Planned commodity economy
계획적 상품경제
The formula for the socialist economy put forward in October 1984 by the Third Plenum of the 12th CPC Central Committee in its Decision on the Reform of the Economic Structure. It defined the socialist planned economy as one that must consciously follow and use the law of value, "a planned commodity economy on the basis of public ownership", breaking with the traditional view that set planned and commodity economy against each other. It was not, the Decision said, a market economy regulated wholly by the market, and labour power, land and state enterprises and resources were not commodities. It was replaced by the "socialist market economy" of the 14th Congress in 1992.
In depth
The 1984 Decision
Section 4 of the Decision said that reforming the planning system first required breaking the traditional view that set planned economy against commodity economy. The full development of commodity economy was a stage of socio-economic development that could not be skipped, and administrative means and mandatory planning alone could not enliven enterprises. The difference between socialist and capitalist economy lay not in whether commodity economy existed or the law of value operated, but in ownership, the existence of exploiting classes, the aim of production, the ability to apply the law of value consciously on the scale of the whole society, and the range of commodity relations.
The Decision summed up the planning system in four points. On the whole China practised a planned economy, that is a planned commodity economy, not a market economy regulated wholly by the market; production and exchange regulated wholly by the market were confined to some farm and sideline products, small articles of daily use and services and repairs; planned economy did not mean the predominance of mandatory planning, mandatory and guidance planning both being concrete forms of planned economy; guidance planning worked mainly through economic levers, while mandatory planning had to be carried out but also had to use the law of value.
Afterwards
According to the Chinese Wikipedia, Deng Xiaoping praised the Decision as "a first draft of political economy". In 1988 Zhao Ziyang said that commodity economy and market economy were the same thing, but that some could not accept the term market economy, hence the detour. After Deng's southern tour in 1992, Jiang Zemin at the 14th Congress changed the goal of reform to a "socialist market economy system".