Following the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee in 1989, the Chinese Communists, with Jiang Zemin as their chief representative, had accumulated new, valuable experience in running the Party and the state in the course of building Chinese socialism. They acquired a deeper understanding of what socialism is and how to build it, as well as what kind of Party to build and how to build it, all of which were summarized as the Theory of Three Represents.
Given domestic conditions and the international situation in the new century and based on an accurate understanding of the Party's history and mission, Jiang Zemin spoke of the requirements of "three represents" for Party members when inspecting Guangdong Province in February 2000, which aroused a strong response from Party members, the general public and overseas Chinese. He elaborated on the basic contents of the Theory of Three Represents at the meeting celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in July 2001. The essence of the Theory of Three Represents is that the CPC must always represent the development trend of China's advanced productive forces, represent the orientation of China's advanced culture, and represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.
The Theory of Three Represents was established at the 16th CPC National Congress in November 2002, together with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Deng Xiaoping Theory, as the guiding thought and guide to action that the CPC must follow, and was written into the Party Constitution. In 2004, the Second Session of the 10th NPC wrote this theory into the Chinese Constitution.
The Theory of Three Represents is a scientific system that covers the economy, politics, culture, military affairs, foreign affairs, and Party matters, and involves reform, development and stability, domestic and foreign affairs and national defense, and the running of the Party, the country and the military.
The CPC must always represent the development trend of China's advanced productive forces. This means that the Party's theory, guideline, program, principles, policies, and all its work must conform with the development needs of the productive forces, and build the productive forces in order to raise the people's living standards.
The CPC must always represent the orientation of China's advanced culture. This means that the Party's theory, guideline, program, principles, policies, and all its work must reflect the requirements for developing a socialist culture for our nation, a culture that is sound and people-oriented, and that embraces modernization, the world and the future, constantly raise the ideological and moral standards and the scientific and cultural levels of the whole nation, and provide moral and intellectual support for China's economic development and social progress.
The CPC must always represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. This means that the Party's theory, guideline, program, principles, policies and all its work must take the fundamental interests of the people as their starting and ending points; boost the people's enthusiasm, initiative and creativity; and enable them to enjoy tangible economic, political, and cultural benefits on the basis of continuous social progress.
The Theory of Three Represents includes the socialist market economy, the basic economic system dominated by public ownership with diverse forms of ownership developing side by side, the diverse methods of distributing economic fruits with distribution according to work as the principal, opening up to the outside world, coordinating socialist material, political and cultural and ethical progress, development being the Party's top priority for state governance and rejuvenation, balancing reform, development and stability, building a socialist country based on the rule of law, running the country by combining the rule of law with the rule of virtue, and having fewer but better troops, and consolidating the Party's class foundation and expanding its public support.
The Theory of Three Represents offers answers to such questions as what kind of Party to build and how to build it. Integrating Party matters with Chinese socialism, it gives new interpretations to the Party's nature, mission, guiding thought and tasks in the current times. The theory is an update of the CPC's guiding thought, and a theoretical tool for strengthening and improving the Party and promoting self-improvement of socialism in China. It is an important component of the system of theory on Chinese socialism.
