Socialism and the Commodity Economy

The reform of China's economic system has entered a new stage of all-round undertaking with urban reform as its focus. The "Resolution on the Reform of the Economic System," approved by the Third Plenum of the Twelfth CCP Central Committee, serves as its general program and blueprint. The resolution addressed in a theoretic way a series of fundamental questions about the socialist economy. The most important one was the break away from the traditional view contending that socialism and commodity economy are mutually exclusive. The resolution clearly pointed out that we must truly turn our enterprises into relatively independent socialist commodity producers, and that a socialist planned economy must consciously employ the law of value, that it is a planned commodity economy operating under a system of public ownership. It further indicated the basic difference between the socialist commodity economy and capitalism, and that full development of a commodity economy is a prerequisite for the modernization of our economy. The discussions and elaboration concerning socialist commodity economy in the resolution greatly broadened our vistas and deepened our scientific comprehension of socialism. This article attempts to investigate a number of problems related to the full development of a commodity economy under socialism.