Feng Jun: Opening Up Broader Prospects for Chinese-path Modernization
In his 2025 New Year Address, President Xi Jinping emphasized that the successful convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee sounded the bugle call for further comprehensively deepening reform. As we stride forward on the great tide of the era of reform and opening up, Chinese-path modernization will surely open up even broader prospects through reform and opening up. The current and upcoming periods constitute a critical stage for comprehensively advancing the cause of building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization. What shall we rely upon to further pool our strengths and consolidate our will? We must rely on Chinese-path modernization. To further comprehensively deepen reform, we must unfold our efforts by focusing closely on the theme of advancing Chinese-path modernization.
First, the historic transition from "modernization in China" to "Chinese-path modernization" is the historical process of moving toward and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. After the Opium War of 1840 [1], China gradually became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society; the country suffered humiliation, the people endured hardships, and civilization was shrouded in dust. The Chinese nation underwent unprecedented calamities. From the "learning the superior techniques of the barbarians to control the barbarians" [2] of the Westernization Movement to the nascent bourgeois industrialization movement led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, all were responses to the impact of Western modernization. Only when the Communist Party of China (CPC) led the Chinese people in the struggle to complete the two great historical tasks—achieving national independence and liberation, and attaining national prosperity and the people's happiness—by establishing the People's Republic of China and determining the basic socialist system, was the foundation for Chinese-path modernization further laid.
Roughly outlined, Chinese-path modernization can be divided into two historical periods: before and after the start of reform and opening up. These two historical periods are not severed from or opposed to one another, much less should one be used to negate the other; they are different stages in the exploration of socialist construction and Chinese-path modernization. Among these, the original theoretical achievements and great successes attained during the period of socialist revolution and construction provided the fundamental political prerequisites, theoretical preparation, material foundation, and valuable experience for Chinese-path modernization.
Reform and opening up is a great new revolution; it is the "crucial move" [3] that determines the fate of contemporary China and the powerful driver for advancing Chinese-path modernization. In 1979, Comrade Deng Xiaoping for the first time explicitly proposed "following a path of Chinese-path modernization" and stated that "Chinese-path modernization must proceed from China's specific characteristics." He further interpreted the "Four Modernizations" [4] as "Chinese-path modernization" and envisioned achieving a "basic xiaokang" [5] (moderately prosperous) level by the year 2000. Had it not been for reform and opening up, Chinese-path modernization could not have achieved such brilliant successes. The new period of reform, opening up, and socialist construction realized the historical leap of the people's lives from having insufficient food and clothing to reaching overall xiaokang and then striving toward comprehensive xiaokang. This provided the institutional guarantee full of new vitality and the material conditions for rapid development for Chinese-path modernization, advancing the great leap of the Chinese nation from "standing up" to "becoming rich" [6].
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Socialism with Chinese Characteristics has entered a New Era, embarking on a new journey of building a strong country and national rejuvenation. Taking the solid promotion of high-quality development as an example: regional development is coordinated and linked, accumulating momentum; new-type urbanization and rural revitalization are integrated and resonate at the same frequency; green and low-carbon development is advancing in depth; and the picture of a "Beautiful China" is slowly unfolding. In particular, by cultivating new quality productive forces according to local conditions, new industries, new business forms, and new models are emerging in competitive abundance. The annual production of new energy vehicles has exceeded 10 million units, and new achievements have been made in fields such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and quantum communication, demonstrating the lofty ambitions of the Chinese people to "chase their dreams among the stars and seas" [7].
Today, we are closer to, and have more confidence and capability than at any other period in history to achieve the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. With the in-depth implementation of a series of major strategies such as the strategy for invigorating China through science and education, the strategy on developing a quality workforce, and the rural revitalization strategy, we will possess a more complete institutional guarantee, a more solid material foundation, and a more proactive spiritual force. This will in turn support the basic realization of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and the basic realization of socialist modernization, laying a solid foundation for comprehensively building a great modern socialist country by the middle of this century.
Second, Chinese-path modernization has shattered the myth that "modernization equals Westernization," allowing the world to further realize that "the modernization of all countries in the world possesses both commonalities and uniqueness based on their respective national conditions."
Modernization is not equivalent to Westernization. Modernization possesses both universality and particularity. There is no single, fixed model of modernization in the world, nor is there a universal standard of modernization that fits all cases. Chinese-path modernization is socialist modernization led by the CPC; it possesses the common characteristics of modernization in all countries, but even more so has Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions.
The modernization process in the West, beginning with the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, roughly synchronized with the developmental process of capitalist society. However, to conclude from this that modernization is Westernization, or that modernization can only be realized through capitalism, is a narrow understanding of modernization. For a country to move toward modernization, it must follow the general laws of modernization while—more importantly—conforming to its own national reality and possessing its own national characteristics.
All roads lead to Rome. There is no fixed model for the path to modernization; the one that suits oneself is the best. The successful practice of Chinese-path modernization possesses world significance; it has expanded the choices of paths for developing countries to move toward modernization and provided Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions for those countries and nations in the world that wish to both accelerate development and maintain their own independence.
In his speech at the ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "As we have upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics and driven coordinated development of material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological civilizations, we have pioneered a new and uniquely Chinese path to modernization, and created a new model for human civilization." Here, linking Socialism with Chinese Characteristics with the new path of Chinese-path modernization and the new model for human civilization is a highly concentrated summary of the historical and world significance of the Chinese path, marking a new positioning for the path of Chinese-path modernization and a new height in the development of Chinese civilization.
Looking further, Chinese-path modernization is deeply rooted in fine traditional Chinese culture, embodies the advanced nature of scientific socialism, draws upon and absorbs all outstanding achievements of human civilization, represents the developmental direction of human civilizational progress, and presents a new picture different from the Western modernization model. The best way to inherit history is to create new history; the greatest tribute to human civilization is to create a new model for human civilization. While persisting in taking economic construction as the center, we must comprehensively advance economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological construction (the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan). This drives the transition from the accumulation of quantity toward a qualitative leap, realizing a dynamic evolution of continuous innovation, improvement, development, and self-transcendence.
Third, the summative proposal and in-depth elaboration of the theory of Chinese-path modernization is a major achievement of scientific socialism and an important component of Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
Chinese-path modernization is socialist modernization led by the CPC. It is the modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature, and of peaceful development. Chinese-path modernization is a systemic project that requires properly handling the relationship between top-level design and practical exploration, between strategy and tactics, between upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, between efficiency and equity, between vitality and order, and between self-reliance and opening up to the outside world.
Furthermore, the unique worldview, values, and outlooks on history, civilization, democracy, and ecology inherent in Chinese-path modernization and its great practice allow us to further deepen our understanding of the connotation and essence of Chinese-path modernization. This has allowed us to summarize and form the Chinese characteristics, essential requirements, and major principles of Chinese-path modernization, and to preliminary construct the theoretical system of Chinese-path modernization, making it clearer, more scientific, and more perceptible and feasible. It reflects the spirit of the times, answers the questions of the times, and continuously enriches and develops Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
(The author is a Professor and former member of the Work Committee of the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee)
Source: Jiefang Daily (January 7, 2024) Web Editor: Hui Hui