By Shi Shujie, Research Team on “A Review of the Experience on Reform and Opening-Up over the Past 40 Years”, DRC

Research Report, No.125, 2019 (Total 5625) 2019-7-31

Abstract: Since reform and opening-up, China’s ownership reform has gone through four phases and kept advancing. The organic combination of the basic socialist economic system and market economy runs through the four phases with the focus laid on the continuously-improved ownership system. The enhancement of public ownership property system has ensured the principal status of state-owned economy and in the meantime, accelerated its integration with market economy. The improvement of non-public economy has enabled the continuous promotion of the role of non-public sector and provided sound guarantee for its fast development. The transfer of property rights of different ownership has sped up the competition and cooperation between the two sectors on complementary basis, which eventually leads to the development of mixed-ownership economy. Over the past forty years, the emancipation of people’s minds has served as the major impetus to boost ownership reform. As a result, the constraints of traditional ideas on ownership are removed and people’s understanding of the relations between private economy and socialism is deepened. Besides, the erroneous concept of total privatization is rooted out and the connection between national economy and market-based resources allocation becomes closer. We need to further emancipate our minds and make innovation on basic theories; a fair competition environment needs to be fostered to push ahead with the common development of economies of all types; the property right system needs to be fleshed out so as to realize the effective property motivation and the free flow of productive factors.

Key words: the course of 40 years’ reform and opening-up, ownership reform, property right system, emancipation of minds