General Secretary of the Supreme Leader delivered an important speech at the opening ceremony of the seminar on studying and implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, stressing: "The unique world outlook, values, historical outlook, civilization outlook, democratic outlook, ecological outlook and its great practice contained in Chinese modernization are major innovations in the theory and practice of world modernization." In this academic edition, an academic dialogue is launched, which deeply studies and explains the unique world outlook, values, historical outlook, civilization outlook, democratic outlook, ecological outlook and its great practice contained in Chinese modernization, trying to clarify the scientific answer of Chinese modernization to the question of modernization and its great significance to the development of world modernization theory and practice.
worldview
Moderator: Modernization is a worldwide trend, and realizing modernization is the common aspiration of people of all countries. Please talk about the world outlook contained in Chinese modernization and its practice, and what innovative development it has made to the theory and practice of world modernization.
Xu Bu (President of China Institute of International Studies)
In the process of human civilization, world history as a whole is closely related to world modernization. After the 15th century, with the great geographical discovery and the development of capitalist mode of production, human beings have formed a more comprehensive understanding of the world on which they live. The first industrial revolution in the 18th century started the process of modernization of human society. With the continuous improvement of social productivity, especially the level of science and technology, the relatively isolated development state between countries and regions was gradually broken, and human society became a widely connected whole. Based on the keen observation of capitalist expansion in the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels elaborated on world trade, world market and world history in a series of important works. Marxism holds that the more thoroughly the primitive closed state of all ethnic groups is eliminated due to the increasingly perfect mode of production and communication and the natural division of labor among different ethnic groups due to communication, the more history will become world history.
The close correlation between world history and world modernization determines that people will inevitably form a general and fundamental view of the whole world and the relationship between people and the world in the process of promoting modernization, that is, a modern world outlook. Generally speaking, a modern world outlook is not only influenced by the history and culture of the country and nation where it lives, but also enriched and developed in long-term exchanges and interactions with the outside world. Historically, some western countries have long pursued the jungle law of "national power must dominate" and antagonistic zero-sum game thinking. By virtue of their first-Mover advantage, they exported modernization models to other countries, tried to frame the modern world map with a western-centered worldview, and regarded developing countries as vassals of their modernization, resulting in serious imbalance and unfairness in the development of world modernization.
In his keynote speech at the high-level dialogue meeting between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the world’s political parties, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "Chinese modernization does not follow the old road of colonial plunder, does not follow the crooked road of national power, and takes the right path of peaceful development." For thousands of years, the concepts of valuing harmony, harmony without difference, turning hostilities into friendship and harmony under heaven have been deeply integrated into the ideas of China people. In Chinese excellent traditional culture, the values of being kind to your neighbors, being harmonious with all nations, building up your own talents and helping the world have profoundly influenced and shaped the Chinese modern world outlook.
Adhering to the Marxist thought on world history, inheriting and developing the excellent Chinese traditional culture and the world view of harmony among all nations, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has always paid attention to the future and destiny of mankind in leading the people of China to promote the process of Chinese modernization, conformed to the law of human social development, closely linked his own destiny with the destiny of people of all countries, and strived to provide new opportunities for world development with new achievements in Chinese modernization, provide new assistance for human exploration of modernization road, and make new contributions to the theoretical and practical innovation of human social modernization.
With the concept of building a community of human destiny, Chinese-style modernization fully abandons the western-centered worldview, upholds the concept of unity, cooperation and common development, takes the road of joint construction, sharing and win-win, and strives to make modernization achievements more fair and benefit people of all countries. From proposing to build a human health community in the face of the century epidemic, to calling for building a community of life on earth in the face of environmental degradation, and to proposing to build a global development community &hellip in the face of development deficit; … Chinese-style modernization vigorously promotes the spirit of establishing oneself and gaining talents, strives to enhance the inclusiveness of modernization achievements, points out the direction for the modernization process of human society at the historical crossroads, and highlights the world outlook characteristics of upholding world peace and promoting common development. The world outlook and practice of Chinese modernization show that the road to modernization is diversified, and modernization is not a "patent" of a few countries, nor is it an "alternative choice". Only by insisting on putting the development of the country and the nation on the basis of their own strength, firmly holding the destiny of the country’s development and progress in their own hands, and respecting and supporting the independent choice of the people of all countries on the road to development, can we jointly draw a new picture of the modernization of human society.
sense of worth/values
Moderator: Modernization has a distinct value goal orientation. Please talk about what kind of value pursuit Chinese modernization has, what kind of values it contains, and what contributions it has made to the theory and practice of world modernization.
