Abstract:

There is a process of change in the appellation of a group engaged in non-state-owned economic activities. Compared with “private business owners”，the word “private entrepreneur” is used more frequently at present，for better understanding two words，it is necessary to sort out the historical changes of China’s non-public economic development. From the history of the Communist Party of China in the past century，according to whether private ownership promotes the development of China’s productive forces or not，how big and how small it is，the corresponding policies of the Communist Party of China have a process from “eradicating” to “giving consideration” and then to “encouraging，supporting and guiding”；“market” has a process from “supplement” to “decisive” in resource allocation；correspondingly，non-state-owned economy also has a process of continuous development. The change of the historical connotation of the private business owners and the private entrepreneurs lends some support to the qualitative evolution of the connotation of socialist basic economic system：from “ public ownership as main body，joint growth of multiple ownership economy” to “distribution according to work as the main body，a variety of distributions coexist”，and then to “socialist market economy system”.

Key words: private business owners, private entrepreneurs, appellation, analysis of historical connotation