The theoretical exploration of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics began with Mao Ze-dong.“Liberating, protecting and developing productive forces”,“the socialist stages of development”,“following China’s own path of industrialization”,“developing a socialist commodity economy”,“centralized and unified leadership of the Party in economic work”,“balanced economic development”,“centering on self-reliance and actively‘learning from abroad’”,etc. all originated from Mao Ze-dong’s theoretical exploration, which laid the theoretical foundation of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics; the“second integration”of Marxism-Leninism with Chinese reality, the flexible application of materialistic dialectics, the search for economic laws based on reality and practice, the adoption of a development-oriented perspective to resolve realistic conflicts and grasp

economic laws, etc., laid the methodological foundation of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The essence of Mao’s theoretical exploration is to explore the direction of China’s own socialist economic development and to realize the laws of rapid development. On the whole, Mao Ze-dong laid down the theoretical yardstick, initiatives, and foundation and methodological principles for socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.

Editor: Zhong Yao

Studies On Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Theories.2020.No.4.