Feng Ziyi (Professor, Philosophy Department, Peking University)
Modernization is a historical process with a clear value orientation, that is, for whom to develop and why to modernize. The fundamental difference between Chinese-style modernization and western modernization in terms of values is concentrated on people-centered or capital-centered. Western modernization takes capital as the center and follows the logic of capital. Historically, western modernization started with the development of capital logic. Without the emergence and expansion of capital, there would be no rise and development of western modernization. It can be said that capital is the axis of the development of western modern society and western modernization, which determines the value pursuit of western modernization.
In his keynote speech at the high-level dialogue meeting between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the world’s political parties, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "We must adhere to the concept of people first and highlight the people’s nature of modernization." This clearly shows the values of Chinese modernization. People’s nature is the most distinctive character of Marxism. It is the highest value goal pursued by Marxism and scientific socialism to establish an ideal society without oppression, exploitation, equality and freedom for all and realize the free and all-round development of human beings. This value goal has been fully demonstrated in Chinese modernization. The ultimate goal of Chinese modernization is to realize the free and all-round development of human beings, pursue the value orientation of people first, make modernization better respond to people’s demands in all aspects and multi-level needs, and make modernization achievements more fair and benefit all people. In the process of leading and promoting Chinese modernization, our party adheres to the people-centered development thought, the development concept and modernization concept of developing for the people, relying on the people and sharing the development results with the people, taking meeting the people’s growing needs for a better life as the starting point and the foothold, constantly transforming the development results into the quality of life, and constantly enhancing the people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security. People-centered, highlighting the distinctive values contained in Chinese modernization.
The advancement of modernization is not only a process of creating and accumulating development achievements, but also a process of distributing development achievements. Whether the relationship between fairness and efficiency can be properly handled in development and distribution is a common task faced by world modernization and a yardstick to test the value pursued by modernization. Western modernization follows the value logic centered on capital and pursues capital accumulation and capital expansion in its development, which leads to serious polarization between the rich and the poor. Chinese-style modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all people, and realizing common prosperity for all people is one of the essential requirements of Chinese-style modernization. Chinese modernization emphasizes that material wealth and spiritual wealth are the fundamental requirements of socialist modernization, insists on distribution according to work as the main body and coexistence of various modes of distribution, constructs a coordinated system of primary distribution, redistribution and third distribution, constantly promotes the overall prosperity of people’s material and spiritual life, and clearly embodies the value pursuit of Marxism. It is a highly concise and concrete practice of people-centered values in the field of social production and distribution. From handling the relationship between fairness and efficiency and promoting human freedom,
The capital-centered modernization in the West has realized primitive accumulation of capital through colonial expansion, passed on various crises of its own development through foreign wars, imposed its own values and models on others through the implementation of so-called "universal values" and engaged in ideological confrontation. Chinese-style modernization is a modernization for the happiness of China people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and it is also a modernization for the progress of mankind and the great harmony of the world. The values of Chinese modernization abandon the practice of foreign military expansion, colonial plunder and ideological export, advocate the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind, cooperate with other countries for win-win results, promote the building of a community of human destiny, and provide a common value bond and guide the correct value direction for advancing the process of world modernization.
conception of history
Moderator: Realizing modernization is a long-term historical process. Please talk about what kind of historical mission Chinese modernization undertakes, what kind of exploration process it has gone through, and what kind of enlightenment and reference significance its historical view and practice can bring.
Guo Jianning (Professor, Tsinghua University Institute of Marxism)
Modernization is a historical process with its inherent historical logic. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "In the 18th century, major inventions such as the steam engine appeared, which made the first industrial revolution and started the modernization of human society." Modernization started in the west and is a historical product of the development of productive forces to a certain stage. At the same time, it should also develop and change with the development of history. The universality of the modernization task can only be realized through the concreteness of each nation in its social and historical development. However, historically, western countries have tried to impose their modernization model on others a priori as a "super-historical" general formula, which neither conforms to the historical law of the development of world modernization nor really promotes the historical process of world modernization. Judging from the historical process of world modernization, the modernization development of late-developing countries has to go through the historical process of "following" and "catching up". Judging from China’s situation, after the Opium War in 1840, China was passively involved in the modernization system led by western countries from the closed door, which also opened the prelude for the Chinese nation to explore a road suitable for its own modernization. In the process of exploring the road to modernization, generations of people with lofty ideals have tried hard and made various attempts, but they all ended in failure. The important task of exploring China’s modernization road has historically fallen on the Communist Party of China (CPC) people.
