但是，我們已經實行了三十多年的社會主義，對一直遵循傳統社會主義原則的中國人民，究竟應該給個什麽說法呢？一種說法是，中國社會主義搞早了，該退回去，重搞新民主主義；一種說法是，中國未經資本主義發展就搞社會主義，現在應當進行資本主義補課。這兩種說法雖然不能說沒有道理，但是必然會在理論上引起很大爭論，很可能在思想上造成新的混亂。特別是這樣的提法不可能得到通過，搞得不好會使改革開放事業遭到夭折，因此不能采取。我在 1987 年春季考慮十三大報告時，很長一個時期就考慮這個問題如何回答。在思考過程中我越來越覺得“社會主義初級階段”這個提法最好。它既承認、肯定了我們已搞了幾十年的社會主義的歷史，同時由于它是個初級階段，完全可以不受所謂傳統社會主義原則的約束；可以大膽地調整超越歷史的生産關係，從越位的地方退回去，實行適合我國社會經濟水平和生産力發展需要的各種改革政策。
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Nevertheless, we had practiced socialism for more than thirty years. For those intent on observing orthodox socialist principles, how were we to explain this? One possible explanation was that socialism had been implemented too early and that we needed to retrench and reinitiate democracy. Another was that China had implemented socialism without having first experienced capitalism, and so a dose of capitalism needed to be reintroduced.
Neither argument was entirely unreasonable, but they had the potential of sparking major theoretical debates, which could have led to confusion. And arguments of this kind could never have won political approval. In the worst-case scenario, they could even have caused reform to be killed in its infancy.
While planning for the 13th Party Congress report in the spring of 1987, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to resolve this issue. I came to believe that the expression “initial stage of socialism” was the best approach, and not only because it accepted and cast our decades-long implementation of socialism in a positive light; at the same time, because we were purportedly defined as being in an “initial stage,” we were totally freed from the restrictions of orthodox socialist principles. Therefore, we could step back from our previous position and implement reform policies more appropriate to China. |
