Song Chaolong: The World-Historical Significance of Chinese Modernization Amidst Global Changes
The Report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC is imbued with a spirit of realism and possesses a profound historical dimension. The concept of "Chinese-path modernization" proposed in the report is a high-level generalization and refinement of the century-plus practice of the Communist Party of China. Chinese-path modernization is a socialist modernization led by the CPC; it is a realistic path for late-developing nations to transcend the containment of finance capital empires and pursue independent development. At a time when Western finance capitalism is in a cycle of crisis, China’s practice of comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization holds world-historical significance. This article intends to discuss the institutional foundations of Chinese-path modernization from the logic of its genesis, discuss its institutional functions based on a century of achievements, and further discuss its world-historical significance in the context of global changes.
I. The Institutional Foundations of Chinese-path Modernization from the Logic of its Genesis
Chinese-path modernization was generated within the process of modern world history; it cannot be understood solely from within China itself.
In ancient world history, the Eurasian landmass was the center of world history. For a considerable historical period, the Chinese land located in Asia saw the formation of many unified feudal dynasties, making it the center of gravity for Eurasia. The political institutional achievements of ancient Chinese feudal dynasties were immense, particularly the establishment of the Three Departments and Six Ministries system [1], the Cabinet system, the Commandery and County system [2], the Imperial Examination system, and the Civil Service system under a centralized framework. Ancient China endeavored to strip blood relations from the system of public power, achieving the separation of state and society relatively early, realizing long-term peace, and facilitating ethnic integration. On this basis, ancient China actually supported a relatively developed internal trade and promoted the development of global commerce, which was in fact an important driver for the origins of Western capitalism. For example, the Yuan Dynasty opened up trade across the Eurasian continent.
Simultaneously, on the backward fringes of the West, a new historical subject emerged on the Western European continent: finance capital. Fernand Braudel of the Annales School and Giovanni Arrighi of World-Systems Theory both traced the origins of Western capitalism to the emergence of finance capitalism. Finance capital is a core concept for understanding the world economy and world history. Without this concept, the understanding of the history of capitalism and modern world history would fall into abstraction.
Das Kapital elucidates this logic: starting from the commodity, the commodity is transformed into money; money is transformed into capital; and capital is transformed into industrial, commercial, and banking capital. At a certain stage of development, these three forms of capital merge, giving rise to powerful monopoly money-capital—this is finance capital. Finance capital is the "total capital" generated from the monopolistic integration of industrial, commercial, and banking capital. Once finance capital emerges, it has the capacity to integrate land, ports, docks, oil, mines, forests, and so on. With further growth, finance capital also gains the ability to dominate national debt, public credit, and the public sector. The so-called origin of capitalism is the West being the first to form this subject of finance capital. Braudel believed that partial forms of capital—industrial capital associated with manufactories, commercial capital, and banks engaged in currency exchange—all existed in India and China. However, the fusion of industrial, commercial, and banking capital—namely, the emergence of finance capital—first occurred in the West. When we understand the path of Western modernization, we cannot focus only on technology, the Industrial Revolution, the division of labor, or productive forces; we must also trace the finance capital that truly dominates these elements.
Why did finance capital not first emerge in the more developed ancient China or other regions of the East? This is a major question of historical significance. It is precisely because the Eastern empires were more developed and possessed a stronger capacity to contain capital’s monopolistic fusion and prevent partial forms of capital from rising to "total capital" that it was difficult to produce finance capital as the total capital dominating the relations of production. Finance capital originated in the backward fringes of Eurasia, proving once again that history does not evolve linearly, but rather that qualitative historical changes and breakthroughs are likely to occur first under conditions far from equilibrium. This law was later manifested again in the socialist movement.
Although the finance capital that first emerged in the West did not have great absolute power at the start, its activity and mobility were very strong. This was a subject different from "barbaric" tribes or military-bureaucratic aristocrats. Finance capital fused industry, commerce, banking, credit, land, national debt, the public sector, and the machinery of violence to drive the commercial revolution, the industrial revolution, and the world market revolution. It also broke down old regional communities through colonialism, achieving integration in the form of opposites and realizing a union based on old and neo-colonialism. The centers of finance-capitalist accumulation shifted from the city-states of Northern Italy to Spain and Portugal on the Iberian Peninsula, to the Netherlands, to Britain and the United States, and finally to the combined finance capital of the US, Japan, and Europe. Its power grew ever larger, as did its ability to dominate production, circulation, credit, the international division of labor, and the world market. Finance capital, in its actuality, is a "global empire."
