Qiao Qingju: Developing Socialist Culture with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed to develop a New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics that possesses strong ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence, and to solidly promote the construction of a cultural powerhouse. This strategic blueprint provides the fundamental compliance and action guide for building a socialist cultural powerhouse on the new journey of the New Era. To endow New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics with these four powers, we must anchor ourselves to the strategic goal of becoming a cultural powerhouse by 2035, adhere to Marxism as the fundamental guiding ideology, take root in the profound and extensive Chinese civilization, adapt to the trends of information technology, continuously strengthen the spiritual power of the people, and fortify the cultural foundations for building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation.
Adhering to the "Two Combinations"
The "Two Combinations" [1] are the path that must be taken to develop a New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics with strong ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence, and to solidly promote the construction of a cultural powerhouse. China is a great ancient civilizational and cultural power; historically, it created a Chinese cultural sphere with Confucianism as its main body and exerted a positive influence on the European Enlightenment. In modern times, the country suffered humiliation, the people endured hardship, and the civilization was shrouded in dust. With the roar of the October Revolution, Marxism-Leninism was brought to China, and the Communist Party of China emerged as the times required. From the moment it stepped onto the Chinese political stage, our Party has adhered to the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and method, unswervingly seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. From then on, the Chinese people began to transform from passive to active in spirit, and the Chinese nation began its arduous but irreversible march toward great rejuvenation. During the New Democratic Revolution period, Chinese Communists conducted the arduous exploration of the "First Combination," combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s concrete reality, establishing Mao Zedong Thought, and guiding the New Democratic Revolution to victory. The Chinese people stood up, and Chinese culture gained a new life. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, Deng Xiaoping creatively transformed the traditional concept of "Xiaokang" (moderate prosperity) [2] into the "Three-Step" strategy. Our Party continuously promoted theoretical innovation, achieving major theoretical results such as Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, forming the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and realizing a new leap in the Sinicization of Marxism. Since the New Era, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Xi Jinping as their chief representative, have persisted in combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s concrete reality and with fine traditional Chinese culture. They have profoundly summarized and fully utilized the historical experience since the founding of the Party, proceeded from new realities, established Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, achieved a new leap in the Sinicization of Marxism, and completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects on Chinese soil. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.
The success of socialism with Chinese characteristics lies crucially in its "Chinese characteristics," its important root being fine traditional Chinese culture. Marxism activated the genes of Chinese civilization with the light of truth, driving Chinese civilization to achieve self-renewal and transformation in step with the times. Fine traditional Chinese culture has enriched and developed the Chinese characteristics of Chinese-path modernization, pushing Marxism toward new leaps in its Sinicization and modernization. The "Second Combination" allows Marxism to become Chinese and fine traditional Chinese culture to become modern. The "Two Combinations" have not only successfully advanced the practice of Chinese-path modernization but also successfully promoted the formation of a new, organically unified cultural lifeform. Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era established a cultural self, consolidated and supported cultural self-confidence, and is the "most powerful manifestation of the subjectivity" of this cultural lifeform. The fact that socialist culture with Chinese characteristics exhibits strong ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence is the solid foundation upon which our Party leads cultural construction in the New Era. Practice shows that to develop the "four powers" of New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and build a cultural powerhouse, we must continuously deepen the "Two Combinations," adhere to the soul-conduit of Marxism, and hold fast to the root-conduit of fine traditional Chinese culture. We must use Marxism to activate the vitalized, excellent factors within fine traditional Chinese culture and endow them with new contemporary connotations, injecting the great spirit and rich wisdom of the Chinese nation more deeply into Marxism.
Strengthening Cultural and Civilizational Self-Confidence
New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics possesses a "civilizational" connotation that transcends national boundaries and eras, and inherently possesses strong ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence. "Civilization" marks a historical stage of social development, expressing the sum of material wealth, social operational systems and mechanisms, and spiritual cognitive achievements; it reflects a spiritual temperament pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty, and a value pursuit of treating others with kindness. "Culture" is the crystallization of civilizational wisdom, showcasing the spiritual temperament and value connotations of a civilization; it is the soul of a country and a nation. Cultural self-confidence is a more fundamental, extensive, and profound self-confidence; it is the most basic, deep-seated, and enduring force in the development of a country and a nation. Cultural self-confidence is fundamentally a high degree of identification with socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, while civilizational self-confidence is a high degree of identification with Chinese civilization and its modern form. Cultural strength is a distinct mark and important connotation of a country becoming a powerhouse. Cultural strength means the ability to create, disseminate, and carry cultural works and products that embody positive values; the ability to provide humanity with a system of knowledge in philosophy and the social sciences; and the ability to create a social environment that is suitable for oneself and for the development of human civilization, thereby promoting the progress of human civilization.
Socialist culture with Chinese characteristics possesses "civilizational" genes that generate strong ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence. From the perspective of the history of Chinese civilizational evolution, adhering to the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological sphere is a historical choice that conforms to the laws of development of Chinese civilization. Theoretical systems other than Marxism that explore the logic of human historical development all carry the limitations of the nation-state, abstracting domestic experience into universal theory, dressing up the "nation-state" as "all humanity," and even beautifying aggression and colonization as the spread of "civilization." Marxism possesses a concern for all humanity; proceeding from the standpoint of the people, it emphasizes the dialectical unity of historical inevitability and value rationality in social development. It is a theory that truly conforms to the essence of world history and is inherently compatible with the Chinese civilizational worldviews of "cultivating the self, regulating the family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world" [3], "harmonious coexistence among all nations," and "the world belongs to the public" [4]. The law of the jungle and the "survival of the fittest" are "barbaric" genes that still persist in Western civilization, which are incompatible with the "civilizational nature" of Chinese civilization. An important reason why Marxism was able to take root in China is that Marxism emphasizes the civilizational essence of human history, sharing "civilizational" connotations with fine traditional Chinese culture.
