform and opening up,” proposed during his 1992 southern tour talks. opened a new historical period of adjusting socialist relations of production through reform, and liberating and developing the productive forces. On the basis of summing up the experience and lessons of socialist construction, the Party deeply realized that the development of socialist relations of production does not have a fixed set of models, and that it is necessary to combine Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production with the concrete reality of China’s socialist modernization, and, according to the requirements of the development of China’s productive forces, “create at each stage the specific forms of relations of production that are compatible with them and facilitate their continued progress,” continuously deepening the understanding of the question “what are socialist relations of production and how to build socialist relations of production.” Under this theoretical premise, the Party adhered to the basic national conditions of the primary stage of socialism in China, took economic construction as the central task, upheld the Four Cardinal Principles [7]7 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 11th Collective Study Session of the Political Bureau of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC,” January 31, 2024., upheld reform and opening up, continuously promoted the self-improvement and self-development of the socialist system, and constantly explored the optimal forms of realization for socialist relations of production. In the process of exploring the path of socialist economic development with Chinese characteristics, the Party continuously adjusted socialist relations of production and constructed the basic framework of socialist relations of production with Chinese characteristics.

党的十一届三中全会开启了一个通过改革调整社会主义生产关系，解放和发展生产力的新的历史时期。党在总结社会主义建设经验教训的基础上，深刻意识到社会主义生产关系的发展并不存在一套固定的模式，必须把马克思恩格斯生产关系理论同中国社会主义现代化建设的具体实际相结合，根据中国生产力发展要求，“在每一个阶段上创造出与之相适应和便于继续前进的生产关系的具体形式”，不断深化对“什么是社会主义生产关系、怎样建设社会主义生产关系”问题的认识。在这一理论前提下，党坚持立足中国社会主义初级阶段的基本国情，以经济建设为中心，坚持四项基本原则，坚持改革开放，持续推进社会主义制度的自我完善和发展，不断探索社会主义生产关系的最佳实现形式。党在探索中国特色社会主义经济发展道路的过程中，不断进行社会主义生产关系调整，并构建起中国特色社会主义生产关系的基本框架。

First, in terms of the forms and structure of socialist ownership of the means of production, from singular public ownership to public ownership as the mainstay with diverse forms of ownership developing together. History has already proven that the singular public ownership characterized by “large scale, high degree of public ownership, and pure form” [8]8 “Large scale, high degree of public ownership, and pure form” (yi da er gong er chun) refers to the characteristics of the people’s commune system and the state-owned sector during the Mao era, emphasizing large collective units, a high level of public ownership, and the exclusion of non-public elements. was incompatible with China’s backward level of productive forces, and that developing diverse forms of ownership is more conducive to fully realizing the superiority of socialist relations of production and liberating and developing the productive forces. Reform first began with adjusting agricultural relations of production. While adhering to the premise of collective land ownership, the collective unified management system of the people’s communes based on the “three-tier system of ownership with the production team as the base” was replaced by the household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output, characterized by “unified management combined with decentralized management and a two-tier management system” [9]9 The household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output (lian chan cheng bao ze ren zhi), introduced in the early 1980s, contracted collectively owned land to individual households, who could keep surplus output after meeting state quotas, replacing the collective farming of the people’s communes., and the “township and village enterprises,” an industrial organizational form with Chinese characteristics, were explored. Subsequently, urban economic system reform aimed at expanding the autonomy of state-owned enterprises unfolded nationwide, the forms of realization of public ownership became diversified, and the non-public sector of the economy developed from nothing, becoming a beneficial supplement to the public sector of the economy. The 15th National Congress of the CPC [10]10 The 15th National Congress of the CPC, held in September 1997, formally enshrined the “basic economic system for the primary stage of socialism” in the Party constitution, legitimizing the non-public sector as an integral part of the socialist market economy. for the first time established “public ownership as the mainstay with diverse forms of ownership developing together” as the basic economic system for the primary stage of socialism in China. Its essence is to adhere to the socialist economic base of public ownership of the means of production while boldly utilizing all diverse organizational forms and management methods that reflect the laws of development of the productive forces. “Taking the socialist public sector of the economy as the mainstay” is the fundamental principle of reform and opening up and the essential characteristic of socialist relations of production, ensuring that the means of production are owned by the state and the collectives, and that the state-owned sector of the economy controls the lifelines of the national economy. The common development of diverse forms of ownership is determined by the basic national conditions of the primary stage of socialism. The individual economy, private economy, and foreign-funded enterprises under socialist conditions play a positive role in “promoting production, invigorating the market, expanding employment, and better meeting the diverse living needs of the people.” These two aspects are indispensable and together constitute the scientific connotation of the basic socialist economic system. This is a major innovation by the CPC in the theory of socialist ownership.

第一，在社会主义生产资料所有制形式和结构上，从单一公有制到公有制为主体、多种所有制经济共同发展。历史已经证明，“一大二公三纯”的单一公有制与中国落后生产力发展水平不相适应，发展多种所有制经济更有利于充分发挥社会主义生产关系的优越性，解放和发展社会生产力。改革首先以调整农业生产关系为起点，在坚持土地集体所有制的前提下，人民公社“三级所有，队为基础”的集体统一经营体制被“统分结合、双层经营”的家庭联产承包责任制所取代，并探索出“乡镇企业”这一具有中国特色的产业组织形式，随后以扩大国有企业自主权为目的的城市经济体制改革在全国展开，公有制实现形式呈现多样化特征，非公有制经济从无到有发展起来，成为公有制经济的有益的补充。党的十五大首次把“公有制为主体、多种所有制经济共同发展”确立为中国在社会主义初级阶段的基本经济制度，其实质是在坚持生产资料公有制的社会主义经济基础的同时，大胆利用一切反映生产力发展规律的多样化的组织形式和经营方式。“以社会主义公有制经济为主体”是改革开放的根本原则，是社会主义生产关系的本质表征，确保生产资料归国家和集体所有，国有经济控制国民经济命脉；多种所有制经济共同发展是由社会主义初级阶段基本国情决定的，社会主义条件下的个体经济、私营经济以及外资外企对于“促进生产，活跃市场，扩大就业，更好地满足人民多方面的生活需求”具有积极作用。这两个方面缺一不可，共同构成社会主义基本经济制度的科学内涵，是中国共产党对社会主义所有制理论的重大创新。

