In recent years, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly made a series of important expositions on the relationship between Chinese-style modernization and world modernization. For example, on October 18, 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that "world modernization should be the modernization of peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation, and common prosperity", but in reality, the world modernization is "capital-centered modernization, polarized modernization, materialistic expansion modernization, and foreign expansion and plundering modernization"; The Communist Party of China and the Chinese people provide more and better Chinese wisdom, Chinese solutions, and Chinese strength to solve the common problems facing mankind", especially "expanding the path for developing countries to modernize, and providing a new choice for those countries and nations in the world that want to accelerate development while maintaining their independence." Obviously, there is a huge gap between what should be and what is true in the world's modernization, and Chinese modernization has accelerated the transformation of world modernization from what is to what it should be with advanced concepts and pragmatic actions, and has made important contributions to the realization of common modernization for mankind.
"Yangcheng Evening News" January 12, 2024 theoretical edition
The modernization of the world that the people of all countries aspire to is a natural reality
Realizing modernization is not only the dream that the Chinese people have been striving for since modern times, but also the common expectation and goal of the people of all countries in the world. In this regard, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave a clear answer, "The modernization of the world should be the modernization of peaceful development, the modernization of mutually beneficial cooperation, and the modernization of common prosperity."
First, peace and security are the bottom line. Peace is the cornerstone of human development, and it is also the universal expectation and ardent aspiration of the people of all countries in the world. However, in the long historical process of human society, war has always been a lingering shadow. The misery of war makes people cherish peace even more. Therefore, how to effectively manage differences and avoid war, especially large-scale wars and nuclear wars, is of great importance to smoothly advancing the process of world modernization. As General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Without peace, nothing can be talked about." Peace is our greatest common interest and the greatest common aspiration of all peoples. ”
Second, equality and mutual learning are attitudes. With the development of human civilization, at present, all countries in the world have basically reached a consensus on the equality of all people, especially the equality of all citizens within a country, but there are still big differences between different countries and between different civilizations on whether they are equal or not, and in particular, developed countries still have an innate sense of superiority and deep-rooted prejudice against developing countries and former suzerains over colonial countries, and are unwilling to carry out international exchanges with an equal attitude. In fact, in the modernization of the world, we should adhere to the principle that all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal, and adhere to the civilization concept of equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness.
Third, win-win cooperation is the direction. Poverty, climate change, food security, and energy crises are common problems faced by mankind, and cannot be solved by one country alone. Only by upholding the concept of unity, cooperation and common development, and taking the road of joint construction, sharing and win-win results, can we jointly make the "cake" of human social modernization bigger and strive to make the fruits of modernization more and more equitable to benefit the people of all countries.
The reality of the modernization of the world under capitalism
Although world modernization should be the modernization of peaceful development, the modernization of mutually beneficial cooperation, and the modernization of common prosperity, for a long time, the world modernization led by Western capitalist countries has been characterized by "capital-centered, polarized, materialistic expansion, and foreign expansion and plunder".
First, the hegemonic logic of "life and death". Looking back at the history of the rise of world powers, "violence" and "hegemony" are indispensable keywords. In the history of the world, the rise of great powers is often accompanied by bloodshed and war, and the rise through war is regarded as a guideline by most countries, and the prosperity of Western capitalist countries is closely linked to the expansion and enslavement of capital. Some countries have modernized through war, colonization, plunder, and other means, and the old path of harming others and benefiting themselves and being full of blood has brought great suffering to the people of the vast number of developing countries.
Second, the dependency development logic of "you are low and I am high". Since the Age of Discovery, the global expansion of capitalism has brought all countries of the world into the capitalist world economic system. In this system, there are clearly unequal structures and mechanisms. Whether it is the core-periphery hierarchy between the developed countries and the backward countries advocated by the dependency theory, or the three levels of the core countries, the border countries, and the semi-border countries advocated by the theory in the world system, the seemingly equal market mechanism is essentially an unequal international economic and trade mechanism, and the world modernization dominated by capitalism always means the unchanged hierarchical differential pattern of the world system, and the modernization process of backward countries has been reduced to a dependent development process dependent on the developed countries, resulting in the increasing "north-south divide".
Third, the zero-sum game logic of "you have less and I have more". Developed countries believe that the rise of less developed countries often means a challenge to themselves. For example, in recent years, the United States has defined Sino-US relations by "competition" and unilaterally initiated and promoted the strategy of "great power competition", mistakenly believing that China's rise will threaten the hegemony of the United States.
Chinese modernization has promoted the modernization of the world to achieve an ideal state
Although Western-style modernization has led the world's modernization for hundreds of years, in today's world, multiple challenges and crises are still intertwined and superimposed, the world economy is struggling to recover, the development gap is widening, the ecological environment continues to deteriorate, and the ghost of the Cold War mentality is still lingering. Capitalism dominates Western-style modernization, and it is difficult to shoulder the historical responsibility of promoting the modernization of the world to achieve the ideal state. As socialist modernization under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, Chinese-style modernization is solidly promoting the transformation of world modernization from the actual to the natural with its advanced ideas and pragmatic actions.