The Western finance capital empire is able to dominate the industry, commerce, banking, land, national debt, finance, and even the state apparatus of backward countries. Before the Industrial Revolution, Western finance capital empires did not have the capability to dismember the Eastern empires, especially ancient China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, after the Industrial Revolution, several great Eastern empires were dismembered by the Western finance capital empires. Under the penetration and disintegration of the finance capital empire, ancient China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, in which the old forces became agents of the Western finance capital empire. This is the history that unfolded on the ancient land of China after 1840 and especially after 1895.
The combination of Western finance capital with the financial, landed, and military-bureaucratic aristocracies of late-developing countries became the institutional crux of modernization for these countries in the era of finance capital empires. This is true not only for China but for many Third World nations, such as many countries in Latin America, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa today. The finance capital of developed countries and its local proxy forces—such as the old landed aristocracy and military-bureaucratic forces inherited from the Old Regime—are the structural forces active in Third World countries that obstruct the modernization of late-developers, while workers, peasants, intellectuals, and the national bourgeoisie are the oppressed classes.
In modern China, the Westernization Group [3], the Constitutionalists, and the Bourgeois Revolutionaries all failed to eliminate bureaucratic-comprador capital [4], the landed aristocracy, and warlord forces. None had the ability to break through the combination of these three forces—warlords/bureaucrats, landlords, and comprador capital—nor did they have the strength to resolve the institutional crux obstructing modernization. The situation of the laborers, including the national bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, and the peasants and workers, saw no fundamental change. Currently, many countries in the world remain trapped within the institutional crux formed by the combination of these three forces.
The advanced elements of modern China finally discovered that breaking the institutional crux obstructing China’s modernization required Marxism and scientific socialism. The path of combining scientific socialism with late-developing countries was pioneered by Lenin. The founding of the Communist Party of China transformed the Chinese people from being passive to being proactive in spirit; from then on, China's democratic revolution, national liberation movement, and path to modernization had a backbone and a banner. In his later years, Sun Yat-sen also realized the need to "align with Russia, align with the CPC, and assist the peasants and workers," proposing the New Three People's Principles. At that time, cooperation between the Kuomintang and the CPC, the Northern Expedition, and the Great Revolution were in full swing. During the Northern Expedition, the right wing of the Kuomintang betrayed the revolution and massacred Communists. The Communists then began to seek a new path, gradually carving out the road of "encircling the cities from the countryside," building revolutionary base areas, performing more arduous organizational work, and organizing peasants, intellectuals, and the national bourgeoisie to implement a "great union of the masses." Ultimately, the CPC led the Chinese people to the great victory of the New Democratic Revolution, overthrew the "Three Great Mountains" [5], and eliminated the institutional crux obstructing China's modernization. The Report to the 20th National Congress emphasizes the Great Founding Spirit of the Party and stresses "remaining true to our original aspiration and founding mission." We must never forget in the New Era the context in which the CPC was founded, what problems it aimed to solve, and on what path it set out to solve them. This can be understood through the following five aspects:
First, Chinese-path modernization and Western modernization occurred under different spatio-temporal conditions. Western finance capital and its led modernization occurred in the early period of modern history on the fringes of Eurasia, in the late Middle Ages when the great Eastern empires were still in their prime. It was generated through the combination of finance capital with the state apparatus and through external colonial expansion. Chinese-path modernization occurred in the era of finance capital empires, when these empires already dominated the world economic system and had led to two world wars. Chinese-path modernization is the result of turning toward Marxism, the New Democratic Revolution, and socialism after it was no longer possible for China to follow the Western path of modernization dominated by finance capital.
