社会主义初级阶段

社会主义初级阶段不是泛指任何国家进入社会主义都会经历的起始阶段，而是特指中国生产力落后、商品经济不发达条件下建设社会主义必然要经历的特定阶段。社会主义初级阶段的论断包括两层涵义：一是中国已经进入社会主义社会，必须坚持而不能离开社会主义；二是中国的社会主义社会正处于并将长期处于初级阶段，必须正视而不能超越这个初级阶段。

中国正处于并将长期处于社会主义初级阶段。这是在经济文化落后的中国建设社会主义现代化不可逾越的历史阶段，需要上百年的时间。在现阶段，中国社会的主要矛盾是人民日益增长的物质文化需要同落后的社会生产之间的矛盾。当前中国社会主义建设的根本任务，是进一步解放生产力，发展生产力，逐步实现社会主义现代化，并且为此而改革生产关系和上层建筑中不适应生产力发展的方面和环节。

Primary stage of socialism

This is not a general reference to the initial stage any country will go through when practicing socialism, but a term for the special stage that China has to undergo with backward productive forces and an underdeveloped commodity economy.

The theory of the primary stage of socialism has two connotations: one, China already has a socialist society, which it must continue to develop and never abandon; two, China's socialist society is still in the primary stage and will remain so for a long time to come, and it is a stage that must be recognized and cannot be skipped.

China is in the primary stage of socialism and will remain so for a long time to come. This is a historical stage that cannot be skipped in the socialist modernization of China, which is backward economically and culturally. The process will take over a hundred years. During the present stage, the principal contradiction in Chinese society is one between the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and the low level of production. In building socialism, the basic task is to further release and develop the productive forces and achieve socialist modernization step by step by carrying out reform in those aspects and links of production relations and the superstructure that do not conform to the development of the productive forces.