From: Frontline Client
In modern Chinese discourse, "modernization" is a concept with extremely frequent use, and "Chinese-style modernization" was first proposed by Deng Xiaoping at the beginning of reform and opening up . When Deng Xiaoping explained why he proposed "Chinese-style modernization", an important consideration was to make it more in line with China's national conditions and reality. Over the past 40 years, "Chinese-style modernization" has taken deep root in the hearts of the Chinese people, becoming a powerful spiritual force for the Party to lead and unite the people of all ethnic groups in the country to work tirelessly and strive to promote socialist modernization and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Chinese-style modernization is hard-won. It has emerged from the great practice of more than 40 years of reform and opening up, it has emerged from the continuous exploration of the 270 years of founding of New China, and it has come from a profound summary of the development process of the Chinese nation over 180 years since modern times. It has a profound historical origin and a broad realistic foundation.
Preliminary exploration of Chinese-style modernization. As early as 1945, Mao Zedong pointed out in the political report of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China: "The task of the Chinese working class is not only to fight for the establishment of a new democratic country, but also to China's industrialization and modernization of agriculture." In 1949, at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party, Mao Zedong further proposed the goal of turning from a backward agricultural country into an advanced industrial country. After the founding of New China, the Party conducted arduous exploration of China's own path of socialist modernization. From the Party’s general line in the transition period to taking socialist industrialization as the main body, starting to build socialist industrialization , to propose to learn from the experience of the Soviet Union and take the path of industrialization in China, to clearly proposing to realize the "four modernizations" of modern agriculture, modern industry, modern national defense, and modern science and technology, it has gradually embarked on a modern development path that suits China’s national conditions and reality. We have created necessary prerequisites and important preparations for the subsequent socialist modernization construction in reform and opening up, and also laid the initial foundation for the proposal of Chinese-style modernization.
The formal proposal of Chinese-style modernization and its continuous promotion. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China opened up a new era of China's socialist modernization construction. At the Party’s theoretical work meeting held in March 1979, Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out: "In the past, democratic revolution should be suitable for China's situation and follow the path of rural surrounding cities opened by Comrade Mao Zedong. Now, construction should also be suitable for China's situation and embark on a Chinese-style modernization path." Realizing socialist modernization in reform and opening up is a historic problem that the Chinese Communist Party has focused on solving in the new era. Deng Xiaoping not only clearly put forward the proposition of Chinese-style modernization and put forward the development strategy of "three steps to achieve modernization", but also put forward the goal of basically realizing socialist modernization by the middle of the 21st century, thus opening up the historical process of modernization of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Since the reform and opening up, the Party’s previous National Congresses have made clear strategic arrangements for promoting socialist modernization, and have achieved a series of major achievements in accelerating the realization of modernization, consolidating and developing socialism through practical exploration. From reaching a well-off level overall, to building a well-off society in an all-round way, to proposing to build a well-off society in an all-round way, it has greatly promoted the historical process of Chinese-style modernization construction. With its unyielding enterprising spirit and magnificent innovative practices, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people have written a new magnificent epic of the Chinese nation's self-improvement and tenacious progress. The face of the Chinese people, the face of socialist China, and the face of the Communist Party of China have undergone historic changes.
Chinese-style modernization continues to advance in the new era.In the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has focused on the major issue of how to comprehensively build socialist modernization and successively put forward a series of new ideas, new perspectives and new requirements, such as "the essence of modernization is the modernization of human beings", "The modernization we want to build is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature", "promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities", "while adhering to the economic construction as the center, we must comprehensively promote economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, and ecological civilization construction, and promote the coordinated development of all links and aspects of modernization construction", which greatly deepened the Party's understanding of the laws of socialist modernization and enriched and developed the connotation of Chinese-style modernization. In the new era, the Party has achieved the goal of winning the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and has embarked on a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Based on the foundation provided by the realization of the first centenary goal, our party has further planned the strategic deployment of building our country into a prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful socialist modern country by the 100th anniversary of the founding of New China by the mid-21st century, and thus leading our country's socialist modernization construction to take more solid steps. There is no universal development model in the world. The key to success lies in going your own way. The reason why the Chinese nation today has ushered in a historic leap from standing up, becoming rich to becoming strong is that the Communist Party of China has led the people of the whole country to find the path of socialist modernization, practiced the concept of Chinese-style modernization, and formed a new form of human civilization.
Author: Tian Keqin Li Jing
Edited by: Liang Qiyong