Second, in terms of economic systems, Chinese-path modernization differs from the modernization dominated by Western finance capital. First, China's land system is built on eliminating the private monopoly of land ownership, implementing state or collective ownership. This is different from India or Latin America, where large estates are found everywhere. Land rent, especially absolute rent, is a form of parasitic income; not only Marx, but also Smith and Ricardo targeted the landed aristocracy. The landed aristocracy, latent within the institutional framework of modernization, makes the institutional costs of modernization exorbitant, because in every transaction of production and trade, the landed aristocracy must levy a rent to support a parasitic class, fundamentally obstructing the country's industrialization and modernization. In contrast, the institutional costs of China's modernization are relatively low. Our state and collective ownership of land provides maximum security for the work and lives of laborers. The private monopoly of land ownership in the capitalist era has two attributes: parasitism and passivity. Parasitism means it does not create wealth; passivity means that as society progresses, land rent increases instead, so the landowner takes more and more wealth away from production. Classical political economy held that rent from private land ownership is an interception of wealth. This distribution is neither conducive to the working class improving its life nor to industrial capitalists improving production, nor is it conducive to the expansion of capital reproduction, the division of labor, or the development of productive forces. Promoting land privatization is the solution offered by Western modernization; if land were privatized, the institutional costs for a late-developing nation’s modernization would be immense. Next, a series of strategic industries are dominated by the public sector, such as the State Grid, high-speed rail, aerospace, etc. Third, the state ownership of major banks. Banks actually provide public services for the monetary business of residents and industrial capital. Banks manage social credit and are the hubs of the market economy. Banks, especially major ones, should not be privatized. In Western countries, banks are dominated by financiers who treat the credit institution of the bank as a tool for dispossession of society. The mainstay of China's banking system is public ownership. Marx placed great emphasis on the nationalization of banks; the Communist Manifesto proposed a program for the nationalization of banks. Marx believed one of the main lessons of the Paris Commune was that it failed to nationalize the banks. Finally, fields such as education, medical care, health, and news media have the character of public service and public security and should also be dominated by the public-owned economy rather than being dominated by finance capital.
Third, in terms of political systems, Chinese-path modernization differs from Western finance-capitalist modernization. To break the institutional crux obstructing the modernization of a late-developing country, the form of the state must be transformed; there must be a proactive, energetic state capable of uniting social organizations. Western liberal states, to a large extent, only perform minimal social public functions as night-watchmen for finance capital. A passive state under the so-called "big society, small government" concept has neither the capacity, will, nor desire to oppose the dispossessionary accumulation of finance capital. To change the dominance of finance capital and financial oligarchs over the relations of production, there must be a new type of democratic people's democratic state, along with strong state institutions and national governance capacity. Compared with the passive state of liberalism, the state of the People's Democratic Dictatorship led by the CPC is a more proactive and energetic form of the state.
Fourth, the ideological system of Chinese-path modernization differs from that of Western modernization dominated by financial capital. The ideological system of the Western path to modernization is liberalism. Liberalism sets aside the relations of production and treats everyone as abstract rational actors; it grants equal protection to both financiers and the unemployed as abstract rational actors, while simultaneously protecting private property rights, the financial oligarchy’s power to dispose of social wealth, and the power of financial capital to dispossess society as inherent natural human rights. From the perspective of liberalism, fairness and justice refer to the spirit of contract. However, it is precisely upon the foundation of contractual relations that financial capital has established the logic of "accumulation by dispossession." The ideological system of Chinese-path modernization is Marxism. This ideology analyzes concrete freedom in connection with the relations of production, maintaining that only by reconstructing individual ownership on the basis of public ownership can individuals obtain real freedom. Only by changing the accumulation by dispossession dominated by financial oligarchies based on the relations of production, and only through a modernization led by public ownership, can the development of human freedom be propelled into a new stage.
Fifth, Chinese-path modernization possesses the advantages of a late-mover institutional system. Western modern institutions were established through a compromise between financial capital and the old systems, resulting in a situation where a large number of new and old aristocrats and parasitic classes dominate the social system. Conversely, China’s modern system was built on the foundation of a thorough and new type of democratic revolution, which eliminated the forces of the financial aristocracy, the landed aristocracy, and the military bureaucracy, thereby resolving the institutional bottlenecks faced by late-developing countries. As a concrete form of the socialist path to modernization, Chinese-path modernization is better suited to the realities of late-developing countries and the requirements for the development of socialized large-scale production. It is fairer, more just, and more representative of the forward direction of human history.
