（Huang Chiu-Lung, Associate Professor, Department of Public Security, Central Police University）
The National High-End Think Tank of Institute of Party History and Literature of the CCP Central Committee and the High-End Think Tank of the Xinhua News Agency made a joint report titled “Chinese Modernization: The Way Forward” firstly released in the China-France Forum on Humanity Cooperation and Development in Paris on May 4, 2024. And the full text of it was published in the “Communist Party Member Web” of the Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee on the 18th of the same month. In fact, it reflects multi-strategic significance with the report specially issuing in Paris. As Fu Hua, President of Xinhua News Agency and Director of the Academica Committee of the National High-End Think Tank of Xinhua News Agency, stated in the opening of the release event “This forum, held on the eve of President Xi Jinping’s state visit (in May this year) to France is of great significance in boosting cooperation between media, think tanks and enterprises from the two countries and in facilitating cultural exchange and mutual learning.” It echoes Xi Jinping’s first visit to Europe in five years, choosing France, Servia and Hungary that keep suspicions of US leading the world, attempting to grab strategic opportunities and alienate the tight relations between the US and Europe, thus constructing an international order not dominated by the US. It particularly underscores “Chinese modernization is about solving difficulties emerging in the history of modernization development, that western countries have not solved,” to regard China an international balance force and thus actively strengthening their economic modernization ties with China. In particular, the Poliburo of the CCP Central Committee held a meeting on April 30 this year, deciding to hold the third plenary session of the 20th CCP Central Committee in July this year. Its agenda is mainly a work report of the Poliburo to the Central Committee, focusing on examining issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization. Obviously, the release of “Chinese modernization: the Way Forward” not only concerns China’s internal ideology and political security, directly responding to policy line for the upcoming 3rd plenary session of the 20th CCP Central Committee in two months; it also utilizes the contradictions occurring among major Western countries over conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East to prove its perspective on the value, system, development, culture, global governance of the Chinese modernization.
Xi Jinping stated in his report to the 20th National Congress of the CCP that Chinese modernization is socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of the CCP. It shares features common to the modernization processes of various countries, but it is more characterized by features unique to the Chinese context. Therefore, the policy line of “Chinese modernization” emphasizes the leadership of CCP and highlights “Chinese characteristics” among the common features of modernization in various countries, intending to serve as a model for developing countries. As a matter of fact, “Chinese modernization” fully reflects Xi Jinping’s repeated emphasis on “dialectical materialism is the worldview and methodology of Chinese communists.” Related remarks include “as the largest developing country in the world, China has vast territories, a huge population, and great regional disparities and, it needs to solve many difficulties that the West has never encountered to implement modernization in a super large country like this” and “Chinese modernization has busted the myth that ‘modernization equals westernization.’ It opens up a new way for non-Western countries to independently explore modernization, and offers a new path for countries and nations that hope to accelerate development and keep independence, providing a Chinese proposal for exploring better social systems of human beings.” It is clear that the dialectical thinking of “Chinese modernization” sets international affairs in confrontation to construct the main perspective of “Chinese modernization” through the concept of contradictory duality. To raise doubts toward US dominance of international order through the contradiction of international conflicts, thus denying “modernization equals westernization” and then further exploring a new way of modernization. In other words, it satires the western system and international contradictions to prove the subjectivity of “Chinese modernization” which is “socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of CCP” and “offers a brand new option for countries and nations that hope to accelerate development and keep independence.”
The report of “Chinses modernization: The Way Forward” has over 36,000 words and contains four chapters regarding the evolution, practical approaches, defining features, and a new form of human advancement of Chinese modernization with a conclusion. Through sarcasm, it counter-proves the subjectivity of “Chinese modernization.” It claims “Chinese modernization is different from Western modernization. It puts people not capital first” “it ensures that the people run their country and that democracy is not practiced for the few” “it strives to both preserve cultural heritage and enrich it” and “it rejects unilateralism in global governance and advances the building of a human community with a shared future.” It’s worth noting that the report applies “retroactive continuity (or retcon for short),” allowing for the addition of sequels or derivative works so when new authors revise historical narratives to add new events, the original consistency won’t be compromised. It uses retroactive continuity to state “Chinese modernization is unprecedented in human history in terms of scale, beneficial population and difficulty” following Deng Xiaoping’s principle of “letting some people and some regions get rich first, finally achieving common prosperity.” Then it further mocks that “Western countries copy their modernization to developing countries and then shift their industrial costs to the developing ones,” affirming the “Chinses modernization will not follow the path of colonial exploitation or hegemonic dominance.” Finally, in the chapter “Chinese Modernization: A New Forum of Human Advancement,” it highlights the dual opposition between Western hegemony and “Chinese voice power” by stating “Some Western countries have formed a sense of innate superiority and a hegemonic mindset that looks down upon non-Western countries and nations, leading to the prevailing of Western-centrism. The great success of Chinese modernization has challenged the superiority and arrogance of Western countries, and greatly boosted the international status, voice, and influence of developing countries.”
The Institute of Party History and Literature of the CCP Central Committee and the High-End Think Tank of the Xinhua News Agency jointly released “Chinese Modernization: The Way Forward,” which not only reflects the judgement of the CCP’s central leadership toward overall strategic situation linking internal stability and external security; it also project special significance of the policy line of the 3rd Plenary Meeting of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP. First, it explicitly continues the “Chinese modernization” line since the 20th National Congress and changes of related policy will tend to slow. Second, through the development and practical pathway of “Chinese modernization,” it specifically criticizes the Westen model and its modernization issues in contrast to “Chinese modernization” as a model for developing countries. Third, it persistently quotes viewpoints of individuals or institutions from the West to glorify and justify “Chinese modernization.” Fourth, it elevates the practical pathway of “Chinese modernization.” And, “accelerating the development of new quality productive forces is a strategic decision made to seize the commanding heights in a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, open up new areas and new arenas in development, cultivate fresh growth drivers, and build up nascent competitive advantages.” It reveals that China still sticks to dialectical materialism, regarding new quality productive force as a basic foundation which will eventually constraint the upper structure relations of the international politics. Therefore, how China accelerates the new quality productive force in the future is a determining factor to its international status, voice and influence.
（Translated to English by Tracy Chou）
