Marx’s two major scientific discoveries, historical materialism and surplus value theory, turned socialism into a science. In the past, people set the focus on the theory of class struggle, the basic thoughts of historical materialism, and the theory of communism in The Communist Manifesto. However, the critical thoughts of political economics were not given enough attention. As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, the requirements of“de-capacity”and“de-capitalization”indicate that the study of The Communist Manifesto must enter the level of the second scientific discovery, namely the theory of surplus value, which is precisely demonstrated in the second chapter of The Communist Manifesto. This requires us to re-examine The Communist Manifesto from the perspective of the critique of political economics to find new thoughts for exploring human destiny in the contemporary era.

Editor: Zhong Yao

Studies On Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Theories.2019.No.2.