Socialism With Chinese Characteristics and Equitable Development A Look at the Thought of Cheng Enfu
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Feb 5, 2026
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Abstract
During the reform and opening up China gave a greater space to the private sector, but also maintained the central role of the state in the economy. In light of privatizations and growth in inequality during this period, several authors have been prematurely dismissive of China’s claims to be building a socialist society. The work of Cheng Enfu and colleagues serves as compass while navigating the pressing questions of political economy in China. We examine the characteristics of China’s development model in its historical and political context and its impact on socialeconomic development goals and its relationship to key population indicators, with emphasis on insights gleaned from Cheng Enfu’s work. We further examine the dynamics of inequality in China, and how Cheng’s recommendations of strengthening state, collective and cooperative enterprises can help address China’s economic inequality.
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References
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Parenti, M. 1997. Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. San Fransisco: City Light Books.
Pickett K. and Wilkinson R. 2015. “Income Inequality and Health: A Causal Review”. Social Science and Medicine. 128: 316-326.
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Stone, O. and P. Kuznick. 2019. The Untold History of the United States. New York: Gallery Books.
Sum, A., I. Khatiawada, J. McLaughlin and S. Palma. 2011. “The ‘Jobless and Wageless’ Recovery from the Great Recession of 2007–2009: The Magnitude and Sources of Economic Growth through 2011 I and Their Impact on Workers, Profits, and Stock Values.” Center for Labor Market Studies. Northeastern University. Accessed Online 6/14/2021 http://www.lerachapters.org/OJS/ojs-2.4.4-1/index.php/EPRN/article/viewFile/1981/1977
Tan J. and Cheng E. 2014. “State-Owned Enterprises Should Play a Dominant Role in Cultural Industry” World Association for Political Economy. (03).
UNDP. 2021. “Mortality Rate, infant (per 1000 live births)” Human Development Reports. Accessed Online. 6/25/2021. http://hdr.undp.org/en/indicators/57206
US Census Bureau. 2021. “Table A-4. Selected Measures of Household Income Dispersion: 1967 to 2019”. Accessed online 6/26/2021: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-inequality.html
Wolff R. 2020. “There’s a Crisis in US Capitalism” Accessed online 6/25/2021 https://www.rdwolff.com/theres_a_crisis_in_us_capitalism
Wolff R. 2012. Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
World Bank. 2025. “GDP (annual % growth): China, 1961- 2024” Accessed online 12/12/2025 https://data360.worldbank.org/en/indicator/WB_WDI_NY_GDP_MKTP_KD_ZG?country=CHN&view=trend
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World Inequality Lab. 2025a. “Wealth Inequality, China, 1820-2023.” Accessed online. 12/25/2025 https://wid.world/country/china/
World Inequality Lab. 2025. “Income Inequality, Russian Federation, 1905-2021.” Accessed online. 12/12/2025. https://wid.world/country/russian-federation/
Xi Jinping. 2014. The Governance of China. Beijing: Foreign Language Press.
Yaffe, Helen. 2020. We Are Cuba: How A Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World. Cornwall: Yale University Press.
Zhang, Y. 2020. “The Contribution of the ‘School of New Marxist Economics to China’s Socialist Marxist Economy”. World Review of Political Economy. 11(1) 4-27.
Werner Rügemer. 2025. The Secret World Power: Its Practices in Germany and Friedrich Merz (in German). Berlin: Hintergrund.
Amin, S. 2013. The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
BBC. 2021. “China’s economy grows 18.3% in post-Covid comeback” BBC News. Accessed online May 24th, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56768663
CEBR. 2020. “World Economic League Table 2021: A World Economic League Table with Forecasts for 193 Countries to 2035” Accessed online June 23 2021: file:///Users/isaacchristiansen/Downloads/WELT-2021-final-15.01.pdf
Cheng E. N.D. On the Three Stages in the Development of Socialism: Economic System and Its Actual Operation. Unpublished Manuscript.
Cheng E. 2021. The Original Intention of Reform. New Delhi: LeftWord Books.
