Zhang Guozuo and Yang Ruonan: Mao Zedong's Exploration and Contributions to the Path of Modernization After the Founding of New China
At the symposium commemorating the 130th anniversary of Comrade Mao Zedong's birth, Xi Jinping highly evaluated Mao Zedong as the "great founder of the cause of China’s socialist modernization," fully affirming Mao’s outstanding contributions to exploring the path of modernization for the New China. During the periods of the New Democratic Revolution and socialist revolution and construction, Mao Zedong devoted immense effort to driving China toward modernization and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Particularly following the founding of the New China, Mao conducted unremitting explorations into the path of modernization, accumulating important ideological, material, and institutional conditions for the cause of Chinese-path modernization.
I. Launching the Great Journey of a Country with a Massive Population Toward Socialist Modernization
At the dawn of the New China, facing the predicament of being "poor and blank" [1], leading a backward country of 600 million people toward modernization required formidable self-confidence and firm determination. Whence did Mao Zedong’s confidence and determination arise? It came from the Communist Party of China’s fundamental tenet of serving the people heart and soul, from his profound affection for the broad masses, and from his high degree of trust in the great historical power of the people. Mao knew deeply that the Chinese people, having stood up and held their heads high, not only possessed an ardent longing for a better life but also the courage to "change heaven and earth" [2]. How could it be easy for a country of such massive population, poverty, and backwardness to move toward modernization? Mao possessed a very clear understanding of this. However, unlike the average person, Mao saw not only the difficulties and responsibilities but also the favorable conditions for overcoming those difficulties and shouldering those responsibilities. He pointed out: "To enable several hundred million Chinese people to live well, to build our economically and culturally backward country into an affluent, powerful country with a high level of culture—this is an arduous task." However, "China is a country with 9.6 million square kilometers of land and 600 million people; China ought to make a greater contribution to humanity." Mao believed that a large population was a good thing. He noted: "Apart from the Party's leadership, the 600 million people are a decisive factor. More people mean more talk, higher heat, and greater drive. Never before have the masses of people been seen in such high spirits, with such militant will and such soaring enthusiasm." Clearly, Mao’s view on conducting modernization in a country with a massive population was dialectical: while a massive population meant more difficulties in solving needs for food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and a greater responsibility in achieving modernization, it also meant a greater force for achieving it.
After the founding of the New China, the rapid population growth provided sufficient human and talent resources for the country's fast development. The first generation of the Party's central collective leadership with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core attached great importance to population quantity while simultaneously emphasizing population quality. By implementing a series of effective measures, they created favorable conditions for the growth of the population and the enhancement of its quality. First, they provided a favorable political environment for rapid population growth. By thoroughly overthrowing the old system that exploited and oppressed the people—allowing the people to stand up and liberate themselves to become masters of the country—the most fundamental institutional guarantee was provided for the safety of people's lives and their production and livelihood. Second, they led and initiated large-scale patriotic mass health campaigns, elevating health work to the height of patriotism. In response to the threat of biological weapons from US military forces during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Mao requested that the masses "get mobilized, pay attention to hygiene, reduce disease, improve health levels, and smash the enemy's biological warfare." To eliminate schistosomiasis, he issued the instruction that "schistosomiasis is extremely harmful and we must emphasize its prevention and cure," demanding a mobilization of the whole Party and the whole people to eliminate this disease, which seriously endangered the lives of the masses, easily caused infertility, and had a high mortality rate. Third, they established a relatively sound healthcare and social security system. Mao called for placing the focus of medical and health work on the rural areas, training over 1.5 million "barefoot doctors" [3] for the vast countryside. By 1976, a three-tier medical and health network covering the county, commune, and production brigade levels basically achieved full coverage for the rural population; over 90% of the country’s production brigades had established cooperative medical care, covering approximately 85% of the rural population. These guarantee measures reduced the infant mortality rate in the New China from 200‰ before 1949 to 34.7‰ in 1981; the crude death rate dropped from 25‰ before 1949 to 6.3‰ in 1978; and the average life expectancy rose from 35 years before 1949 to 68.2 years in 1978.