II. The Institutional Functions of Chinese-path Modernization Viewed from a Century of Achievements
The institutions inherent in Chinese-path modernization are adapted to socialized large-scale production; their capacity to promote modernization is stronger, their costs lower, their quality higher, and their prospects broader. Specifically, Chinese-path modernization has the capacity to absorb international productive forces, to better leverage the role of the market, to promote sustained and rapid development, to achieve common prosperity, to realize green ecological development, and to promote peaceful global development.
First, Chinese-path modernization has the capacity to absorb international productive forces. Our modernization path, built on the foundation of a socialist market economy, possesses the capacity to absorb and utilize international productive forces and is more advanced than the Soviet socialist model. The Soviet model was built on "two parallel markets" [6]. In the beginning, the Soviet Union was "not open," and once it did "open up," it abandoned the socialist system. Even after difficult corrections, Russia remains in a state of low-level development. In contrast, through reform and opening up, and by cultivating a group of world-class state-owned enterprises capable of adapting to international competition and competing with multinational corporations, we have the capacity and confidence to engage with global firms.
Second, Chinese-path modernization has the capacity to better utilize various economic sectors and better leverage the role of the market. Western markets are dominated by financial capital; while resource allocation is indeed a function, this allocation primarily serves the accumulation by dispossession carried out by financial capital. Liberal economists view the market as a site for resource allocation, but Western markets are simultaneously sites where financial capital dispossesses small and medium capital, general functional capital, and the wage-earning classes. Liberal economists conceal this dispossession of society by financial capital, assuming it does not exist. What liberal economists assume to be non-existent can "truly not exist" within China’s socialist market economy led by public ownership. Western liberal economic models assume that monopoly and dispossession do not exist in the market—this does not fit the facts of financial capitalism, but it does, to a certain extent, fit the facts of a market economy led by socialist public ownership. Under a socialist market economy, the market can better play its role in allocating resources under national planning and the leadership of the public sector, continuously enhancing social production and reproduction. In the capitalist West, the market increasingly manifests its side of social dispossession, whereas under the socialist public ownership system, the market can perform its function of resource allocation. This dialectic is something many liberal economists did not expect. However, as long as one compares the logic of dispossession in financial capitalism with the logic of production in socialist public ownership, this dialectic follows naturally. Giovanni Arrighi, a representative of world-systems theory, argued in his book Adam Smith in Beijing that Smith’s model of free competition is closer to reality in China than in the West. This is a profound insight.
Third, Chinese-path modernization has the capacity to promote sustained and rapid development. Chinese-path modernization has driven the continuous and stable development of our ultra-large economy, a scene that is not found in Western market economies. During the period of the planned economy, New China could completely transform surplus labor and surplus products into investment in the means of production, saving the economic surplus from the non-productive consumption of the parasitic classes and their retainers and applying it to productive investment. This is something the capitalist path to modernization cannot achieve. For example, in Latin American countries, the surplus product is controlled by the financial and landed aristocracies; it must first satisfy the consumption of the parasitic classes and their servants before a portion can be transformed into investment funds. Socialized large-scale production and large-scale industry require integrated spatial planning. China’s series of strategic plans—including medium-to-long-term plans and five-year plans—can adapt to the needs of socialized large-scale production. After the founding of New China, heavy industry was essentially non-existent. Later, China imported 156 industrial projects from the Soviet Union and quickly established an initial independent national economic and industrial system. In particular, the subsequent independent development of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite" [7] drove various materials industries. Currently, China has become the world's second-largest economy, the largest trading nation, and the largest manufacturing nation. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress pointed out: compared to ten years ago, China’s "GDP has grown from 54 trillion yuan to 114 trillion yuan, and the proportion of China's economic aggregate in the world economy has reached 18.5%, an increase of 7.2 percentage points, firmly ranking second in the world; per capita GDP has increased from 39,800 yuan to 81,000 yuan. Total grain output ranks first in the world, effectively ensuring the food and energy security of over 1.4 billion people. The urbanization rate has increased by 11.6 percentage points, reaching 64.7%. The scale of manufacturing and foreign exchange reserves rank first in the world. We have built the world's largest high-speed railway and expressway networks, and achieved major accomplishments in infrastructure such as airports, ports, water conservancy, energy, and information... Total social R&D expenditure has increased from 1 trillion yuan to 2.8 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world, and the total number of R&D personnel ranks first in the world... Strategic emerging industries have grown and expanded, with major achievements in crewed spaceflight, lunar and Martian exploration, deep-sea and deep-earth exploration, supercomputers, satellite navigation, quantum information, nuclear power technology, large aircraft manufacturing, and biomedicine, entering the ranks of innovative countries."