Cheng E., and Lu B. 2021. “Five Characteristics of Neoimperialism: Building on Lenin’s Theory of Imperialism in the Twenty First Century” Monthly Review. 73(1) 22-58.
Cheng E., and Zhang J. 2021. “Five Hundred Years of World Socialism and Its Prospect: Interview with Professor Enfu Cheng” International Critical Thought. 11(1) 1-19.
Cheng E., and Ding X. 2017. “A Theory of China’s Miracle: Eight Principles of Contemporary Chinese Political Economy” Monthly Review. 68 (8) 46-57.
Cheng E., and Liu Z. 2017. “The Historical Contribution of the October Revolution to the Economic and Social Development of the Soviet Union-Analysis of the Soviet Economic Model and the Causes of Its Dramatic End” International Critical Thought. 7:3, pp.297-308.
Cheng E., and Xie Chang’an. 2015. “On Capitalist and Socialist Mixed Ownership” Marxist Studies in China. (01).
Cheng, E., and Hu, L. 2010. “The ‘Chinese Experience’ in Responding to the Global, Financial and Economic Crisis.” World Review of Political Economy. 1(3), 375-387.
Chinese Bureau of Statistics, China Statistical Yearbook, 2020, “Nationwide Per Capita Disposable Income of Households by Income Quintile,” 4-10 and 6-2, https://www. stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2020/indexeh.htm.
Christiansen, I. 2026. Introduction to Global Social Problems: Understanding Inequalities of Power and the Pursuit of Social Justice. Routledge. New York and London.
Chu Y., So A.Y. 2010. State Neoliberalism: The Chinese Road to Capitalism. In: Chu Y. (eds) Chinese Capitalisms. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230251359_3
Cockshott, P. 2020. “Crisis of Socialism and Effects of Capitalist Restoration” Monthly Review. 71(11) 20-27.
Deng, X. 1979. “We Can Develop a Market Economy Under Socialism” Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed June 25 2021: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/deng-xiaoping/1979/152.htm
Gerwitz, Julian. 2017. Unlikely Partners: Chinese Reformers, Western Economists, and the Making of Global China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Granma. 2021. “Agradece China mensaje de Cuba con felicitación por fin de pobreza extrema” Granma. March 28, 2021. Accessed online: 6/3/2021 http://www.granma.cu/cuba-china/2021-03-28/agradece-china-mensaje-de-cuba-con-felicitacion-por-fin-de-pobreza-extrema
Hai Fang. China Country Profile. The Commonwealth Fund website. Accessed online: 6/10/2021 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center/countries/china.
Han J., Zhao, Q., and Zhang M. 2016. “China’s income inequality in the global context”. Perspectives in Science. (7) 24-29.
Halstead. S., J. Walsh and K. Warren, eds. 1985. Good Health at Low Cost. The Rockefeller Foundation. New York.
Harvey, D. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Harvey, D. 2021. “Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: China’s Economic Rise- Part 1” Democracy at Work. YouTube. Accessed online: https//youtu.be/3CEkvjzDtz4
Hossein-Zadeh, I. 2014. Beyond Mainstream Explanations of the Financial Crisis: Parasitic Finance Capital. Routledge. London and New York.
Jameson D. T. et al., J.R. Evans, T. King, and I. Porter. 1984. China: The Health Sector. A World Bank Study. The World Bank Washington D.C.
Long, Z, R. Herrera, and T. Andréani. 2018. “On the Nature of the Chinese Economic System” Monthly Review. 70 (5) 32-43.
Marx. K. 1867 [1976]. Capital. Vol I. London: Penguin Books.
Marx. K. 1885 [1978]. Capital. Vol II. London: Penguin Books.
Marx K. 1875. [1938]. The Critique of the Gotha Program. New York: International Publishers.
Martinez, Carlos. 2019. The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse. New Delhi: LeftWord Books.
