Socialist patriotism
The Communist Party of China and the government of China advocate socialist patriotism. The Communist Party of China describes the policy of socialist patriotism as the following: "Socialist patriotism has three levels. At the first level, individuals should subordinate their personal interests to the interests of the state. At the second level, individuals should subordinate their personal destiny to the destiny of our socialist system. At the third level, individuals should subordinate their personal future to the future of our communist cause." The PRC portrays the Communist government as the embodiment of the will of the Chinese people.
Wage reform in China, 1949–1976
Politically, it aimed at creating a more equal society that fits the vision of socialist society. Following Marx's conception of the communist society, CCP held that the optimal principle of distribution is “distribution according to need” (按需分配). The need mentioned here was determined by the nature of the society. However, the socialist period is still a transitive period towards the communist society.It is transitive in two senses: in the sense of forces of production and also in the sense of social consciousness. The Marxism's orthodox discussion about productivity and social consciousness is expressed as “the economic base determines the superstructure”. Due to the low level of economic development in China, there were different kinds of ownership existing during this period, making the market remain a necessary mediation between different parts of the economy. More importantly, according to this thought, the social consciousness is still undeveloped due to the backwards in the economy. Thus people were supposed to continue being guided by the commodity exchange. During this transitive period, the “distribution according to need” is impossible. Alternatively, the general principle in it was called “distribution according to labor” (按劳分配).