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AugOn June 2, 2023, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered an important speech at the meeting on cultural inheritance and development, emphasizing that “Chinese modernization invigorates Chinese civilization with modern power, while Chinese civilization supports Chinese modernization with cultural sustenance.” This remark succinctly summarizes the inherent relationship between the Chinese modernization and Chinese civilization, reveals the underlying logic behind their mutual mergence and mutual achievement, and shows the scientific path for the construction of the modern Chinese civilization.
“Chinese modernization invigorates Chinese civilization with modern power” indicates that the Chinese modernization promotes the Chinese civilization towards the road to revitalization through modern transformation. The Chinese modernization has achieved rapid economic and social development, established strong political integration and institutional supports, and promoted ideological liberation and the revitalization of national culture. It has endowed Chinese civilization with modern strength from the three levels of material basis, institutional guarantee, and ideological support.
“Chinese civilization supports Chinese modernization with cultural sustenance” indicates that the Chinese modernization is deeply rooted in the cultural soil of Chinese civilization. Chinese civilization has five characteristics: consistency, uniformity, innovation, inclusiveness, and peacefulness. The Chinese modernization also has five characteristics, namely “modernization of a huge population,” “modernization of common prosperity for all,” “modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement,” “modernization of harmony between humanity and nature,” and “modernization of peaceful development.” The way of thinking, cultural character, spirit, and values unique to the Chinese nation are embodied in the five characteristics of Chinese civilization, which has endowed the five characteristics of the Chinese modernization with distinctive national features and a solid cultural foundation.
The advanced material productivity, institutional form, ideology, and culture represented by the Chinese modernization organically integrate with the regional civilization represented by Chinese civilization to form a new form of human advancement—the modern Chinese civilization. It is a comprehensive form of composite civilization, integrating three elements of civilization: modern civilization representing advanced way of material production, socialist civilization representing advanced social institutions, and Chinese civilization representing regional history and culture. These three elements of civilization together support the “economy-politics-culture” structure of modern Chinese civilization. The modern Chinese civilization is not only the establishment of the Chinese modernization but also a result of integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and fine traditional Chinese culture. It is, as well, a product of the inheritance and development of Chinese civilization and the great revitalization of the Chinese nation. China, a great country with a history of five thousand years, is set to return to the center stage of the world.
(The above content is excerpted from the article “Relationship between the Chinese Modernization and the Inheritance and Development of Chinese Civilization” published in the Journal of Shandong University by YANG Fengcheng, Researcher at the National Academy of Development and Strategy and Dean of the School of CPC History and Party-Building at Renmin University of China, and YE Zihao, Doctoral Candidate at the School of CPC History and Party-Building at Renmin University of China.)
Original article link: [Journal of Shandong University] YANG Fengcheng, YE Zihao: Relationship between the Chinese Modernization and the Inheritance and Development of Chinese Civilization
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