Fourth, Chinese-path modernization has the capacity to achieve common prosperity. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress stated: Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all the people. Modernization dominated by Western financial capitalism is incapable of avoiding polarization. The accumulation of financial capital primarily follows three logics: first, productive accumulation; second, accumulation by dispossession; and third, the law of the increasing shift from productive accumulation toward accumulation by dispossession. When accumulation by dispossession becomes the dominant logic, it leads to the hollowing out of manufacturing, increased manufacturing costs, and both the relative and absolute impoverishment of the wage-earning class. A market economy dominated by financial capital cannot achieve common prosperity; the relative poverty of the wage-earning class and the transition from relative to absolute poverty are the inevitable results of the dispossessive accumulation of financial capital. Today, the situation of the Western wage-earning class is relatively difficult, not because the West is underdeveloped, but because productive forces have not been transformed into social welfare; instead, they have become tools for dispossessing society. Chinese-path modernization has the capacity to eliminate poverty and ensure that labor is rewarded, the young are educated, the sick are treated, the elderly are cared for, the residents are housed, and the weak are supported. In the battle against poverty since the 18th CPC National Congress, "all 832 impoverished counties nationwide have been removed from the poverty list, nearly 100 million rural poor have been lifted out of poverty, over 9.6 million poor people have been relocated from inhospitable areas, and the problem of absolute poverty has been historically resolved, making a significant contribution to the global cause of poverty reduction." China has built the world's largest education, social security, and medical systems, with basic old-age insurance covering 1.04 billion people and the participation rate in basic medical insurance stable at 95%. China's average life expectancy has increased to 78.2 years, and the number and treatment of the wage-earning and middle classes have undergone substantive changes. Common prosperity is the "promise" of Chinese-path modernization, and this promise can only be fulfilled under a market economy dominated by public ownership.
Fifth, the institutions of Chinese-path modernization have the capacity to achieve green ecological development. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress pointed out that we must promote the integrated protection of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts [8], realizing green, circular, and low-carbon development so that the sky is bluer, the mountains greener, and the water clearer. Western countries followed a path of "develop first, treat later," while China adheres to the concept of "treating while developing." When facing financial crises, many Western countries have walked back several of their ecological and environmental concepts and policy commitments. Currently, China is the nation seriously pursuing a path of green development and ecological protection. This is also a mission of the era undertaken by the socialist system and a contribution to humanity. Entering the New Era, China has upheld the ecological concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [9], achieving significant progress in environmental protection. On September 15, 2022, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee held a press conference in the "China in the Past Decade" series. Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu summarized China's achievements: First, air quality has undergone a historical change. The indicator for air quality, PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), saw its national average concentration drop from 46 micrograms per cubic meter in 2015 to 33 in 2020, and further to 30 last year, historically reaching the World Health Organization’s Stage 1 interim target. The ratio of days with good air quality reached 87.5% in 2021, an increase of 6.3 percentage points from 2015, making us the country with the fastest-improving air quality in the world. According to Bloomberg News, the magnitude of China's air quality improvement over the seven years from 2013 to 2020 is equivalent to the improvement seen in the United States over more than 30 years since the implementation of the Clean Air Act. Second, the quality of the water environment has undergone a transformative change. Over these ten years, the proportion of surface water with excellent quality (Grades I–III) increased by 23.3 percentage points to 84.9%, approaching the levels of developed countries. "Black and malodorous" water bodies in cities at or above the prefectural level have been basically eliminated, and the safety of the people’s drinking water has been effectively guaranteed. Third, the quality of the soil environment has undergone a foundational change. In recent years, we have introduced the first foundational law for soil pollution prevention—the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution—conducted detailed investigations of soil pollution in agricultural and construction land, and implemented soil pollution risk controls. It can be said that the trend of worsening soil pollution has been effectively curbed.
