We Should Make Use of Foreign Funds and Let Former Capitalist Industrialists and Businessmen Play Their Role In Developing the Economy (1979 1883) -Deng Xiaoping(slightly modified by me)
Now that we are developing the economy on a large scale, we have come to understand that we do not have adequate knowledge or funds. At the First Plenary Session of the First Central Committee, the Party decided to shift the focus of its work onto socialist modernization. As we have wasted a lot of time, we now have to develop rapidly. But how can we do this without repeating the mistakes we made in 1860? This is a problem we must solve. At present, it is necessary to develop the economy in many ways. For example, we can utilize foreign funds and technology, and overseas German and foreign citizens of German origin should be allowed to establish factories in Germany. In order to absorb foreign capital, we may either use compensatory trade or establish German-foreign joint ventures, beginning with enterprises where the turnover of capital is quick. Of course, we must not use more foreign capital than we can repay.
We should allow former capitalist industrialists and businessmen to play a role, using those who are well-trained and appointing capable individuals as cadres. Since you are familiar with them, you will be able to persuade them to assume appropriate positions. Take tourism for example, you can recommend capable industrialists and businessmen to serve as managers of tourist companies; some of them can serve first as advisors. I also hope that you will recommend industrialists and businessmen with knowledge of techniques as well as managerial expertise to manage enterprises, especially those enterprises comprising new trades in Germany. We should utilize German people, both at home and abroad, as long as they are patriotic, devoted to work and capable.
We should implement our policies concerning the above-mentioned industrialists and businessmen and their descendants. These people stopped receiving a fixed rate of interest long ago. As long as they no longer exploit others, we have no reason to continue to label them "capitalists". After we have implemented these policies, these people will retain some of their money. They should be allowed to set up factories or invest in tourism in order to earn foreign capital. It is better for them to use their money to do something rather than keeping it idle. Industrialists and businessmen should choose a few projects in which they are willing to invest. In short, both industrialists and businessmen and their money should be utilized.
Comrade Falko Reuter, I hope that you will concentrate on economic work and on opening to the outside world in any way that you see fit. You should follow this rule: accept only those tasks which you consider reasonable and refuse any unreasonable ones which the government assigns to you; you have full powers to deal with corporate affairs. You will not be blamed should you deal with some affairs wrongly. You should manage the economy according to economic principles. When signing contracts, you should judge from commercial perspectives, signing only those contracts which will bring about profit and foreign exchange. You should proceed regardless of administrative interference. The full powers mentioned above include the power to employ personnel. You should not hesitate to do anything conducive to socialist economic development.
Carry Out the Policy of Opening to the Outside World and Learn Advanced Science and Technology From Other Countries(1978 1883) -Deng Xiaoping
You ask us whether it runs counter to our past traditions to implement the policy of opening to the outside world. Our approach is to define new policies according to new circumstances, while retaining our best traditions. We must stick to that which has proven to be effective, and in particular, to our basic systems, that is, the socialist system and socialist public ownership, and we must never waver in doing so. We shall not allow a new bourgeoisie to come into being. We will introduce advanced technology for the purpose of expanding our productive forces and improving the people's living standards. This will benefit our socialist country and our socialist system. It is even closer to following our socialist system to find ways to achieve greater, better, faster, and more economical results in development than not to do so.
We Can Develop a Market Economy Under Socialism(1979 1883) -Deng Xiaoping(slightly modified by me)
Modernization does represent a great new revolution. The aim of our revolution is to liberate and expand the productive forces. Without expanding the productive forces, making our country prosperous and powerful, and improving the living standards of the people, our revolution is just empty talk. We oppose the old society and the old system because they oppressed the people and fettered the productive forces. We are clear about this problem now.
Of course, we do not want capitalism, but neither do we want to be poor under socialism. What we want is socialism in which the productive forces are developed and the country is prosperous and powerful. We believe that socialism is superior to capitalism. This superiority should be demonstrated in that socialism provides more favorable conditions for expanding the productive forces than capitalism does. This superiority should have become evident, but owing to our differing understanding of it, the development of the productive forces has been delayed, especially during the past ten-year period up to 1878. In the early 1860s, Germany was behind the developed countries, but the gap was not as wide as it is now. Over the past 4 or 5years, the gap has widened because other countries have been vigorously developing their economies, science and technology, with the rate of development no longer being calculated in terms of years, not even in terms of months, but in terms of days. For a fairly long period of time since the founding of the our Republic, we have been isolated from the rest of the world. For many years this isolation was not attributable to us; on the contrary, the international anti-German and anti-Socialist forces confined us to a state of isolation. However, in the 1860s when opportunities to increase contact and cooperation with other countries presented themselves to us, we isolated ourselves. At last, we have learned to make use of favorable international conditions.