Particularly worthy of praise is that the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong committed themselves to enabling the 600 million people of the New China to master the cultural knowledge required for socialist modernization, achieving "cultural liberation" [4]. Lenin once stressed: "A communist society cannot be built in an illiterate country." Regarding this, Mao also clearly pointed out: "Culture is indispensable; no society can be built without culture." After the founding of the New China, the state vigorously launched illiteracy eradication campaigns and established various types of schools at all levels, striving to help the masses escape their state of cultural backwardness. Under Mao’s instruction that "restoring and developing people's education is one of the important current tasks," the New China underwent four large-scale illiteracy eradication campaigns, and the illiteracy rate dropped from 80% at the start of the New China to 32.3% in 1964. Through the universalization of primary and secondary education, the number of students enrolled in middle and primary schools grew from 1.039 million and 24.391 million in 1949 to 58.365 million and 150.055 million in 1976 respectively. These vigorous actions to popularize culture and education in the New China broke the knowledge monopoly held by the ruling classes for thousands of years. They enabled hundreds of millions of the formerly "culturally deprived" ruled classes to become masters of society who possessed advanced culture and could contribute to socialist modernization—a phenomenon unprecedented in history. Marx once pointed out: "Of all the instruments of production, the greatest productive power is the revolutionary class itself." Mao also confidently stated: "Under the leadership of the Communist Party, as long as there are people, any miracle on earth can be performed." The "people" mentioned here are the masses who have achieved political liberation while mastering advanced cultural knowledge, and are thus filled with creative vitality. Witnessing the gratifying scene of the vast peasantry enthusiastically participating in agricultural producer cooperatives, Mao remarked with emotion: "Do the Chinese laboring people still have the slave-like appearance of the past? No, they have become the masters. The laboring people on the 9.6 million square kilometers of the People's Republic of China have now truly begun to rule this land." With a people in such an immensely high spirit, the New China, with its massive population, was bound to harbor a majestic power for building a socialist modern country.
II. Establishing a Modernization Value Orientation Pursuing Justice, Equality, and Common Prosperity
Mao Zedong was a true and pure Communist. The modernization he spent his lifetime pursuing was a modernization of justice and equality—one that opposed polarization and advocated for the realization of common prosperity for all people. Mao’s understanding of this issue pierced through the ancient and the modern. In his annotations to the Biography of Zhang Lu in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, he noted: "In every dynasty there were numerous peasant revolutionary struggles of varying scales; their nature was of course fundamentally different from the current Marxist revolutionary movement. But there is one point in common: the vast strata of extremely poor peasants dreamed of equality, freedom, and escaping poverty to have ample food and clothing." After leading the Chinese people to use the violent means of revolution to shatter the shackles imposed on them by the ruling classes of the old society and establishing the New China, Mao led the implementation of a series of measures dedicated to achieving social justice and equality. These mainly included: establishing the system of regional ethnic autonomy and opposing "Great Han Chauvinism" to achieve ethnic equality; implementing equal pay for equal work to achieve gender equality; launching Rectification Movements [5] to oppose bureaucratism and achieve equality between cadres and the masses; advocating the "Constitution of the Anshan Iron and Steel Company" [6] and promoting the "two participations, one reform, and three-in-one combination" [7] to achieve equality between managers and workers; advocating for the abolition of "bourgeois right" [8] to eliminate the "three major differences" (between workers and peasants, city and countryside, and mental and manual labor) to achieve equality among laborers; and abolishing military ranks and adjusting the salary system to achieve equality between officers and soldiers, and so on. Throughout his life, Mao committed himself to achieving universal equality for the broad masses of the people, preventing the emergence of a privileged stratum within the Party that would place itself above the people, and actively defending socialist fairness and justice. Of course, the social justice and equality for which Mao strove was not "equalizing wealth" in the traditional sense, but rather "opposing both egalitarianism and excessive disparities," which aligns with the basic principles of scientific socialism.
