建设有中国特色的社会主义
1982年9月，中国共产党召开第十二次全国代表大会。邓小平在大会开幕式中明确提出：“把马克思主义的普遍真理同我国的具体实际结合起来，走自己的道路，建设有中国特色的社会主义”。“建设有中国特色的社会主义”的提出，回答了进入改革开放新时期后中国走什么样的道路这一人们最为关心的重大问题，成为指引新时期改革开放和社会主义现代化建设的伟大旗帜。
1984年6月，邓小平会见前来参加第二次中日民间人士会议的日方委员会代表团时指出，从党的十一届三中全会开始，我们制定了实事求是的思想路线，决定坚持走社会主义道路。社会主义初级阶段的最根本任务就是发展生产力。我们提出的“四个现代化”的最低目标，是到本世纪末达到小康水平。不坚持社会主义，中国的小康社会形成不了。总的来说，这条道路叫作建设有中国特色的社会主义的道路。这是邓小平首次在谈话中系统阐述十一届三中全会以来中国共产党在实践中形成的最重要的方针政策和理论观点。
1987年10月召开的党的十三大第一次提出了“建设有中国特色的社会主义理论”这一概念，并系统地概括了其主要观点，构成了邓小平理论的轮廓。1992年10月召开的党的十四大首次使用了“邓小平同志建设有中国特色社会主义理论”这一提法，对邓小平理论的主要内容做了新的科学概括，使之形成比较完整的科学体系。
Socialism with Chinese characteristics
At the opening session of the 12th CPC National Congress in September 1982, Deng Xiaoping called on China to carve a path of our own and build socialism with Chinese characteristics by applying the universal truth of Marxism to China's specific context. This was Deng's answer to the question foremost on everyone's mind regarding China's path in the era of reform and opening up. It has since guided China's reform and socialist modernization.
Meeting with a Japanese delegation attending the Second Sino-Japanese Non-governmental Conference in June 1984, Deng reaffirmed the CPC's new evidence-based approach to developing socialism, pursued since the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee. He pointed out that the most important task during the primary stage of socialism was to tap society's productive potential, that the objective of our modernization drive was at a minimum to build a moderately prosperous society by the turn of the 21st century, and that our march towards prosperity would not be possible without socialism. In essence, what Deng had in mind was what he called socialism with Chinese characteristics. This was Deng's first systematic explanation of the most important policy and concept developed on the basis of the Party's experience on the ground since that plenary.
The 13th CPC National Congress, convened in October 1987, outlined the concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics by systematically summarizing Deng's main theoretical pronouncements, providing a framework for what would become Deng Xiaoping Theory. The first reference to Deng's theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics was made at the 14th CPC National Congress in October 1992, laying the groundwork for organizing Deng's thinking into a comprehensive theoretical system.