The spiritual charm of fine traditional Chinese culture is integrated into New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, becoming the source of its "characteristics." The traditional people-oriented thought of "the people are the foundation of the state" [5] has developed into the concept of whole-process people’s democracy; "unifying the customs of the six directions and maintaining the governance of the nine provinces" [6] has developed into forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation; "all things grow together without harming one another" [7] has developed into the concept of ecological civilization construction where man and nature coexist in harmony. These developments clearly present the historical logic of the endogenous evolution of Chinese civilization. The "Two Combinations," especially the "Second Combination," have advanced the construction of Chinese-path modernization, enriched New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, and demonstrated the function of a spiritual bond that unites hearts and gathers strength; it is the foundation upon which we stand firm amidst international cultural turbulence. Chinese-path modernization has opened a new path for the development of human civilization, presenting distinct "civilizational" characteristics that meet human value expectations, and establishing the theoretical logic for strong ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence.
In today's world, global governance faces a peace deficit, development deficit, security deficit, and governance deficit. Since 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping has successively proposed the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, which have received high recognition and wide praise from the international community. These four global initiatives, as Chinese products for international governance, contain the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese cultures such as "self-improvement through unremitting effort" [8], "social virtue to sustain the world" [9], and "regarding the people as one's kin and all things as one's companions" [10]. Among them, the Global Civilization Initiative emphasizes respecting the diversity of world civilizations; adhering to the equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness of civilizations; letting civilizational exchange transcend civilizational estrangement, mutual learning transcend civilizational conflict, and inclusiveness transcend civilizational superiority. It advocates the common values of all humanity—peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom. It calls for strengthening people-to-people exchanges, "appreciating the beauty of others and sharing that beauty" [11], and jointly building a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, inclusiveness, and cleanliness, promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity, and jointly advancing the development and progress of human civilization. These concepts, glowing with the brilliance of human civilizational wisdom, showcase the style of New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and contain powerful ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence, consolidating and enhancing cultural and civilizational self-confidence.
Innovating and Increasing the Communication and Influence of Chinese Civilization
From the perspective of human civilizational history, the production and dissemination of information have been characterized by unidirectionality, finitude, stability, and asymmetry. Currently, with the development of technologies such as the Internet, big data, and cloud computing, the ways in which information is produced and disseminated have undergone fundamental changes. An equivalent relationship has formed between the disseminating end and the receiving end; dissemination methods have moved from unidirectional to bidirectional, or even scattered and multi-directional interaction; dissemination time has moved from scheduled to at-any-time, resulting in the uncontrollability and uncertainty of information production and dissemination. Everyone can be a producer of information, and every social media outlet can become a channel for information dissemination. This presents a new task for utilizing new media in the New Era, which must be addressed earnestly.
First, we must pay close attention to the value-oriented information output of big data algorithm technology to break through the international value-based encirclement against us. In the era of big data, algorithms have been used to serve values. All information is manufactured information, and all manufactured information contains values; there is no objective information that exists without being manufactured, nor is there purely objective information that is completely free of value loading. The widespread circulation of information with subtly embedded values poses a severe challenge. Cultural soft power reflects a country’s comprehensive strength and concerns the spiritual cohesion of the nation. Values are the soul of cultural soft power, and cultural competition is, in the final analysis, a competition of values. We must guide innovations in information production methods according to the characteristics of the era and audience preferences, actively embedding the values of Chinese civilization into information to form our own "value pre-positioning," thereby enhancing the ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence of New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.
Second, we must improve our ability to produce information, our ability to produce and set topical concepts, and our ability to guide discourse. We should transform pre-positioned values into vivid stories and showcase our values through these stories. We must improve the level of information production, using novel production techniques to demonstrate the charm of Chinese civilization and taking the initiative to tell the story of New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics well. The practice of contemporary China has significance for the history of human civilization and requires the enhancement of narrative creativity. From an academic perspective, efforts should be made to use "Chinese reasoning" to summarize "Chinese experience," elevating Chinese experience into Chinese theory and forming a system of knowledge in philosophy and the social sciences based on Chinese practice to provide theoretical guidance for human progress.
Finally, we must innovate in information dissemination channels and methods to win various "algorithmic cognitive wars." Algorithms have the characteristic of intensifying "feeding" based on personal preferences, thereby forming "information cocoons," which are part of cognitive warfare. We must seize the initiative at the information production end, build an independent dissemination channel system, and break the monopoly of Western news agencies and social media over channels, opening more pathways to break through information cocoons. We must use channels flexibly, making full use of the Internet to achieve point-to-point information dissemination. We should further transform cultural concepts into cultural information, allowing cultural information production to integrate deeply with Internet technology and digital creative technology to form cultural industries, thereby stimulating the whole nation's vitality for cultural innovation and creativity. We must vigorously promote cultural undertakings, accelerate the development of cultural industries, and enhance the communication and influence of Chinese civilization. This will ensure our reasoning can be told and trusted, solving the problems of "having the truth but being unable to tell it," "telling it but being unable to spread it," and "spreading it but being unable to make it resonate."
When culture prospers, the country prospers; when culture is strong, the nation is strong. From the perspective of the great history of human development and the macro-dimension of human civilizational progress, developing New Era socialist culture with Chinese characteristics is conducive to continuously strengthening the spiritual power of the people and fortifying the cultural foundation for building a strong country and national rejuvenation. We must unite around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, unswervingly advance the process of Chinese-path modernization, enhance the communication and influence of Chinese civilization, and contribute to the progress of human civilization.