When did China embrace socialism?
Primary stage of socialism
CPC theoretician Su Shaozhi, an official from the "People's Daily", began a debate in 1979 at a CPC theory conference to re-examine Mao Zedong's assertion of "class struggle as the key link" when he introduced the term "undeveloped socialism" to refer to China. Su, co-writing with Feng Langrui, published an article in "Economic Research" () in 1979 which called into question the Chinese socialist project by using Marxist methodology. The article analyzed the basis of Chinese socialism by looking at the writings of Karl Marx. Marx drew a distinction between lower-stage communismcommonly referred to as the socialist mode of production and higher-phase communismoften referred to as communism. Su's and Feng's article created three subdivisions within the socialist mode of production; the first phase was the transition from the capitalist mode of production to the socialist mode of productionthe phase in which the proletariat seized power and set-up the dictatorship of the proletariat and in which undeveloped socialism was created. The second phase was advanced socialism; the socialism that Marx wrote about. They said China was an undeveloped socialist nation because:
Socialism 3.0
Socialism 3.0 refers to the third era of socialism in China which is distinguished from Mao Zedong's equalitarianism era and Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening-up era. It is also referred to as the post-reform era. This concept was first proposed by Professor Wang Shaoguang from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in a non-published speech. It was later referred by Peter Martin and David Cohen in their article Socialism 3.0 in China, which mainly focused on Bo Xilai's Chongqing Model. The authors cast doubt on the Maoist policies adopted by Bo Xilai, a high-rank of Communist Party of China and chief official of Chongqing, China, being a feasible future for China's Socialism.