Study Area IV: Theory and Practice of Socialism in Vietnam, North Korea, Laos and Cuba

  This research has both theoretical and practical meaning. By

comparing the developing patterns of socialism in other communist

countries such as Vietnam,

Laos, North Korea and

Cuba from different

perspectives, we are trying to

find the formation and features of their patterns of socialism. This is

helpful for us to discover the essence and future of socialism in these

countries. We are interested in summarizing their experiences and

looking for the general law and special law of socialist development

through comprehensive comparisons, which is important and difficult

to us.

    We focus on three issues: First, economic positions and policies

on economic reform in these countries; second, their political

circumstances and trend of changes; third, their foreign policies and

international surroundings. Based on the basic theory about patterns

of socialism, we analyze the formation and evolution of theirs patterns

of socialism from the historical and practical perspectives so as to

make clear the question that “what is socialism, how to build

socialism”. The research may give us some suggestions on

constructing socialism with Chinese characteristics.