From the historical point of view, Chinese modernization is closely related to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The Chinese modernization process led and promoted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) has historically and inevitably shouldered the mission of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s history of uniting and leading the people of China to pursue national rejuvenation for more than 100 years is also a history of constantly exploring the road to modernization." After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, faced with the present situation that everything is in ruins and everything is in poverty, the people of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are faced with the arduous task of national prosperity and national rejuvenation. Comrade Mao Zedong issued the call of "building a backward country like ours economically and culturally into a great industrialized country with a high degree of modern culture". After unremitting exploration, our Party proposed the construction of "four modernizations", and the new China gradually established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system. In the new period of reform and opening-up, our Party has made a historic decision to shift the work center of the Party and the state to economic construction and carry out reform and opening-up, put forward a series of symbolic concepts about Chinese modernization, such as "Chinese modernization", "well-off family" and "three-step" development strategy, made a series of major theoretical and practical innovations, and led and promoted China’s socialist modernization drive to make steady progress. Since the 18th CPC National Congress,The CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core continues to advance on the existing basis, providing a fundamental follow-up and solid strategic support for promoting Chinese-style modernization, constantly achieving innovative breakthroughs in theory and practice, and successfully promoting and expanding Chinese-style modernization. Our Party has continuously deepened its understanding of the connotation and essence of Chinese modernization, summarized the China characteristics, essential requirements and major principles of Chinese modernization, and initially established a theoretical system of Chinese modernization, which has made Chinese modernization clearer, more scientific and more feasible, and provided a more perfect system guarantee, a more solid material foundation and a more active spiritual force for promoting Chinese modernization and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The historical view contained in Chinese modernization embodies independence in the unity of universality and particularity, pioneering and innovative in the combination of historical regularity and subjectivity of human activities, and highlights a high degree of historical self-confidence and historical initiative in the journey of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The historical process of Chinese modernization profoundly shows that backwardness does not mean backwardness, let alone imitation and copying. Following the historical laws of world modernization and combining with its own reality and cultural traditions, every country and nation is likely to explore its own modernization development path and completely change its own historical destiny.
Civilization view
Moderator: I would like to ask the concept of civilization and its practice contained in Chinese modernization, what kind of development direction has been pointed out for the progress of human civilization, and why Chinese modernization is a brand-new form of human civilization.
Ye Xiaowen (Deputy Director of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Culture, Literature and History Learning Committee)
To understand and grasp the civilization view of Chinese modernization, we should first put Chinese modernization and its new form of human civilization in the tide of world modernization and understand it in the historical background of exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations. Modernization is a global social transformation, covering economy, politics, culture, science and technology and other fields. An inevitable result of modernization is economic globalization, and the deepening of economic globalization will inevitably promote exchanges between different countries, different nationalities and different civilizations. It can be said that the process of promoting modernization is also a process of continuous development of exchanges and mutual learning among human civilizations. At the same time, the deepening of exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations has injected strong vitality into the process of economic globalization and world modernization and created a favorable environment.
In his keynote speech at the high-level dialogue meeting between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the world’s political parties, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "Today, the future and destiny of all countries are closely linked, and the inclusive coexistence, exchange and mutual learning of different civilizations play an irreplaceable role in promoting the modernization of human society and prospering the world’s civilized gardens." There is no distinction between superior and inferior civilizations, only differences in characteristics and regions, which can only be integrated in communication and progress in integration. The premise of exchange and mutual learning among civilizations is equal dialogue. Only by abandoning the theory of "superiority of civilizations" and "clash of civilizations" can we promote the process of world modernization in the exchange and integration of civilizations. However, in the early stage of world modernization, some western countries often occupied land, plundered resources and enslaved others to achieve development in the process of primitive accumulation of capital. Up to now, the influence of this development inertia is mainly manifested in dominating the high-end industrial chain and monopolizing the world resources in order to "bonus hunter" at will. In the exchange of world civilizations, it is embodied in promoting the superiority theory of western civilization and defining modern civilization with the model of western civilization. Even at the moment when the tide of economic globalization and world modernization is surging, there are still some western countries moving against the current, frequently defending their hegemony by means of building walls, unilateral sanctions, extreme pressure, etc., blocking the process of economic globalization, and blocking the road of exchanges and mutual learning among world civilizations with the dominance of one family. This not only goes against the general trend of economic globalization,Violating the law of the development of human civilization is not conducive to the long-term development of world modernization, including western countries.
