The great rejuvenation of China

Section 2: Comprehensively grasp the strategic connotation and characteristics of a modern and powerful socialist country

The 19th CPC National Congress gave a macroscopic outlook and overall description of “basically realizing socialist modernization” and “comprehensively building a modern and powerful socialist country”, which has profound connotations and rich meanings, and has distinct characteristics of comprehensiveness, people’s nature, practicality, and epochality.

1. China’s modernization is a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful all-round modernization

China’s modernization is a modernization jointly promoted by economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and ecological civilization construction, and its comprehensive characteristics are a clear symbol of China’s socialist modernization strategy. “Prosperity and strength” is the common pursuit of human society, the eternal theme of the times, and the nuclear value of socialist China. “Prosperity and strength” means the unity of prosperity and strength, and the unity of people’s prosperity and national strength. It is not easy to be rich, and it is even more difficult to be strong; being rich but not strong is not being rich and strong. China is a big country, and only when it is rich and strong can it stand on its own among the nations of the world; China is a socialist country, and “prosperity of the people” and “strength of the country” should all the more be coordinated development, and “strong country and poor people” are untenable. “Rich and strong” is first of all an economic category, but also a concept of comprehensive national strength, a unity of hard power and soft power, and a strong country, a strong army, and a strong people" is a process, China is a large country with a population of 1.4 billion, and regional development is very unbalanced, which determines that it is impossible for all regions to achieve prosperity and strength at the same time, nor can it achieve equal prosperity and strength in the absolute sense; “rich and strong” is relative, there is only a starting point, there is no end. Looking forward to the middle of this century, China will have a high degree of material civilization, its economic strength, scientific and technological strength and social productivity will leap sharply, its core competitiveness will rank among the best in the world, and it will become a country with leading comprehensive national strength and international influence.

“Democracy”, in essence, means that the people are masters of their own country, which is the essence and core of socialist democratic politics. Without democracy, there can be no socialism, and there will be no socialist modernization. The most important thing for “democracy” in the context of modernization is the institutionalization and rule of law of democracy, including the maturity and perfection of the political system, institutional mechanism, procedural norms and their operation, including ensuring that the people enjoy extensive and fulfilling rights and self-esteem, ensuring that the people widely participate in national and social governance, and ensuring vigorous and healthy and orderly relations between political parties, ethnic groups, religions, classes, and compatriots at home and abroad. Looking forward to the middle of this century, China will have a high degree of political civilization, a country ruled by law, a government ruled by law, and a society ruled by law, and realize the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.

There is also the mature and finalized socialist democratic political system with Chinese characteristics, and will give full play to its advantages and characteristics. “Civilization” generally refers to the comprehensive cultural image displayed by a society, including ideological consciousness, values, moral literacy, social order, production and lifestyle, scientific and cultural level, etc., which is a concentrated embodiment of a country’s development level and a prominent symbol of a social progress. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “Civilization, especially ideology and culture, is the soul of a country and a nation.” 1 Without the inheritance and development of civilization and the promotion and prosperity of culture, there will be no realization of the Chinese dream. Looking forward to the middle of this century, China will have a high degree of spiritual civilization, the quality of the people will be significantly improved, the practice of socialist core values will become the conscious action of the whole society, and the Chinese spirit, Chinese values and Chinese strength will become an important influence and driving force for China’s development.

“Harmony” means achieving social harmony and building a better society. This is the social ideal that mankind has diligently pursued, and it is also the goal that the Communist Party of China has unremittingly pursued. The most fundamental characteristics of a harmonious socialist society are democracy and rule of law, fairness and justice, honesty and fraternity, vitality, stability and order, and harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Looking forward to the middle of this century, China will have a high degree of social civilization, urban and rural residents will generally have higher incomes, a prosperous life, sound basic public services, enjoy a happier and healthier life, the common prosperity of all the people will be basically realized, fairness and justice will be universally displayed, and the society will be full of vitality and standardized and orderly. “Beauty” means realizing ecological civilization and building a beautiful China. Ecological civilization is a major achievement of human social progress and an inevitable requirement for realizing harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Socialist modernization is a modernization in which man and nature live in harmony. The construction of modern ecological civilization is based on the carrying capacity of resources and environment, takes the laws of nature as the criterion, takes sustainable development and harmony between man and nature as the goal, firmly follows the civilized development path of production development, rich life and good ecology, and strives to build a beautiful Zhongzhong. country where you can see the mountains, see the water, and remember homesickness. Looking forward to the middle of this century, China will have a high degree of ecological civilization, and the beautiful ecological environment of blue sky, green earth and clear water will become the universal norm, creating a new realm of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