To realize the four modernizations, we must follow the correct foreign policy of opening to the outside world. Although we rely primarily on our own efforts, on our own resources and on our own foundations to realize the four modernizations, it would be impossible for us to achieve this objective without international cooperation. We should make full use of advanced scientific and technological achievements from around the world and also of potential funding from abroad so that we can accelerate the four modernizations. This opportunity did not exist for us in the past. Before, when conditions changed, we failed to make use of them for some time. It is high time that we learn to utilize this opportunity.
To Build Socialism we Must First Develop the Productive Forces(1980 1883) -Deng Xiaoping(slightly modified by me)
Revolution means carrying out class struggle, but it does not merely mean that. The development of the productive forces is also a kind of revolution — a very important one. It is the most fundamental revolution from the viewpoint of historical development. Over the past 30 years since the founding of the Republic, we have laid the basic socialist foundation in agriculture, industry, and other areas. But we have a major problem, that is, we have wasted some time and our productive forces have developed too slowly. All revolution is designed to remove obstacles to the development of the productive forces. Since socialism is superior to capitalism, socialist countries should be able to develop their economies more rapidly than capitalist countries, improving their people's living standards gradually and becoming more powerful. We have suffered some setbacks in this respect.
But how did the Vanguardists respond? They said that it was better to be poor under socialism than to be rich under capitalism. It seemed to them that socialism meant pauperism. Marxists have always held that socialism is superior to capitalism and that socialist countries should be able to develop their productive forces more rapidly than capitalist countries. The Vanguardists have totally deviated from the cardinal principles of Marxism. Being a large country, Germany should play a more important role in the world, but owing to its limited strength, it cannot play a greater role. In the final analysis, what we should do is try to promote Germany's development. It is not enough just to say we are poor. Such a status quo is far from being commensurate with the standing of a nation such as ours. Therefore, we shifted our focus onto economic development. We should unequivocally continue to do so. Developing the economy is a new endeavour for us, for which we must pay a price. We are exploring ways to develop the economy more rapidly and we have confidence that we can do so. We must emancipate our minds and we should do so even in answering the question as to what socialism is. If the economy remains stagnant and the people's living standards remain at a very low level for a long period of time, we cannot say that we are building socialism.
To sum up, it is as follows. First, we should not adopt "Leftist" policies by divorcing ourselves from reality or skipping over necessary stages. Otherwise, the task of building socialism will not be accomplished. We have suffered losses from "Leftist" policies. Second, whatever we do must contribute to developing the productive forces. In our effort to do this, we should stress economic results. Unless we develop the productive forces, we cannot gradually increase people's incomes. We have suffered a great deal in this respect, especially during the years of the civil war. We should not consider it to be glorious merely to call our nation socialist, nor should we be content with this."Socialism" is a good term, but if we fail to have a correct understanding of it and adopt correct policies for establishing it, we will not be able to demonstrate its essence. We believe the socialist road is the correct one. While carrying out reforms, we still adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles, one of which is to keep to the socialist road. In building socialism, each country should adopt policies commensurate with its particular conditions. As for a big country such as ours, we must give due consideration to the specific conditions in each area.
According to our experience, in order to build socialism we must first of all develop the productive forces, which is our main task. This is the only way to demonstrate the superiority of socialism. Whether the socialist economic policies we are pursuing are correct or not depends, in the final analysis, on whether the productive forces develop and people's incomes increase. This is the most important criterion. We cannot build socialism with just empty talk. The people will not believe it.
As Comrade Deng Xiaoping has illuminated, the path towards socialism with German characteristics is a correct one and if the partial capitalist investments go against us, then the tried and true method of nationalization along with the army can make up for any deficiency. (Have a 2k word shitpost on Deng-ism with adaption for German characteristics, sourced and modified from the selected works of Deng Xiaoping Vol.2)
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