Second, in terms of the mode of socialist distribution and its realization, there has been a shift from a single mode of distribution according to work to a system in which distribution according to work is the mainstay and multiple modes of distribution coexist. The mode of distribution is both a product of the ownership of the means of production and a form of realization of that ownership. The ownership structure, with public ownership as the mainstay and multiple forms of ownership coexisting, determines the basic distribution system of “distribution according to work as the mainstay and multiple modes of distribution coexisting.” The principle of distribution according to work is the essential reflection of socialist relations of production in the field of distribution of personal consumer goods. Workers, as the unity of direct producers and owners of the means of production, receive corresponding remuneration based on the amount of labor they contribute, which constitutes a negation of and transcendence over the exploitative system and absolute egalitarianism. The diversification of the forms of realization of public ownership creates differences among workers in the specific forms of possession of the means of production. Coupled with the unequal individual endowments and abilities among workers, distribution according to work is equal in form but unequal in fact. Nevertheless, this principle remains the fundamental principle for stimulating the production enthusiasm of the broad masses of workers and ensuring the realization of social interests during the primary stage of socialism. At the same time, proceeding from the reality of production factors and the diversity of ownership forms, the Party creatively incorporated “distribution according to production factors” as an important component of the basic distribution system, continuously clarifying the types of distribution according to the contribution of various production factors, and elevating it from the establishment of a principle to the perfection of a system. This is conducive to allowing the springs of social wealth to flow fully, raising the absolute income level of workers, and also conforms to the essential requirements of socialism. The combination of distribution according to work and distribution according to production factors constitutes the core idea of the Party’s reform of the income distribution system during the primary stage of socialism. This not only upholds the essential characteristic of socialist relations of production—distribution according to work—but also fully stimulates the vitality of non-labor production factors such as capital and technology. In this process, the understanding has deepened from “giving priority to efficiency while taking fairness into account” to paying greater attention to social fairness and justice. The proposal to “rectify the order of distribution and gradually reverse the trend of widening income distribution gaps” demonstrates the Party’s consciousness and confidence in achieving the goal of common prosperity.

第二，在社会主义分配方式及其实现方式上，从单一按劳分配到按劳分配为主体、多种分配方式并存。分配方式既是生产资料所有制的产物，又是生产资料所有制的实现形式，以公有制为主体、多种所有制形式并存的所有制结构决定“按劳分配为主体、多种分配方式并存”的基本分配制度。按劳分配原则是社会主义生产关系在个人消费品分配领域的本质反映，劳动者作为直接生产者与生产资料所有者的统一，以其付出的劳动量为尺度获得相应报酬，是对剥削制度和绝对平均主义的否定和超越。公有制实现形式的多样化造成劳动者在生产资料具体占有形式上的差别，加之劳动者之间不同等的个人天赋和能力，按劳分配在形式上是平等的，在事实上是不平等的，但这一原则仍是社会主义初级阶段激发广大劳动者生产积极性和保障社会利益实现的根本原则。与此同时，党从生产要素和多种所有制的实际出发，创造性地“把按生产要素分配”这一方式作为基本分配制度的重要组成，不断明确各类生产要素按贡献参与分配的类型，由确立原则上升为健全制度。这有利于使社会财富的源泉充分涌流，提高劳动者的绝对收入水平，也符合社会主义的本质要求。按劳分配和按生产要素分配相结合构成党在社会主义初级阶段收入分配制度改革的核心思想。这既坚持了按劳分配这一社会主义生产关系的本质特征，又充分激发了资本、技术等非劳动性生产要素的活力。而在这一过程中，从效率优先兼顾公平到更加注重社会公平正义的认识得以深化，“整顿分配秩序，逐步扭转收入分配差距扩大趋势”的提出，都表明党对实现共同富裕目标的自觉和自信。

Third, in terms of the socialist economic system and the resource allocation system, there has been a shift from a planned economic system to a socialist market economy system. Correctly understanding and grasping the relationship between plan and market is the core issue of socialist economic system reform, and the socialist market economy system is a major innovation in the relations of production of socialism with Chinese characteristics. “A planned economy is not equivalent to socialism, because capitalism also has planning; a market economy is not equivalent to capitalism, because socialism also has markets. Both plan and market are economic means.” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. It focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and adopted a major decision on the matter. This clear-cut thesis constitutes the theoretical basis for the socialist market economy. From “a planned economy as the mainstay, supplemented by market regulation” to “a planned commodity economy,” then to “the state regulating the market and the market guiding enterprises,” and finally to “the socialist market economy system,” the Communist Party of China gradually broke through the ideological shackles of rigidly adhering to the planned economy as an abstract socialist principle. The market is no longer a criterion for dividing social systems; the nature of the market economy as a mode of resource allocation is determined by the nature of society. A market and a market economy combined with the socialist system are a socialist market economy in nature. At the same time, the basic economic system and the basic distribution system constitute the fundamental logic of the combination of socialist relations of production and the market mechanism. First, “the market plays a basic role in resource allocation under the state’s macroeconomic regulation and control.” [2]2 The “Six Upholds” are: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, upholding institutional building as the main thread, upholding law-based governance in all respects, and upholding a systems approach. They were articulated as the basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform in the decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. Through the law of value and the competition mechanism, the vitality of various enterprises, workers, and production factors is fully mobilized, resource allocation is optimized to promote their flow towards areas with higher production efficiency, the efficiency advantages of the market economy are fully utilized, and the creation of social wealth and the development of productive forces are accelerated. Second, socialist relations of production fundamentally stipulate the dominant position of the public sector economy among market entities and of distribution according to work in market distribution. Through national planning and other macroeconomic regulation and control means, the drawbacks of the capitalist market economy are effectively prevented, the advantages of the socialist system for concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks are brought into play, the unity of stable economic development and social fairness and justice is achieved, and the fundamental direction of the market economy serving socialism is ensured. The socialist market economy system is neither a capitalist market economy system nor a socialist planned economy system. It is the CPC’s creative answer to the question of how to understand and handle the problem of relations of production of different natures within a socialist society, and it is an important achievement of the theoretical innovation of the relations of production of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

