The Socialist Transformation In Shanghai During The Transition Period

In the middle of the 20 th century,the Chinese communists represented by Mao Zedong applied the basic principles of Marxism to the practice of socialist revolution in China and created a road to socialist transformation with Chinese characteristics.The basic completion of socialist transformation and the establishment of the socialist system are the most profound and greatest social changes in contemporary Chinese history.Since modern times,Shanghai,born as a prosperous seaport area,has developed into a city with flourishing trade and commerce.It is a region where capitalist industry and commerce are relatively concentrated within the geographical scope of China.Therefore,it is of great significance to carry out research on the socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce during the transition period.For a long period of time,overseas Chinese studies about socialist transformation is limited by their viewpoint of Western-centrism,while the viewpoint of domestic studies is focused on the macroscopic scale.This feature provides a breakthrough direction of the present dissertation.This dissertation takes the socialist transformation in the transitional period after the founding of the People's Republic of China(PRC)as the background,examines the process of socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce from the historical view based on the Sinicization of Marxism,and explores the theoretical and historical origins of socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce.This dissertation is then focused on the concretization and practical implementation of the macroscopic and general policies of Communist Party of China(CPC)Central Committee by CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the municipal government,in order to emphasize the important role of “a connecting link between the preceding and the following” played by CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the municipal government.Based on these investigations,this dissertation is dedicated to achieving,to some extent,a deeper understanding of the rich connotations and profound extensions of the Sinicization of Marxism.After the founding of the PRC,CPC became from a revolutionary party to a ruling party,and the focus of its work has undergone a major transformation.How to understand and deal with capitalism and the bourgeoisie then became a historic issue that the Chinese Communist Party must seriously face and correctly answer.According to the basic principles of Marxism and some lessons learned from the Soviet Union's policies on bourgeoisie,CPC proposed a number of principles and policies toward China's bourgeoisie and capitalism.The establishment of these principles and policies laid a solid foundation for the stability and development of Shanghai society at the beginning of the PRC.During the period of national economic recovery,according to the basic views of Marxism on the bourgeoisie and China's realistic conditions,CPC gradually formed a theory and relevant policies on the differential treatment of the bourgeoisie.According to the unified deployment of CPC Central Committee,the Shanghai Municipal Government took over the capitalist industry and commerce in Shanghai and transformed foreign capitalist industry and commerce in Shanghai.Moreover,it implemented the primary forms of state capitalism including “processing”,“ordering”,“acquisition”,“purchase” and “underwriting” in nationalist capitalist industry and commerce in Shanghai.These policies made Shanghai capitalist industry and commerce undergo a profound reorganization and changes that are beneficial to the national economy and people's livelihood.These changes laid the foundation for the later development of high-level forms of state capitalism.At the end of 1951,public-private partnership,a form of high-level state capitalism,was first practiced in Shanghai,providing rich practical experience for the socialist transformation of public-private partnerships in the whole country.After the introduction of general line of transitional period,the socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce continued to advance.Under the unified deployment of the central government,Shanghai has successively issued a series of policies.While strengthening the propaganda of the general line,Shanghai has actively promoted the transformation of the Shanghai's trade associations and private industrial and commercial enterprises in Shanghai.On the basis of Marxist scientific assumptions about “deprivation of deprivators” and the theory as well as the practice of Soviet Union's state capitalism,CPC creatively proposed a policy of “peaceful redemption”.The public-private partnership at this stage was carried out under the policy of “peaceful redemption”.In the process of "peaceful redemption" policy implementation,the socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce exhibited several features,including the typical demonstration effect,the emphasis on "harmony" and the diversification of "redemption" forms,which to some extent ensured the steady implementation of capitalist industrial and commercial transformation.Driven by the "peaceful redemption" policy,the socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce was carried out smoothly.The socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce is a socialist revolution on China's economic front,a great change in the relationship of production from private to public ownership.This great revolution had a major impact on the transformation of national economic structure in the 1950 s.In the 1950 s,under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee,the socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce should be fully affirmed,from the transitional form to the concrete steps and the fundamental direction of socialism it represents.It enriched and developed the theoretical treasure collections of Marxism,laid the economic foundation for the transition of the national economy to socialism,and strengthened the United Front of socialist construction.These historical experiences are the precious achievements of the Sinicization of Marxism.However,the socialist transformation of Shanghai's capitalist industry and commerce still has some certain historical limitations.In the choice and understanding of the socio-economic model,it is too singular;In the methods and steps,“the requirements were too urgent,the work was too rough,the change was too fast,and the form was too simple and uniform”;in the process of transformation,the premature pursuit of the goal of basically eliminating individual production and private capital was beyond the initial stage of socialism.For more than half a century,how to understand and deal with the capitalist factors in China's transitional socio-economy has been and remains to be a very important theoretical and practical issue faced by the Chinese Communists.Under the current conditions of the continuous deepening of socialist reform,it is still important to trace the development process of Chinese nationalist capitalism during the transition period from the perspective of Sinicization of Marxism and to figure out the historical correlations between the socialist transformation in transitional period and current socialist reform.The thinking it leads us to is still a precious historical legacy.