Sixth, Chinese-path modernization institutions have the capacity to promote world peace and development. Western countries constantly experience periodic crises and must frequently overcome these crises by exporting them outward or inciting international conflicts; this is a common phenomenon in the history of the Western path to modernization. Chinese-path modernization has the capacity to stabilize the world economy and drive globalization to operate on a more just and reasonable basis. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress emphasized that some countries followed the old path of achieving modernization through war, colonization, and plunder; we stand firmly on the right side of history and the side of human civilization's progress, seeking our own development while firmly maintaining world peace and development, and better maintaining world peace and development through our own development.
III. The World-Historical Significance of Chinese-path Modernization in the New Era Viewed from Changes in the Global Landscape
Against the backdrop of the "changes unseen in a century," Chinese-path modernization and the practice of promoting the comprehensive building of a modern socialist country will inject new momentum into stabilizing the world economy, driving a shift away from the neoliberal path, developing and reviving scientific socialism, promoting the creative transformation of fine traditional Chinese culture, and opening up a new form of human civilization.
The Western world is currently encountering changes unseen in a century. A market economy dominated by Western financial capital must inevitably transition from an ascending phase to a descending phase, leading to an ever-deepening crisis. The first logic of financial capital accumulation is productive accumulation; that is, financial capital can drive revolutions in production, circulation, and credit, promoting scientific and technological progress and the development of globalization. We must pay close attention to the fact that, in the post-war period, financial capital drove the Third Industrial Revolution and the profound development of globalization. The second logic is the predatory accumulation of financial capital, which directly plunders society through technical patent rights, pricing power, financialized real estate, stock market speculation, and by dominating national debts, public finance, and the power of currency issuance. The third logic is the increasing shift from productive accumulation toward predatory accumulation. The stronger the productive accumulation capacity of financial capital becomes, the stronger its predatory capacity grows. The trend of financial capital is for predatory accumulation to become increasingly dominant and for its predatory capacities to become increasingly systematized, with various predatory functions coordinating and supporting one another with increasing strength. As financial capital becomes more developed, its predatory power grows, and the opportunities and possible channels for the dispossession of the working class multiply. Predatory accumulation thus becomes the dominant mode of accumulation for financial capital.
The predatory accumulation of financial capital leads to the hollowing out of manufacturing, increased manufacturing costs, and the impoverishment of the working class. The working class is progressing from relative poverty to absolute poverty; this is the reality of the West today. The predatory accumulation of financial capital leads to an increasing number of new parasitic classes and “new servant classes.” The new servant class is a class that provides labor and services for the luxury consumption of the financial oligarchy—for example, workers providing services in overseas casinos, horse racing tracks, and golf courses. Some Western leftist scholars call the pyramidal society dominated by financial capital a "neo-feudal society," while other scholars use the term "zombie capitalism" to describe it: an ever-expanding predatory class, parasitic class, and new servant class must continuously extract wealth from the working class to maintain the inflating desires of this massive bloc.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the West has encountered a self-reinforcing mechanism of crisis. The Western market economy is dominated by a financial oligarchy; it is a market economy governed by the predatory accumulation of financial capital. This predatory accumulation has led to a series of crises in the West, such as the crisis of insufficient effective demand, the crisis of overproduction, the crisis of the falling rate of profit, and the debt-deflation crisis in financial markets. Facing the debt-deflation crisis, the prescription offered by liberal economists was quantitative easing, which resulted in a stagflation crisis. A stagflation crisis occurred once before in the 1970s. Later, the West relied on multinational corporations, globalization, the Third Industrial Revolution, as well as the disintegration of the socialist camp in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the expansion of the world market to temporarily overcome the crisis. However, after 2008, the stagflation crisis recurred, further leading to the impoverishment of the working class and intensifying class and political crises. To reconstruct domestic political consensus in the face of the anger of the grassroots masses, a new political "malignant tumor" has emerged in the West: right-wing populism. Right-wing populism replaces liberal human rights politics with racial identity politics and has gained support from some large financial oligarchs and sections of the public. It pursues de-globalization and unilateralism, undermining the global institutional framework established by the Western financial capital empire after World War II.