第三，在社会主义经济体制以及资源配置体制上，从计划经济体制到社会主义市场经济体制。正确认识和把握计划与市场的关系是社会主义经济体制改革的核心问题，社会主义市场经济体制是中国特色社会主义生产关系的重大创新。“计划经济不等于社会主义，资本主义也有计划；市场经济不等于资本主义，社会主义也有市场。计划和市场都是经济手段。”这一鲜明论断构成社会主义市场经济的立论依据。从“计划经济为主，市场调节为辅”到“有计划的商品经济”，再到“国家调节市场，市场引导企业”，最终到“社会主义市场经济体制”，中国共产党逐渐突破了把计划经济当作抽象的社会主义原则加以固守的思想束缚，市场不再是划分社会制度的标准，作为资源配置方式的市场经济的性质是由社会性质决定的，市场和市场经济与社会主义制度相结合就是社会主义性质的市场经济。同时，基本经济制度和基本分配制度又构成社会主义生产关系与市场机制相结合的基本逻辑。其一，“市场在社会主义国家宏观调控下对资源配置起基础性作用”，通过价值规律和竞争机制充分调动各类企业、劳动者以及生产要素的活力，优化资源配置促使其向生产效率更高的领域流动，充分发挥市场经济的效率优势，加速社会财富创造和生产力发展。其二，社会主义生产关系根本规定着公有制经济在市场主体、按劳分配在市场分配中的主体地位，通过国家计划等宏观调控手段有效防范资本主义市场经济的弊端，发挥集中力量办大事的社会主义制度优势，实现经济稳定发展与社会公平正义的统一，确保市场经济服务于社会主义的根本方向。社会主义市场经济体制，既不属于资本主义市场经济体制，也有别于社会主义计划经济体制，是中国共产党对如何认识和处理社会主义社会不同性质生产关系问题的创造性回答，是中国特色社会主义生产关系理论创新的重要成果。

(III) Innovation and Development of the Theory of Relations of Production in the New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

（三）中国特色社会主义新时代生产关系理论的创新与发展

The principal contradiction in society in the New Era has been transformed into “the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development.” [3]3 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. Backward social production has become a thing of the past, and the people’s material and cultural needs have been basically satisfied. This is both a remarkable achievement of adjusting relations of production to liberate and develop productive forces since reform and opening up, and the basic foothold for comprehensively deepening reform in the New Era. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has closely focused on the fundamental task of further liberating and developing social productive forces, adhered to comprehensively deepening reform, deepened the understanding of the laws governing the development of socialist relations of production, and with greater courage and more measures, removed the deep-seated institutional and mechanistic obstacles hindering the development of productive forces, “realizing a transformation of reform from partial exploration and breaking through the ice to systematic integration and comprehensive deepening, with basic institutional frameworks in various fields being established, and many fields achieving historic changes, systematic reshaping, and overall reconstruction.” [4]4 The “new development pattern” was first proposed by Xi Jinping in 2020. This has not only provided a strong driving force and institutional guarantee for Chinese-path modernization, but has also opened up a new realm for adapting Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production to the Chinese context and the needs of the times.

新时代社会主要矛盾已经转化为“人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾”，落后社会生产成为过去时，人民物质文化需要得到基本满足，这既是改革开放以来调整生产关系以解放和发展生产力的显著成就，又是新时代全面深化改革的基本立足点。党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央紧紧围绕进一步解放和发展社会生产力这一根本任务，坚持全面深化改革，深化认识社会主义生产关系发展规律，以更大勇气、更多举措破除阻碍生产力发展的深层次体制机制障碍，“实现改革由局部探索、破冰突围到系统集成、全面深化的转变，各领域基础性制度框架基本建立，许多领域实现历史性变革、系统性重塑、整体性重构”。这既为中国式现代化提供了强劲动力和制度保障，更开辟了马克思恩格斯生产关系理论中国化时代化的新境界。

First, uphold and improve the basic socialist economic system, and advance the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. The basic economic system is the foundation of the socialist economic system and an important pillar of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC [5]5 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Ceremony Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Marx,” May 4, 2018. provided a new summary of the basic socialist economic system: “the basic socialist economic systems, including the system under which public ownership is the mainstay and economic entities under diverse forms of ownership develop side by side, the system under which distribution according to work is the mainstay and multiple modes of distribution coexist, and the socialist market economy system.” [6]6 The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of the Chinese people” originates from Mao Zedong’s 1945 report “On Coalition Government.” The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of socialist society” is one of Deng Xiaoping’s “three criteria for judging the success or failure of reform and opening up,” proposed during his 1992 southern tour talks. This is a major theoretical innovation by the Party in deepening its understanding of the laws of socialist relations of production. From an institutional perspective, the connotation of the basic economic system has expanded from the core category of public ownership as the mainstay with diverse forms of ownership developing side by side to a scientific system encompassing three aspects: ownership, distribution mode, and economic system. This indicates that the historical experience of adjusting relations of production over more than 40 years of reform and opening up has been sublimated into institutional advantages, achieving a high degree of alignment with the essence of socialism. The coexistence of diverse forms of ownership, the coexistence of multiple modes of distribution, and the market economy system are determined by the level of development of productive forces in the primary stage of socialism, establishing an institutional guarantee for liberating and developing productive forces. The dominant position of public ownership, the dominant position of distribution according to work, and the combination of the basic socialist system with the market economy fully demonstrate the superiority of the socialist system, constituting the foundational system for “eliminating exploitation, removing polarization, and ultimately achieving common prosperity.” [7]7 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 11th Collective Study Session of the Political Bureau of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC,” January 31, 2024. More importantly, from the perspective of “relations of production – superstructure,” the Party further integrated the basic economic system with the national governance system, constructing the internal logic between institutional advantages and governance effectiveness. The basic socialist economic system, as the concentrated expression of the relations of production and the economic base in the primary stage of socialism, is a key focal point for realizing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. It aims to consciously stimulate the vitality of social productive forces by adjusting relations of production, and to improve the superstructure to adapt to the development requirements of the economic base, thereby making the theoretically more advanced socialist relations of production better suited to and more capable of promoting the development of productive forces.