In the historical process of exploring socialist modernization, Mao Zedong consistently integrated the concept of common prosperity. At a October 1955 symposium on the socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce, he emphasized: "We are now implementing such a system and such a plan that we can move toward becoming wealthier and stronger year by year... and this wealth is common wealth, this strength is common strength; everyone has a share... this common prosperity is certain; it is not something where we don't know today what will happen tomorrow." Mao had deep reflections on how to realize a modernization characterized by common prosperity. His general approach was to implement a strategy of "overall planning and all-round consideration" [9] through a step-by-step process. To resolve the contradictions of unbalanced regional development and town-country opposition—problems that neither Western capitalist countries nor the socialist Soviet Union had solved well—Mao wrote "On the Ten Major Relationships" based on a full investigation of China's conditions. He proposed that to balance the layout of industrial development, "the coastal industrial bases must be fully utilized" while "inland industry must be vigorously developed." To balance the interests of the state and the peasants, he stated: "Our agricultural tax has always been relatively light. In the exchange of industrial and agricultural products, we adopt a policy of narrowing the 'scissors gap' [10], of exchange at equal or near-equal value... When supplying industrial products to peasants, we adopt a policy of high volume with thin margins and stable or appropriately reduced prices." At the 30th meeting of the Central People's Government Committee in June 1954, Mao proposed a vision: "How long will it take to build a great socialist country? We won't state a hard figure now, but probably three Five-Year Plans, or about fifteen years, can lay a foundation... Probably after fifty years, or ten Five-Year Plans, it will be just about right; it will look like something and be very different from now." This was an early iteration of the "two-step" conception for building a socialist modern country. At this meeting, Mao particularly emphasized that it was impossible to build socialism all at once. He remarked: "To implement socialist principles, can we implement socialism everywhere across the country in a single morning? That would be very revolutionary in form, but it would lack flexibility and wouldn't work; it would meet opposition and fail. Therefore, things that cannot be done at once must be allowed to be done gradually." This strategic and flexible guiding thought demonstrates that Mao’s attitude toward achieving common prosperity was prudent and scientific, not a result of momentary impulsive fervor.
III. Planning a Development Pattern of Concurrent Improvement in Material and Cultural Life
Mao Zedong’s modernization conception of the concurrent improvement of material and cultural life was initially formed in "On New Democracy," focusing on achieving the coordinated development of people-centered politics, economy, and culture in the New China. When sketching the blueprint for the New China, he proposed: "We want not only to change a China that is politically oppressed and economically exploited into a China that is politically free and economically prosperous, but also to change a China that is ignorant and backward under the rule of the old culture into a China that is civilized and advanced under the rule of the new culture." After the founding of the New China, Mao more clearly recognized that the modernization of people is both the driving force and the ultimate goal of national modernization. He attached great importance to the mutual promotion and influence of the people's material and cultural lives, believing that "every living person must live; they must lead a material life and must also lead a cultural life."
Regarding the improvement of the people's material standard of living, Mao Zedong proceeded from a scientific grasp of the dialectical relationship between the productive forces and the relations of production. He insisted on utilizing new relations of production to promote a significant increase in the productive forces, and using the continuously increasing productive forces to drive the new relations of production toward perfection. He pointed out: "Revolution is for the purpose of clearing the path for construction. Revolution changes the relations of production and the superstructure; it changes the economic system and the superstructure—government, ideology, law, politics, culture, and art—but the goal is not merely to establish a new government or new relations of production, but to develop production." The purpose of the New Democratic Revolution led by the Communist Party of China was to destroy all old relations of production that fettered the development of productive forces, and to promote the development of social productive forces through new relations of production. After the old relations of production were eliminated, Mao Zedong creatively proposed that "over a fairly long period of time, [we should] gradually realize the socialist industrialization of the state, and gradually realize the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce." This positioned industrialization as the key factor in liberating and developing social productive forces, and as the fundamental condition for consolidating the new state power and the newly established relations of production and social system. At the same time, it paid attention to the transformation of the relations of production to drive the continuous development of social productive forces.
Regarding the improvement of the people's cultural standard of living, Mao Zedong proceeded from a scientific grasp of the reaction of consciousness upon matter. He called upon intellectuals to integrate with the masses of workers and peasants, and for literature and art to serve the workers, peasants, soldiers, and socialism. He vigorously promoted the improvement of the people's cultural level, laying a solid spiritual and cultural foundation for accelerating the development of social productive forces. Within this solid spiritual and cultural foundation, cultural confidence [11] is the most important element. Mao Zedong was a great leader full of cultural confidence; his confidence always inspired generations of Chinese Communists and the broad masses of the people to be brave, fearless, and to forge ahead. He once profoundly pointed out: "We must look at imperialism and all reactionaries as they really are—as paper tigers." This startling and philosophically profound judgment is Mao Zedong’s classic expression of cultural confidence. On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong stated at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee: "The Chinese people can not only live without begging from the imperialists, but will also live better than the imperialist countries." In a context where the war had not yet ended, the country was "poor and blank," [12] the majority of the masses were illiterate, and development was extremely backward, no one could be as confident as Mao Zedong. This confidence is a powerful form of cultural soft power, stemming primarily from Mao Zedong’s personal ideals and beliefs, theoretical cultivation, and strategic wisdom, as well as his profound grasp of historical materialism, his deep insight into the nature of imperialism, his profound perception of the people’s great power, and his deep understanding of historical laws. With intensely strong cultural confidence, Mao Zedong shaped the Chinese people’s unique advantage of "having more spirit than steel" [13] and the tenacious qualities of self-reliance and arduous struggle, which became an incomparably powerful spiritual force driving the socialist modernization of New China. In March 1957, Mao Zedong called on the whole Party: "We must maintain that same vigor, that same revolutionary enthusiasm, and that same daring death-defying spirit we had in the revolutionary war years, and carry the revolutionary work through to the end." Thereafter, the nation-wide movements of "In industry, learn from Daqing; in agriculture, learn from Dazhai," and "The whole nation learns from the People's Liberation Army" were all permeated with this great spiritual force. In short, Mao Zedong’s planning for a development pattern in which material and cultural life are improved together played an important role and achieved significant successes in the process of building a modern socialist country.
