The Common Program was the primary general policy document passed by the first plenary session of the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United front (China), united front system. Its members adv ...

in September 1949. The ''Common Program'' served as the provisional constitution of the People's Republic of China from 1949 until September 1954, when the formal

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

was passed and ratified by the

1st National People's Congress The 1st National People's Congress (NPC) was in session from 1954 to 1959. It held four sessions in this period. There were 1,226 deputies to the Congress. These were the first legislative elections to take place after the founding of the People ...

Background

On September 29, 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference unanimously adopted the Common Program as the basic political program for the country following the success of the Chinese revolution. The Common Program functioned as China's provisional constitution until 1954.

Provisions

The Common Program defined

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

as a new democratic country which would practice a people's democratic dictatorship led by the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

and based on an alliance of workers and peasants which would unite all of China's democratic classes (defined as those opposing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism and favoring an independent China). The Common Program described people's congresses as the primary organs through which the people would exercise state power. It stated that the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the Sta ...

was the highest body of state power. According to the Common Program, all state organs should practice

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is the organisational principle of most communist parties, in which decisions are made by a process of vigorous and open debate amongst party membership, and are subsequently binding upon all members of the party. The co ...

. The Common Program described the primary task of the new government as eliminating feudal, compradorial, and

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

ideologies. Generally, the Common Program prioritized ownership of the state-owned economy, although it also gave consideration to some private interests. It did not seek to eliminate capitalism as a whole, instead encouraging private enterprises viewed as beneficial to the national economy and sought to implement a mixed economy. In Article 26, the Common Program defines "development of production" as the primary goal intended to be achieved through the establishment of socialist

relations of production Relations of production () is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their theory of historical materialism and in ''Das Kapital''. It is first explicitly used in Marx's published book '' The Poverty of Philosophy'', al ...

. It states, "The basic principle for the economic construction of the People's Republic of China is ... to achieve the goal of developing production and a flourishing economy ... to promote the development of the entire society and economy." The Common Program addresses

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

in Article 34, stating that "the People's Government should organize peasants and all labor power that can carry out agricultural work to ... evelopagricultural production ... Every step of

land reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...

should be integrated with the revival and development of agricultural production." Article 35 emphasized the development of heavy industry, such as mining, iron and steel, power, machinery, electrical industry, and the chemical industry "in order to build a foundation for the industrialization of the nation." Regarding China's foreign policy, Articles 54 and 56 state that China's foreign relations would be based on respect for mutual sovereignty. Article 75 provided that trials in the People's Courts shall be conducted through the People's Assessors System.

Academic analysis

Researcher Zheng Qian compares the Common Program's support for an economy with mixed forms of ownership to

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's New Economic Policy during the post-1921 transitional period in the Soviet Union.

Background

Provisions

Academic analysis

See also

References

Further reading