The "Four Modernizations" include industrial modernization, agricultural modernization, national defense modernization, and scientific and technological modernization. The concept first appeared in September 1954, when Zhou Enlai proposed it in the "Government Work Report" which was announced at the National People's Congress. As Zhou phrased it, the Four Modernizations would be an effort to "build a strong and modern industry, a modern agriculture, a modern transportation infrastructure, and a modern national defense system". These remained Chinese Communist Party (CCP) goals in promoting the national economy for many years.

In December of 1964, Zhou Enlai announced the grand task of realizing the Four Modernizations at the Third National People's Congress: "To sum up, the main task of developing the national economy in the future, is to do so within a relatively short period of time — to build our country into a powerful socialist country with modern agriculture, modern industries, modern national defense, and modern science and technology, in order to catch up with and even surpass the standards of advanced nations around the world."

After the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping once again made the Four Modernizations the focus of his work for the new era. When Deng received foreign guests in December 1979, he further proposed the concept of the "moderately prosperous household", pointing out that China should realize Chinese-style modernization. In 1982, the 12th CCP National Congress officially adopted the term "moderately prosperous", with the goal of realizing a society in which, by the end of the 20th century, people's living standards are improved across the board and common prosperity is achieved.

References: [中華人民共和國中央人民政府 ("Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China")(Chinese)] (http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2009-09/16/content_1418909.htm); [中共中央黨史和文獻研究院("Party History and Literature Research Institute of the CCP Central Committee")(Chinese)] (https://www.dswxyjy.org.cn/BIG5/n1/2020/0917/c423730-31865152.html); [中國共產黨歷史網 ("CCP History Network")(Chinese)] (https://web.archive.org/web/20131227165814/http://www.zgdsw.org.cn/n/2013/0716/c244514-22211273.html)