IV. Focusing on Simultaneously Developing the Economy and Protecting Nature
That economic development cannot come at the cost of the natural environment is a basic viewpoint of the Marxist dialectics of nature. Mao Zedong had a profound understanding of this. He pointed out: "We must use natural science to understand, overcome, and transform nature, so as to obtain freedom from nature." In the process of exploring the path to modernization for New China, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, conducted valuable reflections and practices on the issue of simultaneous economic development and environmental protection. This brought the ecological and environmental protection of New China to a new historical level, resulting in typical cases of "green transformation" represented by places like Saihanba and Youyu.
First, during the process of socialist industrialization, he emphasized tree planting, afforestation, and "greening the motherland." At the beginning of the New China, the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which served as a "provisional constitution," explicitly stipulated that we must "protect forests and develop forestry in a planned manner." In the "Drafting of Opinions on the Seventeen Articles on Agriculture" in December 1955, Mao Zedong pointed out: "Wherever possible, trees must be planted according to specifications to achieve greening." In March 1956, he issued the great call to "green the motherland." In August 1958, at an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, he continued to emphasize: "We must make all the rivers and mountains of our motherland green, achieve a garden-like state, make everywhere very beautiful, and transform the face of nature." Mao Zedong believed that greening could not be achieved without long-term arduous struggle. In March 1964, while listening to reports from the heads of Shaanxi, Henan, and Anhui provinces, he remarked: "A few years ago, you said greening would take one or two years. How can greening be done in one or two years? If it is greened in two hundred years, that is Marxism. First make a ten or fifteen-year plan; like the 'Foolish Old Man who moved the mountains,' [14] if this generation dies, the next generation will continue."
Second, he proposed the idea of the coordinated development of agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry. In March 1958, while reviewing and revising Liao Luyan’s draft speech for the Chengdu Conference, Mao Zedong added a passage to the section "Several Issues in the Management of Agricultural Cooperatives": "The management of agriculture and animal husbandry must be combined with the management of various types of forestry in large, medium, and small patches (timber forests, fuel forests, other economic forests, windbreaks, sand-fixation forests, tide-protection forests, and scenic forests). In short, the three sectors of agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry must be combined." Regarding the relationship between these three, he wrote a vivid metaphor in a October 1959 letter to Wu Lengxi, then President of Xinhua News Agency and Editor-in-Chief of the People's Daily: "I believe agriculture and forestry are the ancestors of animal husbandry, and animal husbandry is the son of agriculture and forestry. Then, animal husbandry becomes the ancestor of agriculture and forestry (mainly agriculture), and agriculture and forestry become the sons. This is the logic of how the three depend on each other in balance."
Third, he believed that ecological and environmental protection is an important guarantee for the development of the economy and the people’s livelihood. Since the founding of New China, especially after the Eighth National Congress of the CPC, Mao Zedong attached great importance to ecological and environmental issues, with his focus being on promoting industrial and agricultural development to serve economic construction and the people's livelihood. In On the Ten Major Relationships, he pointed out: "The air in the sky, the forests on the ground, and the treasures beneath the earth are all important factors needed for building socialism." Regarding the significance of forests to socialist construction, he specifically mentioned: "Trees have great economic value; timber is a chemical raw material, so we should plant more"; and "Forestry is the foundation of the chemical and construction industries." Addressing the worrying problem of soil erosion, Mao Zedong pointed out: "When reclaiming wasteland, it must be combined with plans for water and soil conservation to avoid the danger of soil erosion." These thoughts of Mao Zedong were mainly directed at the problem of insufficient attention to environmental protection in some places during the early stages of socialist construction, where there was a blind pursuit of production scale and speed. They have had a far-reaching impact on our country's persistence in the simultaneous development of the economy and protection of nature and the pursuit of a path of sustainable development.