McKnight, A. 2018. “How are Inequality and Poverty Linked”. Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion., London School of Economics. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and Oxfam. UN Expert Meeting. New Research on Inequality and Its Impacts. September 12-13, 2018. Accessed online. 12/14/2025 https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2018/09/McKnight2.pdf
Meisner, M. 1999. Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic Third Edi‑ tion. New York: The Free Press.
Navarro, V. 1993. “Has Socialism Failed?: An Analysis of Health Indicators Under Capitalism and Socialism” Science & Society. 57(1) 6-30.
Parenti, M. 1997. Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. San Fransisco: City Light Books.
Pickett K. and Wilkinson R. 2015. “Income Inequality and Health: A Causal Review”. Social Science and Medicine. 128: 316-326.
Qiao Collective. 2020. “‘We Are Trying to Build Humanity’- Vijay Prashad on Chinese Socialism and Internationalism” Accessed online 6/23/21 https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/articles/conversation-vijay-prashad
Smith, J. 2015. Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation and Capitalism’s Final Crisis. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Statista. 2021. “Number of employees at state-owned, collective-owned, and private enterprises in urban China from 2009 to 2019.” Statista Accessed online 6/20/2021 https://www.statista.com/statistics/252924/employees-at-state-owned-collective-owned-and-private-enterprises-in-china/
Stone, O. and P. Kuznick. 2019. The Untold History of the United States. New York: Gallery Books.
Sum, A., I. Khatiawada, J. McLaughlin and S. Palma. 2011. “The ‘Jobless and Wageless’ Recovery from the Great Recession of 2007–2009: The Magnitude and Sources of Economic Growth through 2011 I and Their Impact on Workers, Profits, and Stock Values.” Center for Labor Market Studies. Northeastern University. Accessed Online 6/14/2021 http://www.lerachapters.org/OJS/ojs-2.4.4-1/index.php/EPRN/article/viewFile/1981/1977
Tan J. and Cheng E. 2014. “State-Owned Enterprises Should Play a Dominant Role in Cultural Industry” World Association for Political Economy. (03).
UNDP. 2021. “Mortality Rate, infant (per 1000 live births)” Human Development Reports. Accessed Online. 6/25/2021. http://hdr.undp.org/en/indicators/57206
US Census Bureau. 2021. “Table A-4. Selected Measures of Household Income Dispersion: 1967 to 2019”. Accessed online 6/26/2021: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-inequality.html
Wolff R. 2020. “There’s a Crisis in US Capitalism” Accessed online 6/25/2021 https://www.rdwolff.com/theres_a_crisis_in_us_capitalism
Wolff R. 2012. Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
World Bank. 2025. “GDP (annual % growth): China, 1961- 2024” Accessed online 12/12/2025 https://data360.worldbank.org/en/indicator/WB_WDI_NY_GDP_MKTP_KD_ZG?country=CHN&view=trend
World Inequality Lab. 2025. “Income Inequality, China, 1820-2024.” Accessed online. 12/25/2025 https://wid.world/country/china/
World Inequality Lab. 2025a. “Wealth Inequality, China, 1820-2023.” Accessed online. 12/25/2025 https://wid.world/country/china/
World Inequality Lab. 2025. “Income Inequality, Russian Federation, 1905-2021.” Accessed online. 12/12/2025. https://wid.world/country/russian-federation/
Xi Jinping. 2014. The Governance of China. Beijing: Foreign Language Press.
Yaffe, Helen. 2020. We Are Cuba: How A Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World. Cornwall: Yale University Press.
Zhang, Y. 2020. “The Contribution of the ‘School of New Marxist Economics to China’s Socialist Marxist Economy”. World Review of Political Economy. 11(1) 4-27.
Werner Rügemer. 2025. The Secret World Power: Its Practices in Germany and Friedrich Merz (in German). Berlin: Hintergrund.
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Research of Innovative Marxist School
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Socialism With Chinese Characteristics and Equitable Development: A Look at the Thought of Cheng Enfu. (2026). World Marxist Review , 2(4), 143−162. https://doi.org/10.62834/05b8sd68