Civilizations communicate because of diversity, learn from each other because of communication and develop because of mutual learning. Conforming to the tide of world modernization and following the law of human civilization development, Chinese modernization has been developing continuously, and it has formed its own unique concept of civilization. The Party’s Report to the 20th CPC National Congress put forward: "Respect the diversity of world civilizations, transcend the barriers of civilizations, learn from each other, transcend the superiority of civilizations, and jointly meet various global challenges." This profoundly and vividly demonstrates the concept of civilization of Chinese modernization. It is with this concept of civilization that Chinese modernization is committed to promoting the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations, promoting the progress of human civilization, advocating respect for the diversity of world civilizations, promoting the common values of all mankind, attaching importance to the inheritance and innovation of civilizations, and strengthening international humanities exchanges and cooperation, which not only makes our own civilization full of vitality, but also creates conditions for the development of other countries’ civilizations and makes the world’s civilized gardens flourish.
Historically, in the process of development, western modernization has formed a binary opposition between tradition and modernity, and advocated replacing tradition with modernity. The concept of civilization of Chinese modernization was born in the process of socialist modernization in China, and at the same time it was nourished by profound Chinese culture. The Chinese-style modern civilization concept inherits the Chinese excellent traditional cultural genes, and highlights the Chinese excellent traditional cultural concepts such as "All things coexist without harming each other, and Taoism is parallel without contradicting each other", "It is noble to be a monk, be good at accommodating people, be virtuous and carry things, and be harmonious but different". It advocates organically combining modernity and tradition through harmony and inclusiveness, and exploring and creating an inclusive new form of human civilization. This has contributed China’s wisdom and China’s strength to fully respect the diversity of civilizations in the process of world modernization, promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and promote the development of world civilization in a balanced, positive and good direction.
Democratic view
Moderator: Whether a country is democratic or not and how to achieve it better is one of the important standards to measure the degree of modernization of this country. Please talk about the unique advantages of the concept of democracy contained in Chinese modernization and its practice.
Lin Shangli (President of China Renmin University)
The general law of world modernization development shows that a country’s democratic construction ability affects its modernization process to a great extent. The key to improve this ability lies in the extent to which we maintain our internal strength and truly proceed from the logic of modern development in line with our own history, society and culture to carry out democratic construction layout.
Whether a country is democratic or not depends on whether the people are the masters of the country. Only by truly having the right to be masters of the country can the people’s enthusiasm, initiative and creativity be fully mobilized, social productive forces and social vitality be fully released, and the modernization process can be smoothly promoted. Western modern democracy originated from the resistance and restriction of monarchical rule, and its formation and development mainly revolved around representative institutions that restricted or replaced monarchical power, emphasizing that people expressed their will through election agents. In practice, this democratic form gradually exposes the institutional defect that agents can’t really express people’s true opinions. In this regard, some western countries try to make up for the defects of representative democracy by deliberative democracy with citizens’ direct participation, but the effect is not obvious because of the constraints of system and culture.
In the process of leading and promoting China’s modernization, our party has always unified its grasp of the general laws of modernization with its deepening understanding of communist party’s laws of governance, socialist construction and the development of human society, pointed out that people’s democracy is the life of socialism and the proper meaning of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, and emphasized that the development of people’s democracy in China must always adhere to the organic unity of party leadership, people being masters of their own affairs and governing the country according to law. Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward that "the whole process people’s democracy is the essential attribute of socialist democratic politics" and regarded the development of the whole process people’s democracy as one of the essential requirements of Chinese modernization, which profoundly revealed the great significance of developing the whole process people’s democracy in the new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way. It is precisely because our Party has always respected the people’s dominant position and ensured that the people are masters of their own affairs that under the leadership of the Party, the people of China can successfully create a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability that is rare in the world in the process of promoting Chinese modernization. Embodying people’s will, safeguarding people’s rights and interests, stimulating people’s creativity, and ensuring that people are masters of their own affairs with the institutional system have always been the starting point and foothold of developing socialist democracy in China, and are also the distinctive features of Chinese-style modern democratic concept.