第一，坚持和完善社会主义基本经济制度，推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化。基本经济制度是社会主义经济制度的基础，是中国特色社会主义制度的重要支柱。党的十九届四中全会对社会主义基本经济制度作出全新概括：“公有制为主体、多种所有制经济共同发展，按劳分配为主体、多种分配方式并存，社会主义市场经济体制等社会主义基本经济制度”，是党深化认识社会主义生产关系规律的重大理论创新。从制度层面来看，基本经济制度的内涵从以公有制为主体多种所有制经济共同发展这一核心范畴拓展至所有制、分配方式和经济体制三个方面的科学体系，表明改革开放40多年来生产关系调整的历史经验升华为制度优势，实现了与社会主义本质的高度契合。多种所有制经济共同发展、多种分配方式并存和市场经济体制是由社会主义初级阶段生产力发展水平决定的，为解放和发展生产力确立了制度保障。公有制为主体、按劳分配为主体、社会主义基本制度与市场经济相结合充分彰显了社会主义制度的优越性，构成“消灭剥削，消除两极分化，最终达到共同富裕”的基础性制度。更重要的是，党基于“生产关系-上层建筑”的视角，进一步把基本经济制度同国家治理体系相结合，架构起制度优势与治理效能的内在逻辑，社会主义基本经济制度作为社会主义初级阶段生产关系、经济基础的集中体现，是实现国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的关键着力点，旨在自觉通过调整生产关系激发社会生产力发展活力、完善上层建筑适应经济基础发展要求，使理论上更高级的社会主义生产关系更加适应和促进生产力发展。

Second, build a high-standard socialist market economy system, and promote a better combination of an effective market and a proactive government. Continuously adjusting the relationship between the government and the market is the core issue in upholding and improving the socialist market economy system. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC creatively proposed, “enabling the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation and better playing the role of the government.” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. It focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and adopted a major decision on the matter. The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC further pointed out, “fully leveraging the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and better playing the role of the government.” [2]2 The “Six Upholds” are: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, upholding institutional building as the main thread, upholding law-based governance in all respects, and upholding a systems approach. They were articulated as the basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform in the decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC once again emphasized, “focusing on building a high-standard socialist market economy system, fully leveraging the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and better playing the role of the government.” [3]3 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. These important theses collectively embody the CPC’s continuous deepening of its understanding of the relationship between the government and the market and of the laws of the socialist market economy. The shift from the market playing a basic role in resource allocation to a decisive role indicates both adherence to the general law of the market economy where the market decides resource allocation, and an emphasis on better playing the role of the Party and the government and leveraging the superiority of the socialist system, jointly constituting the basic connotation of the socialist market economy system. At the same time, the proposal to “promote a better combination of an effective market and a proactive government” further reveals the law-governed characteristics of the socialist market economy system. Making the market more effective through a more proactive government, ensuring the efficient and fair operation of the market economy system, and making government macro-control scientific and measured, achieving both “vitality in relaxation” and “control in regulation,” fully embodies the fundamental system of the Party’s leadership over economic work. It is the organic unity of the key task of economic construction as the central task for national rejuvenation and the people-centered development thought.

第二，构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制，推动有效市场和有为政府更好结合。不断调整政府与市场的关系是坚持和完善社会主义市场经济体制的核心问题。党的十八届三中全会创造性提出，“使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好发挥政府作用”。党的二十大报告进一步指出，“充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用，更好发挥政府作用”。党的二十届三中全会再次强调，“聚焦构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制，充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用，更好发挥政府作用”。这些重要论断集中体现着中国共产党对政府与市场关系、对社会主义市场经济规律认识的持续深化。市场在资源配置中起基础性作用转变为决定性作用，表明既遵循市场决定资源配置的市场经济一般规律，同时强调更好发挥党和政府作用，发挥社会主义制度的优越性，共同构成社会主义市场经济体制的基本内涵。同时，“推动有效市场和有为政府更好结合”的提出，进一步揭示了社会主义市场经济体制的规律性特征。以政府更有为推动市场更有效，市场经济体制高效公平运行，政府宏观调控科学有度，既“放得活”又“管得住”，这充分体现了党对经济工作领导的根本制度，是以经济建设为中心的兴国之要和以人民为中心的发展思想的有机统一。

Third, improve the institutions and mechanisms for high-standard opening up, and accelerate the construction of a new development pattern. Adhering to promoting reform through opening up is an important experience in adjusting and reforming socialist relations of production. China must not only adhere to the basic state policy of opening up to the outside world and fully utilize the resource elements of the world market, but also maintain its own independence and autonomy amidst the tide of economic globalization; this is the key to the success or failure of reform and opening up. In the New Era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, based on the profound changes in China’s development stage, environment, and conditions, creatively proposed the major strategic task of “building a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations mutually reinforcing,” clarifying the interrelationship between economic development and opening up in a socialist country. [4]4 The “new development pattern” was first proposed by Xi Jinping in 2020. First, it is necessary to take domestic circulation as the mainstay, relying on China’s unique advantages of its super-large market and strong production capacity. Through comprehensive deepening of reforms, vigorously adjust relations of production, break down institutional and mechanistic barriers in the fields of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption, coordinate the expansion of domestic demand and the deepening of supply-side structural reform, use the domestic market to lead the national economic cycle, and effectively prevent the global expansion of capitalist relations of production and the shifting of crises. At the same time, achieve the mutual reinforcement of domestic and international circulations. Under the premise of adhering to open development and actively participating in economic globalization, it is necessary to take a higher-standard open economic new system as the focal point to further improve socialist relations of production and superstructure with Chinese characteristics. More importantly, by embedding the advantages of socialist relations of production, reshape the unreasonable international division of labor system and global wealth distribution pattern, promote the reform of the global economic governance system, and fully demonstrate the internationalist spirit of China’s adherence to peaceful development. This is a major theoretical innovation by the CPC in analyzing and grasping international relations of production.