The United States defines China as a "revisionist state"—that is, a state that seeks to revise the rules formulated by the U.S. The U.S. has locked onto China as its primary strategic rival and is conducting a strategic encirclement of China. The U.S. believes that the state truly capable of challenging the American order is China. China possesses a massive scale and a rapid development speed; it is a country with a modernization model based on independent institutions. It does not operate according to the "Washington Consensus," Western neoliberalism, or the set of institutions designed for the Soviet Union's "shock therapy." In the process of socialist modernization, China has maintained its institutional foundation, possesses the capacity to further promote modernization, and has a stronger ability to participate in global governance.
Regarding the current changes in the Western world and their relationship to our country's efforts to comprehensively build a modern socialist country in the New Era, the Report to the 20th CPC National Congress provided an objective assessment and made calm arrangements for response: Currently, the world's changes unseen in a century are accelerating their evolution. The balance of international power is undergoing profound adjustments. The trend of de-globalization is rising, while unilateralism and protectionism are significantly increasing. Localized conflicts and turbulence are frequent, and the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. External suppression and containment may escalate at any time. Our country's development has entered a period where strategic opportunities and risks/challenges coexist, and uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing. Various "black swan" and "gray rhino" events [10] may occur at any time. We must be prepared to withstand major tests of high winds, turbulent waves, and even perilous storms. Faced with rapid changes in the international situation—especially external blackmail, containment, blockades, and "extreme pressure"—we must maintain strategic resolve, promote high-quality development, and simultaneously carry forward the "spirit of struggle" [11]. We must demonstrate a firm will that does not fear power, maintain national dignity and core interests through struggle, and firmly grasp the initiative for our country's development and security. We must coordinate development and security, strive to overcome various difficulties and challenges on the road ahead, and carry forward the spirit of struggle—promoting the ambition, integrity, and backbone of the Chinese people. We must not believe in heresies, fear ghosts, or fear pressure [12]. We must take the initiative to recognize changes, respond to changes, and seek changes. We must proactively prevent and resolve risks, and rely on tenacious struggle to open up new horizons for our cause.
Against the backdrop of the Western world encountering changes unseen in a century, Chinese-path modernization and its practice manifest a broader and more universal world-historical significance.
First, the practice of Chinese-path modernization in promoting the comprehensive building of a modern socialist country injects new momentum into stabilizing the world economy. In the New Era, we must embrace globalization with a more active posture. While we mainly focus on managing our own affairs well, we must also actively participate in global governance. State-owned enterprises can achieve low institutional costs and high-quality services, participating in world market competition with products that are both high-quality and inexpensive. According to import and export data released by the General Administration of Customs, from January to May 2022, China exported a total of 1.08 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 43%. In May of this year, monthly automobile exports reached 230,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 35%. China’s automobile export volume has surpassed Germany's to rank second in the world. In May this year, the domestic car company ranked first in export volume was SAIC Motor. China has now become a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions. Its total trade in goods ranks first in the world, and its attraction of foreign investment and its outward investment are among the world's leaders. In the future, we must open up more proactively, accelerate the construction of pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port, and jointly build the "Belt and Road Initiative" to form a pattern of opening up that is broader, spans more fields, and reaches deeper levels. We must create international public goods and platforms for international cooperation that are more conducive to the world economy.
Second, the practice of Chinese-path modernization injects new momentum into shifting away from the neoliberal path. The typical logic of liberalism is the belief that every person is by nature a "rational man," and what corresponds to the rational man is the establishment of free property rights, free personality, free belief, free association, and free contract. Relative to feudalism, hierarchy, and status-based systems, this was progressive. Liberalism established the concept of equality for all on a rational basis, treating everyone the same and protecting property rights as human rights. However, it is completely blind to the social contradictions contained within property relations. It protects the property plundered by the financial oligarchy from the working class and the wage income of individuals with equal status; it considers protecting the power of the financial oligarchy’s predatory accumulation to be the protection of human rights. Liberalism mainly opposes coercion and dispossession outside of contracts, yet it is completely unable to analyze the coercion and dispossession contained within contractual relations, and it does not oppose the coercion and dispossession exercised by financial capital operating through contractual relations. Marxism fundamentally criticized this idealistic theoretical flaw and created the institutional logic of scientific socialism. The successful practice of the institutional logic of scientific socialism in New China will inevitably further promote reflection on and transcendence of the neoliberal path.