2. China’s modernization is a modernization that adheres to the people-centered approach and takes the road of common prosperity

Socialist modernization, which takes the people as the center and takes the road of common prosperity, is in line with the highest ideals and value pursuit of Marxism, and its goal is to benefit the people and ultimately realize the free and comprehensive development of everyone. In terms of the driving force of development, people-centered modernization emphasizes the great cause of all the people to jointly build socialist modernization; in the pursuit of goals, it emphasizes that all the people share the great achievements of socialist modernization; and in the evaluation criteria, it emphasizes whether or not it brings a better life to the masses of the people as the fundamental criterion for testing the results of modernization. People-centered modernization is not a negation of the modernization of things, but a higher-level modernization based on the modernization of things. This kind of modernization emphasizes the central position and subjective status of “man”, emphasizes that it cannot be at the cost of material abundance and spiritual poverty, and emphasizes the need to avoid repeating the mistakes of some countries and regions that take capital as the center and thus lead to the expansion of materialism and the decline of the spiritual world. Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialist modernization, and it is the embodiment

of the people-centered position in the results of development and the distribution of wealth. As early as 1955, Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, “Now that we implement such a system and such a plan, we can move towards richer and stronger year by year, and we can see richer and stronger year by year.“1 And this wealth is common wealth, this strong, is common strength.” After the reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “Socialism is not about a few people getting rich and the majority getting poor. The greatest advantage of socialism is common prosperity, which is a thing that embodies the essence of socialism.”2 Entering the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “The development we pursue is development that benefits the people, and the prosperity we pursue is the common prosperity of all the people.”

The socialist concept of common prosperity takes into account the unity of the standards of productive forces and the people’s interests, and the unity of material and human scales.

At this stage, China still has problems of regional disparity, urban-rural disparity, and large income gap, which is a problem that is difficult to completely avoid at a specific historical stage but can eventually be solved. Eliminating polarization and ultimately achieving common prosperity is the firm commitment of the Communist Party of China to the Chinese people, and it is also the proper meaning of China’s realization of socialist modernization.

3. China’s modernization is a modernization based on China’s national conditions and independent development

The direction of development of modernization cannot be bypassed, but the path to modernization can be chosen. Every country has the right to choose its own path of modernization, write its own modern civilization, and reap its own modernization results.

With more than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, a vast territory of more than 9.6 million square kilometers, a population of 1.4 billion, and its own unique cultural traditions, historical destiny and actual national conditions, China’s modernization cannot imitate and depend on others, let alone trade its own core interests, and must take the road of independent development and self-reliance. The CPC has its own independent judgment on how and what kind of modernization should be achieved. Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “The modernization we are engaged in is Chinese- style modernization. The socialism we are building is socialism with Chinese characteristics. We are mainly self-reliant according to our own actual situation and our own conditions. “2 Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that “there is no one-size-fits-all development model in the world.”3

“We are willing to learn from all the achievements of human civilization, but we will not copy the development model of any country.“1 “The successful practice of the Chinese people shows the world that there is more than one road to modernization, as long as you find the right direction and keep going, all roads lead to Rome. “2 The practice of history fully proves that it is precisely by adhering to the road of independent development based on its own national conditions that has enabled China to achieve tremendous achievements in modernization that have attracted worldwide attention; for the first time, China has relied on its own strength to achieve a moderate prosperity of the entire people, and for the first time has achieved leapfrogging and catching up by following its own road. China’s road to modernization was born in the historical practice of contemporary China and is a great innovation in human history. With its actual actions in modernization, China has told the world that China has neither “decoupled” from human civilization nor imitated and attached to others; it has chosen to integrate with the international community without sliding into the “Western track”; it has absorbed and learned from all the outstanding achievements of human civilization without losing its autonomy. Independence and self-reliance have been, are and will be the foothold of building a modern and powerful socialist country.