第三，完善高水平对外开放体制机制，加快构建新发展格局。坚持以开放促改革是调整和改革社会主义生产关系的重要经验。中国既要坚持对外开放的基本国策，充分利用世界市场的资源要素，更要在经济全球化潮流中保持自身的独立自主性，这是决定改革开放成败的关键所在。新时代以习近平同志为核心的党中央根据中国发展阶段、环境和条件的深刻变化，创造性地提出“构建以国内大循环为主体、国内国际双循环相互促进的新发展格局”的重大战略任务，明确了社会主义国家经济发展和对外开放的相互关系。首先要以国内大循环为主体，依托中国超大规模市场和强大生产能力的独特优势，通过全面深化改革大力调整生产关系，破除生产、分配、交换、消费各领域的体制机制障碍，统筹扩大内需和深化供给侧结构性改革，以国内市场主导国民经济循环，有效防止资本主义生产关系的全球扩张和危机转嫁。同时，实现国内国际双循环相互促进，在坚持开放发展积极参与经济全球化的前提下，既要以更高水平的开放型经济新体制为着力点，进一步完善中国特色社会主义生产关系和上层建筑，更要以社会主义生产关系优势的嵌入，重塑不合理的国际分工体系和全球财富分配格局，推动全球经济治理体系改革，充分彰显中国坚持和平发展的国际主义精神，是中国共产党分析把握国际生产关系的重大理论创新。

III. Contemporary Implications of Marx and Engels’ Theory of Relations of Production and Its Sinicized Development

三、马克思恩格斯生产关系理论及其中国化发展的当代启示

The practice of the CPC over more than 100 years, the People’s Republic of China over more than 70 years, and reform and opening up over more than 40 years has proven that continuously promoting the Sinicization of Marx and Engels’ theory of relations of production is not only an inherent theoretical requirement for the innovative development of Marxism but also the only way to liberate and develop social productive forces. At the new starting point of building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation, it is necessary to uphold fundamental principles and break new ground, always base ourselves on the largest reality of the primary stage of socialism, take adhering to the criterion of productive forces as the foundation, build new relations of production compatible with new quality productive forces, and scientifically answer the major contemporary question of how to advance Chinese-path modernization through further comprehensively deepening reform in the New Era.

中国共产党100余年、新中国70余年、改革开放40余年的实践已经证明，持续推进马克思恩格斯生产关系理论中国化，既是马克思主义创新发展的内在理论要求，又是解放和发展社会生产力的必由之路。在强国建设、民族复兴的新起点上，必须坚持守正创新，始终立足社会主义初级阶段这个最大实际，以坚持生产力标准为基点，构建同新质生产力相适应的新型生产关系，科学回答好新时代如何以进一步全面深化改革推进中国式现代化的重大时代课题。

(I) Adhere to liberating and developing productive forces, and advance Chinese-path modernization with new quality productive forces

（一）坚持解放和发展生产力，以新质生产力推进中国式现代化

General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: “To study Marx, one must study and practice Marxist thought on productive forces and relations of production.” [5]5 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Ceremony Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Marx,” May 4, 2018. The purpose of Marx and Engels’ study of relations of production was to reveal the essence of the process of socio-economic development, to explore the types and forms of relations of production that can maximize the liberation and development of productive forces. In this sense, productive forces generally play a primary and decisive role, making them the fundamental criterion for measuring social development and progress. This is not only a core viewpoint of historical materialism but also a guiding principle for analyzing and solving problems in China’s socio-economic development. From whether it is conducive to “the development of the productive forces of the Chinese people” to “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of socialist society” to “new quality productive forces,” the CPC has always adhered to the unity of the criterion of practice, the criterion of productive forces, and the criterion of the people’s interests. [6]6 The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of the Chinese people” originates from Mao Zedong’s 1945 report “On Coalition Government.” The phrase “whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of socialist society” is one of Deng Xiaoping’s “three criteria for judging the success or failure of reform and opening up,” proposed during his 1992 southern tour talks. The ultimate direction of China’s revolution, construction, and reform has been to promote the great liberation and development of modern productive forces, continuously consolidating the material foundation for the transition from socialism to communism. Accelerating the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces in the New Era is both a theoretical requirement for the Party’s continuous exploration of liberating and developing productive forces and a practical proposition for achieving high-quality development in Chinese-path modernization.

习近平总书记明确指出：“学习马克思，就要学习和实践马克思主义关于生产力和生产关系的思想。”马克思恩格斯研究生产关系的目的，是要通过揭示社会经济发展过程的本质，探索能够最大限度地解放和发展生产力的生产关系类型和表现形式。从这个意义上讲，生产力一般地表现为主要的决定性作用，使之成为衡量社会发展和进步的根本性标准，这既是唯物史观的核心观点，也是分析和解决中国社会经济发展问题的指导性原则。从是否有利于“中国人民的生产力的发展”到“是否有利于发展社会主义社会的生产力”到“新质生产力”，中国共产党历来坚持实践标准、生产力标准和人民利益标准的统一，中国革命、建设和改革的最终指向都是为了促进现代生产力的极大解放和发展，不断厚植由社会主义向共产主义过渡的物质基础。新时代加快培育和发展新质生产力，既是党持续探索解放和发展生产力的理论要求，又是实现中国式现代化高质量发展的实践命题。

