To build the soul of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics

PurposeThe socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is the scientific fruit of Xi Jinping thought on socialist economy with Chinese characteristics for a new era. People-centred philosophy is the core values of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's governance of China with Xi Jinping as the core and has become the core values of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. According to Xi Jinping thought on socialist economy with Chinese characteristics, it represents the interests of all people and determines the disciplinary attribute of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, that is, people-centred economics. Xi Jinping has defined the essence of the socialism as eliminating poverty, improving people's livelihood and gradually realising common prosperity. That determines the main line of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to liberate, develop and protect the productive forces and achieve common prosperity. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned statements.Design/methodology/approachXi Jinping's scientific judgement on the new stage of development and the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has put forward the requirement of problem orientation for the study of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, involving the main contradiction facing Chinese society, high-quality development and modernisation. China's socialist basic economic system consists of a socialist market economy in which public ownership plays the leading role alongside other forms of ownership and distribution according to work is the mainstay, while other forms of distribution coexist alongside it. And this socialist basic economic system, marked out from three dimensions—production, distribution and exchange analysis, is the key of analysis of systems in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The economic operation analysis in political economy mainly involves resource allocation and the government's macroeconomic regulation and control.FindingsThe new thought and new practices about the role of the market and the government in the new era have opened up a new realm for the economic operation analysis in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The new development philosophy and new development paradigm define the content of the economic development theory in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The new development paradigm reflects the dual circulation theory of social reproduction.Originality/valueThe socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to study laws of economics in various aspects from economic system, economic operation, economic development to foreign economy and provide the basic principles of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. Its mainstream economic position will be consolidated continuously.