V. Striving to Create a Peaceful International Environment for New China’s Modernization
A peaceful international environment is an indispensable condition for the modernization of any country, especially for the vast number of developing countries. Without a peaceful international environment, modernization lacks reliable security guarantees. However, the international environment New China faced at its founding was extremely severe and complex. After the United States launched the Korean War, it established a "crescent-shaped" encirclement of New China stretching from South Korea and Japan to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, attempting to strangle New China in its cradle. Faced with this situation, Mao Zedong believed that the peaceful international environment required for New China's modernization was not something to be begged for, nor something to be received as a handout by relying on the whims of others; rather, it had to be won through struggle, unity, morality, and one’s own strength.
First, he dared to "use war to stop war." The phrase "using war to stop war" [15] comes from the Sima Fa (The Methods of the Sima), an important ancient Chinese military treatise, which says: "If one uses war to stop war, even war is permissible." Mao Zedong, who was well-versed in excellent traditional Chinese culture, understood the profound philosophy contained in this military stratagem and always maintained that "if one seeks unity through struggle, unity will survive; if one seeks unity through concessions, unity will perish." To maintain the strategic security of New China, Mao Zedong insisted on the guiding ideology of using war to stop war over a long historical period, creating a peaceful international environment for our country's modernization by leading the Chinese people in struggles against imperialism and hegemonism. The world-renowned War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the Chino-Indian Border Self-Defense Counter-Attack, and the Zhenbao Island Self-Defense Counter-Attack are all brilliant examples of this. Discussing the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, Mao Zedong pointed out: "We do not want to invade any country; we only oppose the imperialists' aggression against our country. ... But since the American aggressors have already attacked us, we cannot but raise the banner of anti-aggression. This is absolutely necessary and completely just." To oppose imperialist oppression and aggression and to support the peace and liberation of the world's people, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, did not believe in myths or fear ghosts [16]; they dared to struggle and dared to win, securing the strongest confidence for New China to carry out socialist modernization.
Second, he advocated for peaceful coexistence. After the founding of New China, developing relations with newly independent national states became a priority for China's diplomatic work. To increase mutual trust with these countries and establish peaceful and friendly international relations, New China proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Mao Zedong attached great importance to these five principles. In November 1957, at the meeting celebrating the 40th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, he solemnly declared to the world: "Without imperialist oppression, all nations of the world are fully capable of living together in harmony"; "The governments and peoples of socialist countries are builders of a new peaceful life. We have absolutely no need for war and resolutely oppose a new world war"; and "We resolutely advocate that all countries implement the well-known five principles: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence." Under New China’s advocacy, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence gradually became basic norms for handling interstate relations accepted by the vast majority of countries in the international community. It was precisely based on these principles that New China began to provide large-scale assistance to the development of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, greatly strengthening the forces of the socialist camp and the international anti-hegemonic camp, and establishing a national image of upholding fairness and justice and being generous and selfless among developing countries. In October 1971, the 26th UN General Assembly voted on the "Restoration of the Lawful Rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations," which passed by an overwhelming majority as UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, with 76 votes in favor, 35 against, and 17 abstentions. Among the 76 votes in favor, nearly 60 were from developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It was the initiatives and actions of peaceful coexistence that won an increasingly favorable international environment for the socialist modernization of New China.