Only extensive and true democracy is a useful democracy. In the process of promoting Chinese modernization, China has developed and formed the whole process of people’s democracy. As an important carrier and way of Chinese modern democratic concept, the whole process of people’s democracy has realized the unity of process democracy and achievement democracy, procedural democracy and substantive democracy, direct democracy and indirect democracy, people’s democracy and national will, and it is a full-chain, all-round and full-coverage democracy, ensuring that the people are the masters of the country can be concretely and realistically reflected in the policies and measures of the party in governing the country, in all aspects and at all levels of the work of the party and state organs, and concretely and realistically. In the whole process of people’s democracy, the people not only have the right to vote, but also have the right to participate extensively; The people can not only fully express their opinions and wishes, but also unite and struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). People not only have the right to be masters of their own affairs guaranteed by system and law, but also have the right to supervise the operation of power and the relevant system guarantee.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "Promoting Chinese-style modernization is an exploratory undertaking, and there are still many unknown areas that we need to explore boldly in practice." The whole process of people’s democracy in China is a new thing full of vitality, which is constantly developing and perfecting in practice. We should constantly promote the institutionalization, standardization and proceduralization of socialist democracy, give full play to the characteristics and advantages of China’s socialist democracy, make the Chinese-style modernized democratic concept more convincing, attractive and leading, and make new and greater contributions to the theory and practice of world modernization and the development of human political civilization.
Ecological view
Moderator: Please talk about the ecological concept contained in Chinese modernization and its practice, how unique it is in understanding and dealing with major issues such as economic development and ecological protection, and the relationship between man and nature, and what theoretical and practical contributions it has made to the sustainable development of human society.
Fang Jingyun (Academician of China Academy of Sciences)
Correctly handling the relationship between man and nature is an important issue that must be faced and solved in the theory and practice of world modernization. In the history of world modernization, whether it is the first industrial revolution with the invention and use of steam engines and textile machines as the core, the second industrial revolution with the invention and use of electric power and motors as the symbol and the rise of heavy chemical industry as the core, or the third industrial revolution with the invention and use of electronic computers as the main symbol and the information technology revolution as the core, including the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, almost every modern development paradigm is based on the exchange of materials and energy with nature. It can be said that what kind of position, viewpoint and method to understand and deal with the relationship between man and nature in the process of modernization embodies this modern ecological view.
Human society is an important part of the earth’s ecosystem. The earth’s ecosystem, including human beings, realizes self-control and adjustment through a series of feedback processes among the components of biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and soil lithosphere. With the development of world modernization, human activities have become an important factor affecting the material cycle and energy cycle of the earth ecosystem and its evolution direction. The role of human beings in the evolution of the earth’s ecosystem can be positive or negative. Adhering to the correct concept of modern ecology and dealing with the relationship between man and nature according to the structure, function and changing law of natural ecosystem are conducive to realizing the win-win situation of modernization development and ecological environment protection. If we violate the laws of nature, put people above nature, grab resources and destroy the environment at will, it will lead to serious ecological and environmental problems and eventually ruin the whole modernization process.
Since modern times, most western countries have experienced serious environmental crisis in the process of modernization, which not only caused serious pollution to their own ecological environment, but also brought a series of severe global environmental problems. Among them, although there are some factors that limit the understanding of modernization, the fundamental reason lies in the pursuit of profit maximization with capital as the center of western modernization and the anthropocentrism that regards nature as the carrier for obtaining material wealth. In recent years, although the ecological environment in some western countries has improved, this improvement is based on capital to promote the transfer of high-pollution and high-energy-consuming production capacity at the expense of the ecological environment in other countries, which will only lead to the aggravation of global ecological environment problems and delay or even block the process of world modernization.
Chinese-style modernization not only has the common characteristics of modernization in all countries, but also has the distinctive characteristics based on its own national conditions. It not only follows the general law of the development of world modernization, but also upholds the correct ecological concept, and requires that the relationship between man and nature be handled well in the process of modernization. Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Party put forward: "Chinese modernization is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature." The harmonious coexistence of man and nature clearly shows the unique ecological view of Chinese modernization. The ecological view of Chinese modernization emphasizes that man and nature are a community of life, and human beings can use and transform nature, but in the final analysis, it is a part of nature, which transcends the anthropocentric view of nature that western modernization puts man above nature. In practice, the ecological view of Chinese modernization emphasizes planning development from the height of harmonious symbiosis between man and nature, and promotes the construction of material civilization and ecological civilization simultaneously by scientifically coordinating all elements of natural system and human society. Practice has proved that Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets’s ecological environment protection means protecting productive forces, and improving ecological environment means developing productive forces, pointing out a new path to realize the synergistic symbiosis between development and protection, and enriching and developing the theory and practice of world modernization from the dimensions of scientifically handling the relationship between man and nature, development and protection.
People’s Daily (March 27, 2023, 09 edition)
