On the evening of July 6, at the Summit of the Communist Party of China and World Party Leaders attended by leaders of more than 500 political parties and organizations from more than 160 countries, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his keynote speech that the Communist Party of China will unite and lead The Chinese people are deeply promoting Chinese-style modernization and making new contributions to mankind's exploration of modernization roads.
Chinese-style modernization is the second time Xi Jinping mentioned this keyword in less than a week after the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
At the celebration meeting, Xi Jinping emphasized that we adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, promote the coordinated development of material civilization, political civilization, spiritual civilization, social civilization, and ecological civilization, create a new path to Chinese-style modernization, and create a new form of human civilization.
Where is the "new" of this new road?
Chinese-style modernization not only has the common characteristics of modernization in all countries, but also has Chinese characteristics based on national conditions.
The modernization that China wants to achieve is a modernization of a huge population, a modernization of common prosperity for all the people, a modernization that harmonizes material civilization and spiritual civilization, a modernization that harmoniously coexists with nature, and a modernization that takes the path of peaceful development.
The huge population size is the basic national condition of our country and an important feature of Chinese-style modernization
Xi Jinping emphasized, “To meet the increasing material needs of the people, we must do a good job in economic and social construction and increase the material wealth of society.”
China is the world's most populous country and the largest developing country. Such a huge population has entered modernization, unprecedented in the world.
Alleviating poverty is the bottom line task.
When New China was founded, China was among the poorest countries in the world. By 1978, there were still 770 million people living in poverty.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. The land of China has fought a massive fight against poverty. The 98.99 million rural poor people have all been lifted out of poverty, and 832 poor counties have all taken their hats off.
At the important moment of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping solemnly declared that China will build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and historicly solve the problem of absolute poverty.
Promoting urbanization is the only way.
When the People's Republic of China was founded, the vast majority of the Chinese population lived in rural areas, engaged in agricultural production, and urban employment opportunities were scarce.
In the process of advancing urbanization, the face of the city has undergone a new look, creating a large number of employment opportunities, and increasing the income of the people, and all the people have shared the fruits of urbanization.
Since the reform and opening up, China has experienced the largest and fastest urbanization process in the history of the world. As of the end of 2020, the urbanization rate of China's permanent population has exceeded 60%.
Chinese-style modernization is committed to the all-round development of people and all-round progress of society.
At the beginning of New China, 80% of the population was illiterate, the average life expectancy was only 35 years, and social security was almost blank.
The process of China's continuous promotion of modernization is also a process in which the quality of the population has been significantly improved and the people's livelihood and welfare have been continuously improved.
At present, the gross enrollment rate of higher education in China has reached 54.4%, the average life expectancy has reached 77.3 years, and the world's largest social security system has been established.
Prosperity for all people is a basic feature of Chinese-style modernization
Xi Jinping pointed out that "common prosperity is itself an important goal of socialist modernization."
Prosperity is the goal pursued by all countries in modernization, but Chinese-style modernization pursues common prosperity.
Both theory and practice have proved that the prosperity we pursue is the common prosperity of all people, and there must be no such thing as the phenomenon of "the rich are numerous, and the poor eat the chaff".
The common prosperity of all the people highlights the socialist nature of Chinese-style modernization, enriches the connotation of human modernization, and contributes Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to solving human problems.
Achieving common prosperity for all people in a large country with a population of more than 1.4 billion is a great undertaking that has never been seen before. It must be down-to-earth and long-term success.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee put forward specific requirements: By 2035, “per capita GDP will reach the level of moderately developed countries, the middle-income group will be significantly expanded, basic public services will be equalized, and the gap between urban and rural regional development and the gap in residents’ living standards will be significantly reduced. "The all-round development of people and the common prosperity of all people have made more obvious substantive progress."
These narratives point out the way forward for achieving common prosperity and describe the grand blueprint for achieving common prosperity.
Not long ago, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a document to support the high-quality development of Zhejiang and the construction of a "demonstration zone for common prosperity."
On the basis of successful practices in Zhejiang, we should explore effective ways to solve the main contradictions in the current society, and provide a "provincial example" for the country to promote common prosperity.