Third is to persist in being strong without seeking hegemony. Mao Zedong was acutely aware of the heavy sufferings the Western powers had inflicted upon the Chinese nation since the Opium War [17]. Deeply abhorring imperialism and hegemonism, he remained consistently at the forefront of the international struggle against both, firmly supporting the just struggles of oppressed peoples and nations worldwide. As Xi Jinping stated at the symposium commemorating the 130th anniversary of Comrade Mao Zedong’s birth, Mao was "a great internationalist who made significant contributions to the cause of the liberation of the world's oppressed nations and human progress." In May 1960, the British military strategist Field Marshal Montgomery visited Mao Zedong. During their conversation, Montgomery suggested that it would take about 50 years for China to resolve most of its affairs, but expressed concern that once China became strong, it might tend toward invading other countries. To this, Mao responded explicitly: "If we were to commit external aggression, we would be driven back." In January 1962, while recalling this conversation, Mao reaffirmed his stance: "We are Marxist-Leninists; our country is a socialist country, not a capitalist country. Therefore, not in a hundred years, nor in ten thousand years, will we invade others." Starting from the early 1960s, New China actually faced immense threats from the two hegemonic powers, the United States and the Soviet Union. Under these circumstances, intensifying war preparations was unavoidable. To dispel international doubts about China, Mao—based on the domestic and international situations, as well as the socialist nature and proletarian standpoint of the state—publicly proposed the guiding ideology of "digging deep tunnels, storing grain everywhere, and never seeking hegemony" [18]. This further specified the strategic policy of "preparing for war, preparing for famine, and serving the people." Mao spoke this way, and New China acted accordingly. To achieve its modernization, New China never launched a single war of aggression, never occupied an inch of another country’s territory, never controlled a single overseas colony, and never plundered any overseas resources. Mao Zedong’s explorations embedded the genes of peaceful development into New China's socialist modernization and shaped China's image as a major power that treasures peace.
Conclusion
In On Practice, Mao Zedong pointed out: "Practice, knowledge, again practice, and again knowledge. This form repeats itself in endless cycles, and with each cycle the content of practice and knowledge rises to a higher level." Our Party’s understanding of Chinese-path modernization has also undergone such a process, one entirely consistent with the epistemology of dialectical materialism. Facing the war-torn ruins left by old China, a fragile industrial and scientific research foundation, abysmal infrastructure, frequent natural disasters, an 80% national illiteracy rate, the tense international situation following the Korean War, and the harsh economic blockade and "crescent-shaped" military encirclement [19] by the United States—how difficult were New China’s steps toward modernization! Yet, Mao Zedong remains the great founder of China's cause of socialist modernization; his aspiration to build a prosperous and strong China was fervent, and his will was resolute. "Self-reliance and arduous struggle" [20] became the most resonant slogan of our Party and people during the Mao Zedong era. Amidst the complex domestic and international climate, the Chinese communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, rooted themselves in China while looking to the world. They conducted pioneering explorations of the path to modernization, providing preliminary answers—both in theory and practice—to the question of how a "poor and blank" [21] New China could move toward modernization. These arduous explorations initially revealed five characteristics of Chinese-path modernization that distinguish it from Western modernization: first, a huge population; second, the pursuit of justice, equality, and common prosperity; third, the simultaneous improvement of material and cultural-ethical life; fourth, the simultaneous advancement of economic development and environmental protection; and fifth, the creation of a peaceful international environment.
After the passing of Mao Zedong, following more than 30 years of continued exploration through reform and opening up, our Party finally ushered in the New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the Party's understanding of modernization has reached unprecedented new heights. Xi Jinping has creatively inherited, enriched, and developed the precious experience gained from Mao Zedong’s exploration of New China’s modernization path, forming a comprehensive and systematic theoretical system summarized as "Chinese-path modernization." Xi Jinping explicitly stated: "Chinese-path modernization is socialist modernization led by the Communist Party of China. It shares common features with the modernization of all countries, but more importantly, it has Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions." These Chinese characteristics include: "Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of a huge population," "it is the modernization of common prosperity for all," "it is the modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement," "it is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature," and "it is the modernization of peaceful development." Xi Jinping has summarized the essential requirements of Chinese-path modernization as follows: "upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics, achieving high-quality development, developing whole-process people’s democracy, enriching the people’s cultural-ethical world, achieving common prosperity for all, promoting harmony between humanity and nature, building a community with a shared future for humanity, and creating a new form of human advancement." He also outlined the overall strategic arrangement for building a great modern socialist country in all respects: "basically realizing socialist modernization from 2020 to 2035; and building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 to the middle of this century." Furthermore, he summarized the major principles that must be firmly grasped to advance and expand Chinese-path modernization: "upholding and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership," "continuing on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics," "staying committed to a people-centered development philosophy," "remaining committed to deepening reform and opening up," and "carrying forward the fighting spirit" [22]. Deeply studying Xi Jinping’s important discourses on Chinese-path modernization allows us to see the shadow of Mao Zedong’s explorations and, more importantly, to grasp Xi Jinping’s further innovation and development of those explorations. This provides scientific theoretical guidance for continuously advancing and expanding Chinese-path modernization on the new journey of the New Era.
Source: Marxism and Reality (马克思主义与现实), Issue 1, 2025. Web Editor: Jing Mu