Marxism Research Network
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Summary Meeting of the Qianxinan National Conditions Research Base of the Academy of Marxism, CASS, Held in Beijing

Notices & Announcements

On December 19, 2023, the Work Summary Meeting of the Southwest Guizhou National Conditions Research Base (hereafter referred to as the Southwest Guizhou Base) of the Institute of Marxism Studies (IMS) was held at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The meeting was attended by Xin Xiangyang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the IMS at CASS, and a delegation led by Zuo Shangwu, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Southwest Guizhou Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture [1] Party Committee and Director of the Prefecture's Propaganda and United Front Work Departments, along with heads of relevant departments from Southwest Guizhou.

Xin Xiangyang first welcomed the guests from the Southwest Guizhou Base to the IMS and introduced the basic status of the Institute. He stated that CASS has always attached great importance to research on national conditions (guóqíng [2]), which is an indispensable component of scientific research. Research bases bear the heavy responsibility of serving scientific research; each base possesses distinct characteristics and different research priorities. The Southwest Guizhou Base possesses rich ethnic characteristics, unique geological features, and climate advantages, as well as revolutionary sites from the Red Army's Long March [3], making it an ethnic region well worth in-depth investigation.

Zuo Shangwu introduced the basic situation of Southwest Guizhou Prefecture. He pointed out that while many people’s impressions of Guizhou remain stuck in the past, the province—including Southwest Guizhou—has undergone earth-shaking changes since the start of the New Era. Every county is connected by expressways, every city has an airport, infrastructure is advanced, and emerging industries have begun to take shape. These developments provide excellent research material for topics such as rural revitalization, ethnic unity, and modernization construction. In terms of theoretical armament and publicity and education, the Institute of Marxism Studies can provide more assistance to Southwest Guizhou. In turn, Southwest Guizhou can provide comprehensive services for the IMS’s research and academic exchanges, allowing both parties to maintain connectivity and promote a better integration of theory and practice.

Subsequently, the project leader of the Southwest Guizhou Base introduced the work performed and the main academic achievements achieved before and after the base’s establishment. In October 2016, a sub-project of the CASS Major National Conditions Research Project "One Hundred Village Survey on Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Targeted Poverty Elimination," titled "Research on Targeted Poverty Alleviation Work in Villages of Southwest Ethnic Minority Areas," selected Bingga Village in Xingyi City, Southwest Guizhou, for investigation. With the support of the Southwest Guizhou Prefectural Government, the research project was successfully concluded after two years. In 2019, the IMS and the Southwest Guizhou Prefectural Government reached an agreement to co-construct the Southwest Guizhou National Conditions Research Base for the period of 2019–2023.

From 2016 to 2023, IMS researchers successively established seven research groups, with their footprints covering eight counties (cities) in Southwest Guizhou, as well as Anshun City, Bijie City, and the Liuzhi Special District in Guizhou Province. The national conditions research groups obtained a wealth of first-hand materials through conferences, public welfare activities, household interviews, questionnaires, and field research, enhancing researchers’ understanding of the conditions of the people, the nation, and the world.

Over these years (including the 2016–2018 "One Hundred Village" research period), the Southwest Guizhou Base research groups completed 22 academic achievements (including internal reports [4]). The main publicly published results are as follows:

  1. Monograph: One Hundred Village Survey on Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Targeted Poverty Elimination: Bingga Village Volume, over 170,000 characters, Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2020;
  2. "The Practice and Experience of Promoting Rural Revitalization through 'Great Party Building' in the New Era," Journal of Political Economy, Issue 2, 2023;
  3. "The Battle Against Poverty Helps Construct a New Development Paradigm," World Socialist Studies, Issue 1, 2021;
  4. "Establishing a Holistic Perspective to Win the Decisive Battle Against Poverty," Economic Daily, September 22, 2017;
  5. The "South-South Star Platform," established by the United Nations for the poverty alleviation and development of Third World countries, published an article by the Southwest Guizhou project group on the collective economy of Tangyue Village (Article link: "Transformation of Land Management Mode for Poverty Alleviation—Tangyue: How Could a Poor Village Get Rid of Poverty in Two Years").

On August 10, 2023, the Southwest Guizhou Base project group and the Propaganda Department of the Southwest Guizhou Prefectural Party Committee held a symposium on the development and utilization of "Jiayou Culture" [5]. Seven speeches delivered by the research group at the symposium were published on August 17 and 18, 2023, in the Southwest Guizhou Daily, the official organ of the CPC Southwest Guizhou Prefectural Committee: Zhang Jiangang: "Deepening 'Jiayou' Culture to Create the Cultural Name Card of Southwest Guizhou"; Wang Zhongbao: "Developing 'Jiayou' Cultural Resources to Boost Chinese-path Modernization"; Song Lidan: "Jiayou! People of Guizhou"; Shan Chao: "In the New Era, Let 'Jiayou' Culture Become Common Practice, Cheering for You and Me!"; Liu Zixu: "Chinese-path Modernization: Taking Xingyi, Guizhou as an Example"; Zhang Wei: "Positioning 'Jiayou' Culture to Create a Unique Advantage for the Southwest Guizhou Cultural Tourism Industry"; and Gao Jingyu: "Systematically Building the Soft Power of Southwest Guizhou with 'Jiayou' Culture at the Core."

Furthermore, the Southwest Guizhou National Conditions Research Base project group submitted one research report annually from 2019 to 2023, totaling approximately 150,000 characters: Exploration and Struggle for the Symbiotic Prosperity of Mountain People and Nature: Research and Reflections on Poverty Alleviation Work in Southwest Guizhou Prefecture; Witnessing the Decisive Moment in the Battle Against Poverty: Research on Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization Construction in the Contiguous Poor Areas of Karst Desertification in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi; Party Branches Leading Village Collective Cooperatives to Boost Rural Revitalization: A Study of Jinsha County, Guizhou Province; Development Status and Policy Suggestions for High-Efficiency Ecological Organic Agriculture in Rural Areas: A Research Report on Liuzhi Special District, Guizhou Province; and The Practice of Chinese-path Modernization in Southwest Guizhou.

The two parties also exchanged views on issues of common concern, such as academic exchanges, talent cultivation, and base construction.

Other attendees included: Liu Yuanyao, Vice President of the Party School of the CPC Southwest Guizhou Prefectural Committee; Liu Xianguo, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Southwest Guizhou Prefecture Federation of Social Sciences; Yang Huanhuan, Dean of the School of Marxism at Xingyi Normal University for Nationalities; Long Hu, Curator of the Southwest Guizhou Prefecture Museum; Chen Mingyu from the Office of the Propaganda Department of the Southwest Guizhou Prefectural Party Committee; and other comrades from the coordinating units of the Southwest Guizhou Base. Representatives from IMS included Yu Haiqing, Director of the Department of Foreign Marxism Research and Head of the Southwest Guizhou Base; Qi Jianguo, Director of the IMS Office; Wang Zhongbao, Director of the Editorial Department of International Critical Thought; Song Lidan, Associate Researcher of the Department of Foreign Marxism and IMS Project Leader for the Southwest Guizhou Base; and Liu Haihua, an official from the Research Division.