Coordination of "Two Civilizations" is the meaning of Chinese-style modernization
Xi Jinping emphasized, “When tall buildings are everywhere on our country, the edifice of Chinese national spirit should also stand majestically.”
The Chinese-style modernization emphasizes that "without the prosperity and development of socialist culture, there would be no socialist modernization", which overcomes the inherent shortcomings of capitalist modernization.
Chinese-style modernization not only requires the improvement of the material standard of living and the lack of food and clothing for every family, but also the rich spiritual and cultural life, and everyone knows the etiquette and honor and shame. It is a modernization that harmonizes material civilization and spiritual civilization.
In September 1949, Mao Zedong predicted with confidence: "The era when the Chinese were considered uncivilized has passed, and we will appear in the world as a highly cultural nation."
After the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China took the coordinated development of material civilization and spiritual civilization as its due meaning in the topic of modernization.
After the reform and opening up, the Communist Party of China creatively proposed the strategic task of building socialist spiritual civilization, and determined the strategic policy of "grasping with both hands and with both hands."
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to the coordinated development of material civilization and spiritual civilization, and emphasized that "to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, material wealth must be greatly enriched, and spiritual wealth must also be greatly enriched." It has pointed out the way forward for promoting the coordinated development of the "two civilizations" and comprehensively building a modern socialist country.
Looking back on the path taken, correctly handling the relationship between the two civilizations, and always insisting on the coordinated development of material civilization and spiritual civilization are the distinctive features of Chinese-style modernization.
Form a new pattern of harmonious development between man and nature and modernization
Xi Jinping pointed out, “The modernization we want to build is a modernization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously. We must not only create more material and spiritual wealth to meet the people’s growing needs for a better life, but also provide more high-quality ecological products to meet people’s growing needs. A beautiful ecological environment for growth needs."
While traditional industrialization in the West created huge material wealth, it also accelerated the capture of natural resources and broke the original cycle and balance of the earth's ecosystem.
There have been many environmental hazards in some Western countries, causing huge losses and shocking the world, triggering people to deeply reflect on the development model of capitalism.
Chinese-style modernization resolutely abandons the modernization model that underestimates, dominates, and destroys nature, and will never follow the old path of Western modernization. Instead, it will unswervingly follow the path of ecological priority and green development, and build a modernization in which man and nature live in harmony.
After long-term practical exploration, China has achieved fruitful results and valuable experience in establishing and improving the value realization mechanism of ecological products and enhancing the total ecological value.
Taking ecological poverty alleviation as an example, since 2013, 74.5 million mu of farmland has been returned to forests and grasslands in poverty-stricken areas, and more than 1.1 million poor people have been selected as ecological forest rangers, achieving a win-win situation for economic income and ecological environmental protection.
Take a path to modernization that not only develops itself, but also benefits the world
Xi Jinping emphasized that “China’s path of peaceful development is not an expedient, let alone diplomatic rhetoric. It is a conclusion drawn from objective judgments of history, reality, and the future. It is an organic unity of self-confidence in thought and self-consciousness in practice.”
China has not followed the old path of aggression and expansion in the history of some countries to achieve their rise, but is firmly committed to exploring a new path to achieve national development and national rejuvenation through peaceful means.
Over the past 70 years since the founding of New China, China has never provoked any war or conflict on its own initiative.
China seeks its own development while firmly safeguarding world peace, and uses its own development to better safeguard world peace.
China persists in providing foreign aid to support and help the vast number of developing countries to eradicate poverty. It is the second largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations and a permanent member of the UN Security Council with the largest number of peacekeepers.
"There is no gene in the blood of the Chinese nation to invade others and dominate." Today's world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. China actively advocates the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, adheres to mutual respect, consultations on an equal footing, and insists on dialogue instead of confrontation. The new path of partnership but not alliance has embarked on a modernization path that achieves common development and peaceful development through win-win cooperation. It breaks the traditional model of "a strong country must hegemony" and provides a new choice for modernization.
According to the "Analysis of Chinese Modernization" series of observation editions of the People's Daily