Modernization is an inevitable result of the leap in productive forces, and new quality productive forces constitute the core driving force of Chinese-path modernization. As a concrete manifestation of contemporary advanced socialist productive forces, new quality productive forces are characterized by innovation, with a significant increase in total factor productivity as the core indicator. They possess advanced productive force qualities such as high technology, high quality, and high efficiency, collectively embodying the unity of the general laws of productive force development and the specific laws of China’s development. First, advance the modernization of a huge population with new quality productive forces. People are the most active factor in productive forces, and the people are the subjects of socio-historical development. Chinese-path modernization must fully transform the advantages of human resources into advanced productive forces, focus on improving the overall quality of the labor force, make it more adaptable to modern technological progress and industrial transformation, and cultivate new momentum for new quality productive forces. Second, advance the modernization of common prosperity for all people with new quality productive forces. Socialist relations of production determine that new quality productive forces are people-centered productive forces. Chinese-path modernization must rely on new quality productive forces to build a solid material foundation, use innovation to drive the transformation of the productive forces path, extricate itself from economic development difficulties and issues related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, achieve fuller and more balanced comprehensive development, and enable the people to share the fruits of productive force development. Third, advance the modernization of coordinating material civilization and cultural-ethical progress with new quality productive forces. New quality productive forces are an important driving force for creating a new form of human civilization. It is necessary to fully leverage the positive role of new quality productive forces in creating social material wealth, and more importantly, take enriching the people’s spiritual and cultural life as the focal point, achieving the unity of material productive forces and cultural productive forces. Fourth, advance the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature with new quality productive forces. “New quality productive forces themselves are green productive forces,” which aligns with the unique ecological view inherent in Chinese-path modernization. [7]7 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 11th Collective Study Session of the Political Bureau of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC,” January 31, 2024. Chinese-path modernization must correctly handle the relationship between economic development and environmental protection. By developing green productive forces that optimize the combination of new technologies and new elements, it is conducive to accelerating the green transformation of the economy and society and constructing a new path for green and low-carbon development. Fifth, advance the modernization of the path of peaceful development with new quality productive forces. New quality productive forces have profound global significance. Adhering to high-standard opening up, deeply participating in international cooperation and competition with new quality productive forces, and promoting the global flow of high-quality production factors are conducive to providing the world with new opportunities for win-win cooperation and helping to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

现代化是生产力跃迁的必然结果，新质生产力构成中国式现代化的核心驱动力量。作为当代社会主义先进生产力的具体表现形式，新质生产力是以创新为显著特点、以全要素生产率大幅提升为核心标志的，具有高科技、高质量、高效能等先进生产力质态，集中体现着生产力发展一般规律和中国发展特殊规律的统一。其一，以新质生产力推进人口规模巨大的现代化。人是生产力中最活跃的因素，人民是社会历史发展的主体。中国式现代化必须把人才资源优势充分转化为先进生产力，着重提高劳动者整体素质，使其更适应于现代科技进步和产业变革，培育新质生产力的新动能。其二，以新质生产力推进全体人民共同富裕的现代化。社会主义生产关系决定着新质生产力是以人民为中心的生产力。中国式现代化必须依靠新质生产力厚植起坚实物质基础，以创新驱动促使生产力路径转化，摆脱经济发展困境和国计民生难题，实现更充分更平衡的全面发展，使人民共享生产力发展成果。其三，以新质生产力推进物质文明和精神文明相协调的现代化。新质生产力是创造人类文明新形态的重要动力，既要充分发挥新质生产力创造社会物质财富的积极作用，更要以丰富人民精神文化生活为着力点，实现物质生产力与文化生产力的统一。其四，以新质生产力推进人与自然和谐共生的现代化。“新质生产力本身就是绿色生产力”，契合中国式现代化蕴含的独特生态观。中国式现代化必须正确处理经济发展与环境保护的关系，通过发展新技术和新要素优化组合的绿色生产力，有利于加速经济社会绿色转型，构筑绿色低碳发展新路径。其五，以新质生产力推进和平发展道路的现代化。新质生产力具有深刻的世界意义。坚持高水平对外开放，以新质生产力深度参与国际合作与竞争，促进优质生产要素全球范围流动，有利于为世界提供合作共赢新机遇，助力构建人类命运共同体。

(II) Improve and develop socialist relations of production, and build new relations of production compatible with new quality productive forces

（二）完善和发展社会主义生产关系，构建与新质生产力相适应的新型生产关系

“Relations of production must be adapted to the requirements of the development of the productive forces. To develop new quality productive forces, it is necessary to further deepen reform comprehensively and form new types of relations of production that are compatible with them.” Based on the fundamental Marxist principle of the dialectical unity of productive forces and relations of production, accelerating the development of new quality productive forces is both a development proposition and a reform proposition. That is, new quality productive forces are the historical product of China’s efforts to improve relations of production and stimulate social vitality through reform. The development and evolution of the productive forces in turn determine the corresponding transformation of relations of production, and new types of relations of production are the institutional guarantee for new quality productive forces. This means that the adaptation of relations of production to the productive forces is always in a process of dynamic development. On the new journey [of the New Era], advancing Chinese-path modernization takes further comprehensively deepening reform as its fundamental driving force. Centering on the core proposition of improving the institutions and mechanisms for developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, it promotes the self-improvement and development of the basic socialist economic system, optimizes the allocation of resources for various advanced productive factors, continuously raises the contribution of socio-economic factors such as technological innovation and institutional change to total production, and, in the process of substantially increasing total factor productivity, achieves a better adaptation between new types of relations of production and new quality productive forces. This is a major issue in promoting high-quality development.

“生产关系必须与生产力发展要求相适应。发展新质生产力，必须进一步全面深化改革，形成与之相适应的新型生产关系。”基于马克思主义生产力和生产关系辩证统一的基本原理，加快发展新质生产力既是发展命题，又是改革命题，即新质生产力是中国通过改革完善生产关系，激发社会活力的历史产物。生产力的发展演化又决定了生产关系的相应变革，新型生产关系是新质生产力的制度保障。这意味着生产关系与生产力相适应始终处于动态发展的过程。新征程上推进中国式现代化以进一步全面深化改革为根本动力，围绕健全因地制宜发展新质生产力体制机制这一核心命题，推进社会主义基本经济制度的自我完善和发展，优化各类先进生产要素的资源配置，不断提升科技创新、制度变革等社会经济因素对总生产的贡献，在大幅提高全要素生产率的过程中实现新型生产关系与新质生产力更好相适应，这是推动高质量发展的重大课题。

