I’d like to avail myself of this opportunity to talk about what I’ve been studying and thinking. The pace of the development of the practices during Reform and Opening-up is picking up very fast while the development on economic theories lags way behind. The basic system and theories on socialist politics and economics with Chinese characteristics are yet to be established. This requires that fellow researchers and young comrades should make further exploration and effort.

All classic Marxist writers have stated that the most fundamental thing about socialism is the public ownership of means of production and distribution according to need. The two basic theories have been developed in theory and practice during the course of more than 20 years of explorations on reform and opening-up policies. At the primary stage of socialism，the public ownership must have a dominant position and develop side by side with other ownerships. The main distribution method must be the distribution according to need supplemented by the distribution according to labor and distribution to factor. This is crucial in igniting the people of this country in building socialism and has played a critical part in the achievements made in the past glorious years. But for now，the two theories have to be pushed forward by studying the assertions made by Marx，Engels and Lenin regarding the distribution according to labor under a public ownership system.

The first issue is public ownership. Recently I’ve been reading all statements made by Marx regarding ownership. At the end of Capital（Volume 1），he asks，when capitalism is overthrown，which system will replace the capitalist private ownership？Marx answers，individual ownership must be established to replace the capitalist private ownership. In the past，There have been different understandings on the individual ownership Marx talked about in the academic circle of economics. Recently，I also read the manual scripts in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels（Volume 46）with regard to share system. I began to understand the truths. Marx said the emergence of capitalist share system is the negative sublation of capitalist private ownership while the cooperation system is the positive sublation of capitalist private ownership. Why the share system is the negative sublation？It is because under the share system the big shareholders can control the small shareholders. The cooperation system is one vote for one person. Therefore，it is the positive sublation.

Under socialist conditions，the share system is a positive sublation on capitalist private ownership. In a socialist society，we have public collectively-owned shares and the majority of shareholders are laborers. Under socialist conditions，at least at the primary stage of socialism，the share system we have put in place is a positive sublation on capitalist private ownership.

Another theory is related to distribution according to labor. The idea of letting a portion of people becoming rich first and then achieve common prosperity brought about by late Deng Xiaoping is a major breakthrough and development on socialist distribution according to labor. Coming salaries with capital gains and other factor income，people can get rich more quickly which has been showcased by the practices in Zhejiang Province and the coastal region.

It has been almost 100 years since the socialist revolution. Now the proletariat is in power. Does this mean that the proletariat has to remain as the proletariat？Recently，I’ve been reading the letter Cai Hesen wrote to Chen Duxiu from Paris in February of 1921. In this letter，he brought forward a systematic thought on building the party. In the opinion of Cai Hesen，the dictatorship of the proletariat is a necessary tool. After the proletariat has gained power through revolutions，the proletariat has to grow rich and become the middle class. This is a very valuable thought. The share system with the public being the majority shareholders can grow the middle class and make people more prosperous gradually.