"Adhere to the outline and look at yourself, stick to the basics and end from the end." Grasping the main contradiction to promote the overall work is the intrinsic requirement of materialist dialectics, and it is also the methodology that our party has consistently advocated and adhered to.

Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "The study of various imbalances in contradictions, the study of the main contradictions and non-main contradictions, and the main contradictions and non-main contradictions has become one of the important methods for a revolutionary party to correctly determine its political and military strategic and tactical principles, and all communists should pay attention to it. This is not only a simple philosophical truth, but also a profound conclusion drawn from summing up the party's history, and it is necessary to accurately analyze and grasp the main contradictions in our society when it is specifically applied to guide the development of the cause of the party and the country.

During the period of the new democratic revolution, our party correctly analyzed the social contradictions in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China, firmly grasped the main social contradictions between imperialism and the Chinese nation and feudalism and the masses of the people, and their specific manifestations in different periods, formulated the general line of the new democratic revolution and a series of principles and policies, and finally led the people to win the victory of the new democratic revolution.

After the founding of New China, especially the establishment of China's basic socialist system, the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China for the first time made a clear statement on the main contradiction in China's society: "The main contradiction in China is already the contradiction between the people's demand for building an advanced industrial country and the reality of a backward agricultural country, and the contradiction between the people's need for rapid economic and cultural development and the current situation in which the economy and culture cannot meet the people's needs. This formulation was in line with the reality of our country at that time.

However, due to complex socio-historical reasons, this correct assertion did not hold up. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11 th CPC Central Committee, our party scientifically analyzed the basic national conditions in the initial stage of socialism in our country, affirmed the formulation of the Eighth CPC National Congress, and further streamlined and refined it

"The main contradiction in our society is the contradiction between the people's growing material and cultural needs and backward social production."

Since the beginning of reform and opening up, our party has formulated and adhered to the correct line, principles, and policies in accordance with this major contradiction, and has made tremendous achievements in the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

History has fully demonstrated that whether or not the cause of the party and the state can develop smoothly is closely linked to whether or not we can accurately understand and grasp the principal contradictions in society along with the changes in social and historical conditions, and whether or not we can formulate a correct political line and strategic tactics on this basis.

Persistently proceeding from the actual social conditions of our country, keenly grasping the main contradictions in the midst of many social contradictions and the overall situation of contradictions, and consciously making arrangements for the overall work of the party and the state around the main contradictions is a successful experience of our party in consciously applying the Marxist theory of contradictions to analyze and resolve the problems of China's revolution, construction, and reform.

Since the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it has been more than 60 years since the formulation of the main contradiction in our society.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and profound changes have taken place in the domestic and international environment, contradictions and problems it faces, profound changes have taken place in the development stage and development tasks, work objects and working conditions, and profound changes have also taken place in the requirements for our party's long-term governing ability and leadership level.

This profound change is concretely reflected in the main contradiction in our society, that is, the situation in both social demand and social production has changed.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that China has stably solved the problem of food and clothing for more than one billion people, and has achieved a well-off society on the whole, and will soon build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

At the same time, the level of China's social productive forces has been markedly improved on the whole, and the social productive capacity has entered the forefront of the world in many respects, and the more conspicuous problem is that development is unbalanced and inadequate, which has become a major constraint to satisfying the people's ever-growing needs for a better life.

The fundamental changes in the economic and social development situation have made it impossible to accurately reflect the formulation of the principal contradiction in China's society, and it is necessary to make new generalizations and expressions.

It is based on this consideration that the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China revised the expression of the main contradiction in China's society to:

"The contradiction between the people's growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development". It must be understood that the new expression of the changes in the main contradictions in China's society has pointed out the fundamental focus of solving the development problems of contemporary China, and has provided a scientific and accurate understanding premise for promoting the development of the cause of the party and the country.