The development of China's socialist publishing industry, and the formation and improvement of the publishing policy has gone through a fairly flexuous course of development. In early 1950s, the General Administration of Publication under the Central People's Government held the first national publishing conference, clearly stipulating "to serve the people" as the basic policy for publishing. From late 1950s to the end of 1970s, the "left" ideology had been seriously reflected in the publishing fields, so the slogan that publishing must keep politics first and quality first was put forward. The situation became especially serious in the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution (1965-1975), when a lot of publishing organizations were disbanded with staff dismissed and transferred, and many books were destroyed. The nationwide publishing work suffered extreme losses, and consequently, a serious nationwide book shortage arose.

Starting from 1979, with the holding of the Third Plenary Session of the 11^th Congress of CPC in December 1978, the publishing industry in China started recovering and developing under correct guidelines. The publishing policy also turned gradually to the path of serving economic construction. On January 10, 1980, the State Press and Publication Administration (SPPA) issued The Provisional Regulations for the Work of Publishing Houses, pointing out that "publishing houses must adhere to the socialist road, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought; they must serve the people and socialism, and carry out the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thoughts contend, making foreign things serve China and the past serve the present". It clearly put forward that publishing must "serve the people and socialism".

The 13^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October 1987 expounded the theory of the primary stage of socialism, put forward the basic line of "focusing on the central task of economic construction, adhering to the Four Cardinal Principles, and persevering in reform and opening up", and set whether it is helpful for the development of social productivity as the fundamental standard to measure all kinds of work.

 Publishing tasks accommodating to publishing policy

According to the spirit of the 13^th National Party Congress, and the wording of the publishing policy and task in relevant documents in the past, China's socialist publishing policy can be described briefly as follows: to follow the basic line of "focusing on the central task of economic construction, adhering to the Four Cardinal Principles, and persevering in reform and opening up" in the primary stage of socialism; implement the basic policy of "serving the people and socialism" as well as the policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thoughts contend; making foreign things serve China, and making the past serve the present; weeding through the old and bringing forth the new"; thus make beneficial contribution to the development of social productive forces, and the construction of material civilization and spiritual civilization. Under the guidance of the above-mentioned policies, the major tasks of publishing roughly include the following:

1. To propagate Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, propagate the theory and basic line in the primary stage of socialism, as well as important policies of the Party and the government, carry out education of patriotism and the Four Haves (have lofty ideals, moral integrity, better education and good sense of discipline), and oppose the rotten thoughts of feudalism and capitalism.

2. To meet the needs of economic construction and reform, timely publish introduction of theoretical research achievements and important experiences in this respect, the books of modern advanced science and technology and management science, and all other books that are helpful for the development of social productive forces.

3. To publish vigorously books of basic knowledge of social science and natural science that meet the needs of readers at different levels, popularize scientific and cultural knowledge, raise people's scientific and cultural level, and enrich the spiritual life of the people.

4. To advocate academic discussion and contention of different schools, advocate creation of literature and arts of various subjects and styles, promote the smooth development and increasing prosperity of science and literature.

5. To give prominence to the inheritance and accumulation of cultural heritage, compile and publish excellent Chinese cultural heritage, and translate and publish various foreign valuable works.

6. To put social effect in the first place in publishing, select subjects carefully, guarantee the significance and the quality, oppose manufacturing in a rough way, and make great efforts to provide the people with the best food for thoughts.

7. Socialist publishing is the common cause of the publishing staff and authors and translators. The relationship among them is comrade-like cooperation. Publishing institutions should respect knowledge and the talents, unite vast numbers of authors and translators to make great efforts to publish more good books.

8. Publishing houses should implement the spirit of reform, unbind their thinking, be bold to explore and test, and gradually form the publishing system with Chinese characteristics that suits the primary stage of socialism.