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. It focused on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, and adopted a major decision on the matter. put forward for the first time, from the perspective of institutional innovation, the requirement to “improve the institutions and mechanisms for developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions.” Its essence is to strengthen the Party and government’s institutional guiding role in the development of the productive forces. Centering on the key task of technological innovation and the transformation of its achievements, it promotes the self-improvement and development of all aspects of socialist relations of production. This means that, under the condition of upholding and strengthening the Party’s centralized, unified leadership over economic work, while giving full play to the decisive role of the market in allocating resources, the government’s economic functions are better performed. In particular, the government’s leading role in institutional and mechanism innovation and major technological breakthroughs is increasingly prominent, which epitomizes the distinctive characteristics of socialist relations of production with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. It is in this sense that certain government agencies of the superstructure, through scientific and effective macro-control, have become embedded in the relations of production themselves. They not only actually participate in technological innovation activities but also, by “building institutions and mechanisms to support comprehensive innovation,” optimize institutional supply, leverage the role of market mechanisms, and accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into actual productive forces. At the same time, constructing new types of relations of production compatible with new quality productive forces is a complex systemic project. It involves not only profound changes in basic economic systems such as ownership, exchange relations, distribution relations, and the mode of resource allocation, but also extensive reforms in various fields including the economic system, the science and technology system, and the system of opening up to the outside world. It requires greater attention to systemic integration, highlighting key points, and reform effectiveness, focusing on resolving the difficulties and blockages that hinder new quality productive forces, and forming institutions and mechanisms conducive to stimulating, promoting, and applying new quality productive forces. To this end, the goal orientation of socialist relations of production with Chinese characteristics in the New Era is to, through further comprehensively deepening reform, improve relevant rules and policies, accelerate the formation of relations of production more compatible with new quality productive forces, open up the path for accelerating the development of new quality productive forces, and lay the material foundation for social progress and the free and comprehensive development of the individual.

党的二十届三中全会首次从制度创新层面提出“健全因地制宜发展新质生产力体制机制”的要求，其实质就是要强化党和政府对生产力发展的制度牵引作用，围绕科技创新及其成果转化这一关键任务，推动社会主义生产关系各方面的自我完善和发展。这意味着，在坚持和加强党对经济工作的集中统一领导的条件下，充分发挥市场配置资源的决定性作用的同时，更好发挥政府的经济职能，尤其是政府在体制机制创新和重大技术突破中的主导地位日益凸显，集中体现了新时代中国特色社会主义生产关系的显著特点。正是在此意义上，上层建筑的某些政府机构通过科学有效的宏观调控，已经内嵌为生产关系本身，既实际参与科技创新活动，又通过“构建支持全面创新体制机制”优化制度供给，发挥市场机制作用，加速科技成果向现实生产力转化。同时，构建与新质生产力相适应的新型生产关系是一个复杂的系统工程，既涉及所有制、交换关系、分配关系、资源配置方式等基本经济制度的深刻变革，还包括经济体制、科技体制、对外开放体制等各领域的广泛改革，需要更加注重系统集成、突出重点和改革实效，着力解决阻碍新质生产力的难点堵点，形成有利于激发、推动、应用新质生产力的体制机制。为此，新时代中国特色社会主义生产关系的目标指向，就是通过进一步全面深化改革，健全相关规则和政策，加快形成同新质生产力更相适应的生产关系，为加快发展新质生产力开辟道路，奠定社会进步和人的自由而全面发展的物质基础。

(III) Further comprehensively deepen reform to promote a better adaptation between relations of production and productive forces

（三）进一步全面深化改革，推动生产关系和生产力更好相适应

The law that relations of production must be adapted to the nature of the productive forces is a basic principle of Marxism. When the relations of production are incompatible with the productive forces, it is necessary to adjust the relations of production through social revolution or social reform to adapt them to the development of the productive forces; this method is social revolution or social reform. Continuously adjusting and improving relations of production through reform, and removing the institutional and mechanism obstacles that restrict the liberation and development of social productive forces, is not only a key move in initiating and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, but also provides a powerful driving force and institutional guarantee for Chinese-path modernization. On the new journey of the New Era, facing the increasingly complex international situation and the weakening trend of the institutional dividends from domestic reform of relations of production, it is necessary to adhere to the overall goal of further comprehensively deepening reform, focus on the important task of developing new quality productive forces, carry out broader and deeper adjustments to relations of production, fully stimulate social endogenous momentum and innovation vitality, and “make socialism with Chinese characteristics develop forward more in accordance with the laws.”

生产关系一定要适应生产力性质的规律，是马克思主义的基本原理。当生产力与生产关系不相适应时，必须通过社会革命或社会改革调整生产关系以适应生产力的发展，这一方式就是社会革命或社会改革。通过改革不断调整和完善生产关系，破除解放和发展社会生产力的体制机制障碍，不仅是开创和发展中国特色社会主义的关键一招，更为中国式现代化提供了强大动力和制度保障。新时代新征程，面对日益错综复杂的国际局势以及国内生产关系改革制度红利的减弱趋势，必须坚持进一步全面深化改革的总目标，着眼于发展新质生产力的重要任务，对生产关系进行更大范围、更深层次的调整，充分激发社会内生动力和创新活力，“让中国特色社会主义更加符合规律地向前发展”。

