ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to study the background, purpose, and possible impact of the theory. The idea of an "initial stage of socialism" was formed in the process of combating "leftist ideology." It appeared, first of all, in the resolution on Party history since 1949 adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Eleventh Central Committee on June 27, 1981. The official silence on the idea of the initial stage of socialism from September 1982 to September 1986 is significant. The advancement of such a theory is tantamount to saying that the Chinese Communists have taken a number of wrong turnings or have made mistakes in policy decisions in their search for the correct path to socialism over the past three decades. From the perspective of the CCP leadership's attitude toward capitalism, the theory of the initial stage of socialism is transitional in nature.
