Historically, the extensive development of the market economy was a product of the capitalist system. The combination of socialism with a market economy and the establishment of a socialist market economy system is unprecedented and a great creation of the CPC and the Chinese people. Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out, "There is no ready-made experience to learn. We can only learn by doing and feel our way in practice." Since the reform and opening up, the CPC has insisted on combining the basic theories of Marxism with Chinese practice, broken through the shackles of traditional views, and, through painstaking exploration, successfully realised the transformation from a highly centralised planned economic system to a vibrant socialist market economic system, which has pushed forward the sustained and rapid development of the economy and created a miracle of economic development. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC proposed to pay attention to the role of the law of value. The Twelfth Party Congress put forward the idea of ‘planned economy as the mainstay and market economy as a supplement’, and the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee put forward the idea of ‘planned commodity economy’. The 13th Party Congress put forward the operating mechanism of ‘the state regulating the market and the market guiding enterprises’, and the 14th Party Congress clearly put forward the target model of establishing a socialist market economy system. The Third Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee proposed to further improve the socialist market economic system, and the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed to make the market play a decisive role in resource allocation and to give better play to the role of the government. The 19th CPC National Congress proposed the establishment of a new economic system in which ‘the market mechanism is effective, micro-organisms are dynamic, and macro-control is moderate’. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee emphasised that adhering to public ownership as the mainstay and the common development of multiple ownership economies, and the co-existence of distribution according to work and multiple distribution methods, organically combining the socialist system and the market economy, and continuously liberating and developing the productive forces of the society is a significant advantage of China's national system and governance system, which is an important outcome of our deepening understanding and practice of the socialist market economy system, marking an important outcome of the deepening of the socialist market economy system. The important result of the continuous deepening of our understanding of the socialist market economic system and the practice of it marks the socialist market economic system becoming more perfect and mature. The fundamental task of socialism is to develop productive forces. After the establishment of the basic socialist system, it is necessary to change the institutions and mechanisms that constrain the development of the productive forces through continuous reforms, to improve the socialist economic system, and to continuously liberate and develop the productive forces. So what kind of economic system can liberate and develop the productive forces? This is the core issue to be resolved in the reform of the economic system. Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out clearly: "Why is it that whenever we talk about the market, we say it is capitalism, and only planning is socialism? Planning and the market are both methods. As long as they are beneficial to the development of the productive forces, they can be utilised. If it serves socialism, it is socialist; if it serves capitalism, it is capitalist." This important assertion points out the direction for the development of the socialist market economy. The socialist market economy is a market economy that combines the basic socialist system with the market economy, with distinctive institutional attributes. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "We are developing a market economy under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the premise of the socialist system, and we should never forget the definite term “socialism”. The reason why we say it is a socialist market economy is to insist on the superiority of our system and effectively guard against the shortcomings of a capitalist market economy." To establish and improve the socialist market economic system, we must unswervingly adhere to the main position of public ownership, actively explore multiple forms of realisation of public ownership, vigorously push forward the optimisation of the state-owned economy's layout and structural adjustment, fully develop the mixed-ownership economy, continuously enhance the competitiveness, innovation, control, influence, and risk-resistant capacity of the state-owned economy, and strengthen, optimise and enlarge the state-owned capital. ‘Give more play to the role of the state-owned economy as an institutional guarantee for the people of all ethnic groups in China to share the fruits of development and an important guarantee for consolidating the Party's ruling position and adhering to China's socialist system.’ We must unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-publicly owned economy, and create a market environment in which all kinds of subjects of all ownerships have equal access to resource elements in accordance with the law, participate in competition in an open, fair and just manner, and are equally protected by the law. We must deepen the reform of the collective property rights system in rural areas, develop the rural collective economy, and improve the basic business system in rural areas; we must adhere to the principle of distribution according to work, insisting that the more you work, the more you get, protecting the earnings of labour, and increasing the proportion of labour remuneration in the initial distribution; we must unswervingly give full play to the superiority of the national system, which is ‘the country as one and concentrating on major issues’; and we must unswervingly adhere to the Party's policy on the economic system. The Party will unswervingly adhere to the Party's overall centralised and unified leadership of the economy and give better play to the role of the government. In short, the socialist market economic system fully embodies the inherent requirements of the socialist system and the unique and significant advantages of the basic economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)