Further comprehensively deepening reform must adhere to the principles of scientific methodology. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC proposed the “Six Upholds” basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform. [2]2 The “Six Upholds” are: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, upholding institutional building as the main thread, upholding law-based governance in all respects, and upholding a systems approach. They were articulated as the basic principles for further comprehensively deepening reform in the decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee. This is both a systematic summary of the valuable experience of reform and opening up, especially the comprehensive deepening of reform in the New Era, and a creative application of the methodology for comprehensively deepening reform in the New Era. First, uphold the Party’s overall leadership. China’s reform has always been a socialist reform. It must take the Party’s leadership as the fundamental principle, pool the consensus and synergy of reform through the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, give full play to the Party’s core leadership role in exercising overall leadership and coordinating all efforts, and implement the Party’s line, principles, and policies throughout the entire process and in all aspects of reform. This is the key to the success or failure of the reform. Second, uphold a people-centered approach. The fundamental purpose of reform is to meet the people’s needs for a better life. To this end, it is necessary to respect the people’s principal position and pioneering spirit in reform practice, plan and advance reform oriented by the people’s interests, and take the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security as the ultimate criterion for testing the effectiveness of reform. Third, uphold fundamental principles and break new ground. The dialectical unity of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground is the logical main line of further comprehensively deepening reform. To this end, it is necessary to both adhere to the soul of Marxism and the roots of fine traditional Chinese culture, ensuring that reform always advances along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and adhere to a problem-oriented approach to promote comprehensive innovation, solving major issues raised by the times and practice. Fourth, uphold institutional building as the main thread. This means it is necessary to firmly believe in the advanced nature and superiority of the socialist system, consolidate the institutional foundation of Chinese-path modernization; and at the same time, continuously promote institutional innovation, and, by “strengthening top-level design and overall planning, establishing the new before abolishing the old while advancing both,” promote the further improvement of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and the continuous enhancement of national governance efficiency. Fifth, uphold law-based governance in all respects. Use reform to improve the rule of law, use the rule of law to advance reform, strengthen sound legislation, ensure that major reforms have a legal basis, promote the institutionalization and legalization of reform achievements, use legal methods and legal thinking to solve reform problems, and advance Chinese-path modernization in the unity of reform and the rule of law. Sixth, uphold a systems approach. The complexity of reform and the arduousness of its tasks determine that further comprehensively deepening reform must pay more attention to overall planning and systemic coordination. It is necessary to correctly grasp the relationship between the principal contradiction and secondary contradictions, and between the principal aspect and secondary aspects of a contradiction, “properly handle major relationships such as those between economy and society, government and market, efficiency and fairness, vitality and order, and development and security,” achieve the unity of comprehensive advancement and breakthroughs on key points, and enhance the overall effectiveness of reform. The proposal of the “Six Upholds” both epitomizes the Party’s continuous deepening of its understanding of the laws of reform and provides an important guideline for further comprehensively deepening reform.

进一步全面深化改革必须坚持科学方法论原则。党的二十届三中全会提出进一步全面深化改革的“六个坚持”基本原则，既是对改革开放以来特别是新时代全面深化改革宝贵经验的系统总结，也是对新时代全面深化改革方法论的创造性运用。其一，坚持党的全面领导。中国的改革始终是社会主义的改革，必须以党的领导为根本原则，通过党中央集中统一领导凝聚起改革的共识和合力，充分发挥党总揽全局、协调各方的领导核心作用，把党的路线方针政策贯穿于改革各方面全过程，这是关系改革成败的关键所在。其二，坚持以人民为中心。改革的根本目的是满足人民对美好生活的需要，为此必须尊重人民在改革实践中的主体地位和首创精神，以人民利益为导向谋划和推进改革，把人民群众的获得感、幸福感、安全感作为检验改革成效的最终标准。其三，坚持守正创新。守正与创新辩证统一是进一步全面深化改革的逻辑主线，为此既要坚守马克思主义的魂脉、中华优秀传统文化的根脉，确保改革始终沿着中国特色社会主义道路前进；又要坚持问题导向推进全面创新，解决时代和实践提出的重大问题。其四，坚持以制度建设为主线。这意味着必须坚信社会主义制度的先进性和优越性，筑牢中国式现代化的制度根基；同时持续推进制度创新，通过“加强顶层设计、总体谋划，破立并举、先立后破”推进中国特色社会主义制度更加完善，国家治理效能不断提升。其五，坚持全面依法治国。以改革完善法治，以法治推进改革，加强科学立法，确保重大改革于法有据，促进改革成果制度化、法律化，运用法治方式和法治思维解决改革问题，在改革与法治的统一中推进中国式现代化。其六，坚持系统观念。改革的复杂性和任务的艰巨性决定了进一步全面深化改革必须更加注重整体谋划、系统协同，必须正确把握主要矛盾和次要矛盾、矛盾主要方面和次要方面的关系，“处理好经济和社会、政府和市场、效率和公平、活力和秩序、发展和安全等重大关系”，实现全面推进与重点突破相统一，增强改革整体效能。“六个坚持”的提出，既集中体现党不断深化对改革的规律性认识，又为进一步全面深化改革提供了重要遵循。

Mao Zedong once pointed out: “Socialist ownership by the whole people is the principle; to achieve this principle, flexibility must be combined with it.” The “flexibility” here refers to the various forms of integration with China’s concrete reality. In a certain sense, the history of China’s great social revolution is a history of continuously transforming and adjusting the relations of production. The reason why China, which historically missed the opportunity of the industrial revolution multiple times, was able to complete in less than 80 years the development process that took capitalist countries several hundred years, transforming from a poor and backward agricultural country into the world’s second-largest economy, lies in one important factor: the continuous adjustment and improvement of socialist relations of production, thereby clearing the path for the liberation and development of productive forces. History and practice have fully proven that the concentrated expression of the superiority of the socialist system is that, compared with capitalist relations of production, socialist relations of production can adapt to the developmental needs of advanced productive forces and safeguard the fundamental interests of the vast majority of the people to the greatest extent. On the new journey of Chinese-path modernization, it is necessary to further deepen reform comprehensively, consolidate and develop socialist relations of production, promote China’s leap from backward productive forces to highly developed productive forces, and lay the material and technological foundation for building a great modern socialist country.

毛泽东曾指出：“社会主义全民所有制是原则，要达到这个原则就要结合灵活性。”这里的“灵活性”指的就是与中国具体实际相结合的各种形式。从某种意义上讲，中国伟大社会革命的历史就是一部不断变革和调整生产关系的历史。在历史上屡次错过工业革命机遇的中国，之所以能够在不到80年的时间里走完了资本主义国家几百年的发展历程，从一穷二白的落后的农业国发展成为当今世界第二大经济体，一个重要原因就在于不断调整和完善社会主义生产关系，为解放和发展生产力开辟道路。历史和实践充分证明，社会主义制度优越性的集中体现，就是相较于资本主义生产关系，社会主义生产关系能够适应先进生产力的发展需要，最大限度地保障最广大人民的根本利益。在中国式现代化的新征程上，必须进一步全面深化改革，巩固和发展社会主义生产关系，推进我国由落后生产力到高度发达生产力的飞跃，为社会主义现代化强国建设奠定物质技术基础。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