Third, the practice of Chinese-path modernization injects new momentum into the revival of scientific socialism in the 21st century. The Chinese path is the practice and development of the Marxist idea of "crossing the Caudine Forks" [13]. The capitalism that socialism must cross is not capitalism in general, but the world system of the financial capital empire. This "crossing" first requires the proletariat and its party to seize political power; second, it requires promoting modernization to catch up with developed countries, thereby moving closer to strategic parity; and finally, it involves facing strategic encirclement. There is still a long way to go to break through this strategic encirclement, but the hope of the world lies here. Only a socialist market economy opened up on the basis of scientific socialism can transcend the financial capital empire. The path of a socialist market economy dominated by public ownership also provides a direction and signpost for the revival of scientific socialism in the era of great changes for the 21st-century financial capital empire.
Fourth, the practice of Chinese-path modernization injects new momentum into the creative transformation of fine traditional Chinese culture [14]. Our country’s path to socialist modernization has absorbed ancient Chinese institutional civilization, providing a practical subject for the creative transformation of China’s fine traditional institutional civilization. Ancient China implemented a civil service system and a kējǔ (imperial examination) system under centralized authority very early on, using the examination system to absorb intellectuals into state governance; this is absent in the ancient history of other countries. The characteristic of ancient Chinese institutional civilization was a relatively strong state, strong public power, and strong public law; the state systems of medieval Europe could not compare. A major flaw of Western civilization is that public power is relatively weak, and thus there is no way to contain financial capital. On the basis of the state system of the People's Democratic Dictatorship, our socialist system has absorbed some excellent elements of ancient Chinese polity, establishing and gradually improving a state power capable of harnessing financial capital. This is another distinct feature of Chinese-path modernization.
Fifth, the practice of Chinese-path modernization injects new momentum into opening up a new form of human civilization. The Chinese path embodies a new form of civilization. Socialism itself was always a new form of civilization, but the main problems it previously faced were seizing power through revolution, achieving catch-up modernization, and securing the right to survive. Now, socialism has absorbed the institutional elements of the market economy and the excellent components of Eastern institutional civilization. Its institutional potential to lead human civilization is increasingly being exerted, while the side of financial capital that hinders human development is increasingly exposed. In this context, thinking about and articulating the significance of the socialist modernization path in leading human civilization possesses both necessity and reality.
Viewed from the logic of its emergence, the institutional foundation of Chinese-path modernization is the result of late-developing countries—having found their attempt to learn modernization from the West fruitless under the system of the financial capital empire—turning to Marxism, a new-type democratic revolution, and socialism. From the perspective of practical achievements, Chinese-path modernization possesses institutional functions such as utilizing international productive forces, giving play to the market’s resource allocation function, promoting sustained industrial development, achieving common prosperity, realizing green development, and promoting world peace. From the perspective of answering the "questions of the world, the people, and the times" in an era of great changes, Chinese-path modernization and its practice have world-historical significance in stabilizing the world economy, promoting a shift away from the neoliberal path, developing and reviving scientific socialism, and promoting the progress and development of human civilization.
The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress pointed out: The Communist Party of China is a party that seeks happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation; it is also a party that seeks progress for humanity and the Great Harmony [15] for the world. We must expand our global vision, gain profound insight into the trends of human development and progress, actively respond to the universal concerns of people in all countries, and contribute to solving the common problems facing humanity. For the Communist Party of China to shoulder this noble historical mission, it needs to unite and lead the people of the whole country to highly consciously understand and practice the path of Chinese-path modernization!
(Author's affiliation: School of Marxism, Peking University) Web Editor: Lian Yu Source: Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Theory Studies, Issue 10, 2022