Abstract

Over 30 years of reform and opening up have witnessed tremendous changes in China. Socialist construction in the country has entered a new era and the world has been awed by the“China Miracle”. Naturally, everybody is now talking about the“Chinese Path”and“China's Experience”.

Most of the articles in this volume were written throughout 2013, and have“reform, opening up and China's experience”as their shared theme. In all of them, the author tries to arrive at a Marxian interpretation of reform and opening up in China, the“Chinese Path”, “China's Experience”, and the“Chinese Dream”by applying Marxian premises and analytical methodology. It is hoped that this collection can contribute toward the realization of the Chinese Dream by buttressing the theoretical underpinnings for the country's efforts to continue to deepen reform, and to build greater confidence in our development path, guiding theories, and institutional framework.

To understand China's experience with reform and opening up is to understand the history of the country's theoretical explorations into how to sinicise Marxism. The profound movement to emancipate the mind over recent decades has helped China leapfrog in both the practice and the theoretical studies of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The remarkable experience China has accumulated in reform and opening up forms the empirical and scientific basis for the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The decision to carry out reform and opening up has been vital to the destiny of contemporary China, and is a powerful force driving the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The country must be committed to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics in its efforts to deepen reform, to the principle of putting the fundamental interests of the people above all else, and to strengthening and improving the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Deepening reform is the direction for the country, and we must not only build consensus on this but also provide the institutional guarantee for its implementation. The country must remain steadfast in its transition toward a socialist market economy, and let market instruments be the means by which the superiority of socialism is realized to the fullest.

Deepening reform and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics are only possible if we remain resolute in being guided by the theory, and staying on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. As the theory continues to grow and mature, the resilience and vitality of socialism will become increasingly evident, and greater success in the socialist cause will be achieved.

President Xi Jinping's proposal of the notion of the“Chinese Dream”is significant insofar as it not only integrates the basic tenets of Marxism and the specific conditions of contemporary China, but is also a great innovation in the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This proposal adds to the scientific credibility of this theory and defines a specific goal around which to unite the Chinese people, for whom the“Chinese Dream”is at once a rallying cry, a philosophical compass and a spiritual guiding light.