The Theory of Scientific Socialism Should Be Developed in Practice

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

If these conditions are not fully met and the government at the provincial or higher level deems it necessary to create a township, and have officially approved it, the place can be listed as an urban residential area.

According to a rough estimate based on these criteria, the urban population of China in 1984 and 1985 was 29.8 and 34 percent of the total population respectively. These figures are lower than the respective 31.9 and 36.6 percent figures of the State Statistical Bureau and take into account administrative criteria, demographic criteria, economic criteria, and geographic criteria, thereby better reflecting the real differences between urban and rural areas.

No matter what the criteria are, if they are to be used, it is necessary for us to understand the competing interests of various internal departments of administrative bodies in our government over the issue of the definition of urban and rural land. The strongest opposition to standardizing the criteria by which urban and rural areas are defined are the statistics departments themselves. They are strongly in favor of a definition by administrative units, so that the definition will be consistent with the current system of compiling statistics. The statistics departments feel that the rationality of the criteria themselves is of secondary importance. What is important to them is who will define the criteria and once the criteria are defined, who will be responsible for compiling the statistics. They would find it impossible to assume the heavy burden of compiling statistic on the basis of both administrative regions and standardized classifications. The State Planning Commission also frowned on major changes which would bring difficulties for a comprehensive balance in labor and wages, credit, and taxation. The Tax Bureau collects 7 percent, 5 percent, and 3 percent town-building tax from cities, towns, and villages respectively, and is, therefore, not interested in two different types of statistics on urban population. The Ministry of Finance would like to see more rigorous standards applied to the definition of urban and rural areas because the more than 9,100 townships now enjoying treatment as an urban entity will be a heavy burden. The public security, commercial, education, public health, and grain departments all have different definitions and measures for urban and rural areas, and it would be hard to enforce any arbitrary standardization. Whatever form the new criteria may take does not seem to matter much. Theoreticians try even harder to arrive at standardized criteria and comparability and welcome a standard definition of demarcation. In the face of the many competing interests and desired criteria, the State Council should adopt the following measures in addition to stressing the need to look at this issue from a nationwide perspective: (1) Increase the funds, personnel, and power of the statistical departments so that they can play their role more effectively as economic chiefs of staff. (2) Not change the rules of special departments. (3) Work out carefully and resolutely the criteria that will meet the requirements of

economic development so that they will serve as a rational yardstick for economic zones and social zones. This is also an underlying requirement for modernization.

Wang Ruoshul on Truth Criterion, Theory Research

40050370 Beijing WEI RENDAO ZHUYI BIANHU

in Chinese 1986 pp 1-22

[Chapter from book "In Defence of Humanism" by Wang Ruoshui; Sanlian Shudian, 279 pages; transcription of a speech delivered at a forum held in Shanghai on 15 Aug 1979]

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## Truth Criterion and Theory Research

## The Theory of Scientific Socialism Should Be Developed in Practice

First, I'd like to talk about the issue of truth criterion. Bringing up this issue at the present is of not only domestic but also international significance. Marxism has been tested in practice for over a century since it was introduced. How do we look at it now? In the beginning of the 20th Century, the October revolution won a great victory. In the middle of the 20th Century, the Chinese revolution also won a great victory. These great events brilliantly proved the correctness of Marxism and exerted a far-reaching influence in the world. In the 1950's, the reputation of the imperialist camp was notorious while the influence of the socialist camp was growing among the people of the world who placed hope in the Soviet Union and China. However, in the past 20 years or so, things have changed. First, the Soviet Union had problems. Immediately after that, the socialist camp split. There followed 10 years of turmoil in China. Contrary to what happened on this side, capitalism had over 20 years of a "golden age." What does this explain? I think perhaps during these years Marxist theory has failed to develop along with the development of practice; therefore, it is probably already behind the international reality.

Marxist theory has three parts, and the most detailed one is political economy. "Das Kapital" was in line with the reality at its time. Later in the imperialist period, things were different. In the early 20th Century, Lenin wrote "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" and thereby solved the problems of that period. Now half a century has passed since then, the situation has changed drastically, and many new situations and phenomena have appeared in capitalist development. However, many of our comrades still try to understand capitalism only by reading books. Of course, we need to read Marx's "Das Kapital" and Lenin's "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism," but what these books depicted