First, Chinese modernization upholds the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and works with other countries to achieve modernization. Chinese modernization not only promotes its own development, but also expects and drives all countries in the world, including the vast number of developing countries, to promote modernization together. On the one hand, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially since the beginning of reform and opening up, the party has led the people to create a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability that is rare in the world, and the Chinese nation has ushered in a great leap from standing up, getting rich, to becoming strong, and is leading more than 1.4 billion people to realize modernization on the basis of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, which will completely rewrite the world map of modernization, which in itself is a major contribution to the modernization of the world. On the other hand, General Secretary Xi Jinping focuses on the common interests of the Chinese people and the people of the world, deeply thinks about long-term issues related to the future and destiny of mankind, puts forward the concept of promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind with great foresight, and contributes China's plan to solve the problem of common modernization in the worldand make new contributions to the theoretical and practical innovation of human social modernization.
Second, we should propose and promote the implementation of the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and create a peaceful and secure international environment. Instead of following the old path of colonialism and plunder, the crooked path of hegemony if a strong country is strong, or engaging in ideological export, Chinese modernization follows the right path of peaceful development, resolutely opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics, advocates tackling complex security challenges with a spirit of solidarity and win-win thinking, and creates a security pattern of fairness, justice, joint contribution and shared benefits. General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly declared to the world that "no matter how far China develops, it will never seek hegemony or expansion." That's what China says and does. In the more than 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has not taken the initiative to provoke any wars or conflicts, nor has it invaded an inch of land of other countries. Obviously, China's modernization is the growth of the forces for world peace and the strength of international justice.
Third, we should put forward and promote the implementation of the Global Civilization Initiative to create international relations of equality and mutual learning. China has always advocated the diversity of the path to modernization and the pluralism of civilizations, believing that "a single flower blooming is not spring, and a hundred flowers blooming in spring", and that modernization is not a "patent product" of a few countries, nor is it an either/or "single-choice question", and it should not engage in simple "copy and paste", but should "uphold the equality of all countries, regardless of size, strength or weakness, rich or poor, and respect the development path and social system independently chosen by the people of all countries", "respect the diversity of world civilizations, and adhere to equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness among civilizations". In practice, China has actively carried out dialogue and exchanges on an equal footing, strengthened international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the China-Central Asia Summit, the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, and the High-level Dialogue between the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties, deepened exchanges with political parties and political organizations around the world, learned from each other, continuously expanded the convergence of ideas and interests, promoted the establishment of a new type of political party relations and a new type of international relations, and walked hand in hand on the road to modernization.
Finally, we should put forward and promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) to create an international pattern of win-win cooperation. The starting point and end goal of Chinese-style modernization is to enable the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people to live a better life, which will not only benefit the Chinese people, but also promote the common development of the world. For example, the promotion of China's high-quality development and the construction of a modern industrial system will provide the world with more and better Made in China. China creates products and services to meet the needs of the people of the world, including the Chinese, for a better life; the super-large-scale market advantage formed by China's huge population will provide the world with a broad Chinese market and Chinese demand; China continues to expand high-level opening up, continues to relax market access, and opens the door wider and wider, which will bring huge investment and cooperation opportunities to the world; China carries forward the spirit of self-reliance, continues to increase foreign aid and cooperation, and supports and helps the vast number of developing countries to accelerate development and achieve industrializationEven in the face of tense Sino-US relations, China firmly believes that "this earth can accommodate China and the United States, and our respective successes are opportunities for each other," and "China has no plan to surpass or replace the United States, and the United States has no intention of suppressing and containing China." According to statistics, from 2013 to 2022, China's average annual contribution to world economic growth exceeded 30%, China signed cooperation documents on the Belt and Road with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations, with a cumulative two-way investment of more than US$380 billion and a total import and export volume of US$19.1 trillion. The World Bank predicts that from 2015 to 2030, 7.6 million people in the countries will be lifted out of absolute poverty and 32 million people will be lifted out of moderate poverty, thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative.
In short, modernization is the only way for people around the world to pursue a better life, but for a long time, the world modernization dominated by Western capitalism has not brought common prosperity to the people of the world. By promoting the implementation of the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, China will inject new impetus and provide new opportunities for world modernization with its own modernization, and the world modernization of peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation and common prosperity will be realized at an early date.
Text: Deng Zhiping
(The author is the director and researcher of the Institute of Reform, Opening-up and Modernization of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, the director and researcher of the Institute of Sociology and Demography, and the special researcher of the Guangdong Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era)