The World Significance of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era
Jiang Hui
Jiangxi People’s Publishing House
November 2021
65.00 (CNY)
This book takes seven cutting-edge, academic reasoning and typical topics of the times, namely “China’s New Era and the World’s Great Change”, “China’s New Era and the ‘Great Historical Era’”, “The Three Whys of China’s New Era”, “The Original Contribution of Contemporary Marxism”, “Driving the Development of World Socialism Towards a New Dawn”, “Opening a New Path for Humanity Towards Modernization”, and “Providing New Solutions to World Problems” as the starting point, to systematically analyze and precisely interpret the significance of the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics to the world. Through the author’s profound theoretical knowledge and unique research paradigm, the research is carried out from both theoretical and practical levels.
Jiang Hui
Jiang Hui is Vice President, Member of the leading Party members’ group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Director of the Institute of Contemporary China Studies, President, Professor, and PhD Supervisor of the Institute of Marxist Studies. He also serves as Executive Director of the CASS-based Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Director of the Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Deputy Director of the World Socialism Research Center, Vice President of the Chinese Association of Scientific Socialism, Vice President of the Association of CPC History, and Vice President of the Association of National History of the People’s Republic of China (ANHPRC). He has long been engaged in research on Marxist theory, scientific socialism and the international communist movement, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and contemporary world socialism.
As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, there is a growing consensus that the world is in the midst of a significant change unprecedented in the past century and that China has become the main driving force behind this change.
Under the leadership and governance of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a century-old party, China has made tremendous achievements that have caught the world’s attention, bringing the Chinese people, who have been subjected to slavery and bullying for more than 100 years in modern times, to stand up, fully modernizing the over 5000-year-old history of the Chinese nation, and opening up a successful path for the 500-year-old socialist ideology in the world’s most populous country. The new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics has made it possible for new China to catch up with the times in great strides, and the remarkable renaissance of the Chinese nation has shown bright prospects. The wonders and tremendous contributions of the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics are an extraordinary chapter in Chinese history and an incredible creation in the history of human social development. The founding of scientific theories in the new era has led to the emergence of contemporary Chinese Marxism and 21st century Marxism; the triumph of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era constitutes the guiding light and pillar of socialism in the world; the pioneering of the Chinese modernization path in the new era provides a role model and a brand-new alternative for the majority of developing countries to modernize. China has become a contributing player to global development and a trendsetter in the new era, contributing Chinese wisdom to solving the world’s problems and Chinese solutions to mankind’s search for a better social system. The new era has promoted China’s creative transformation and innovation, bringing it to life, creating a new form of human civilization, and making outstanding contributions to the progress of human civilization. These unprecedented and extraordinary initiatives have solved many challenging problems in the development of human society and provided Chinese solutions for mankind’s exploration of a better social system. The new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics is an era in which all Chinese people are working together to realize the Chinese dream of a remarkable renaissance of the Chinese nation and an era in which China will continue to make more significant contributions to mankind. The great achievements China has made in the new era are substantial not only in the development history of the Chinese nation and the People’s Republic of China, but also in the evolution of world socialism of human society.
In the sense of the above-mentioned revolutionary achievements and changes in the new era of China, we can say with complete confidence and certainty that the new era of China, which has come closer to the center of the world stage, has integrated with the world in the 21st century, and that China’s development has made an increasing contribution to the development and progress of the world while benefiting its own people. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out that “the Communist Party of China has insisted on a practical approach to everything and led the Chinese people to explore the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. History and experience have proven and will further prove that this path is the right one to follow and is also bound to be stable and well-travelled. We will unswervingly follow this bright path to develop ourselves and benefit the world.” [Keynote address by Xi Jinping at CPC and World Political Parties Summit: Strengthening Cooperation Among Political Parties to Jointly Pursue the People’s Wellbeing," People’s Daily, July 7, 2021] The world-renowned achievements of China in the new era have not only laid a solid foundation for China to build a strong socialist modern state, but also contributed Chinese experience to expanding the modernization path of developing countries, contributed Chinese solutions to changing and optimizing the global governance system, made Chinese contributions to drawing a picture of an inclusive and coexistent world civilization, provided solid support and great impetus for revitalizing world socialism, provided Chinese models for rewriting the Western logic of “a powerful country must seek hegemony”, and it has made a significant contribution to the development of the world economy and the progress of human civilization.
What’s unique for a nation is also precious to the world. Through the remarkable achievements and outstanding contributions of China in the new era, we need to deeply understand and explore the tremendous worldwide influence and growing global significance of China in the new era, the contemporary and international significance of China’s development and its contributions, and the universal and global significance of China’s development path and theories. China is the world’s largest socialist and developing country and has made a great leap from “catching up with the times” to “l(fā)eading the times”. With over 95 million members and governing a country of more than 1.4 billion people, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is the world’s largest ruling party with tremendous global influence. In such a grand era, such a great country with such a magnificent Marxist party, the historic greatness it has created and its outstanding contribution are bound to be the superb epic in the history of the Chinese nation and a wondrous miracle in the history of human development.
A century ago, British philosopher Bertrand Russell predicted in his book The Problem of China that “China, with its wealth of goods and its large population, is well placed to leap to become a world power second only to the United States.” He believed that China would play its rightful role in the world and bring a new hope when humanity desperately needed it. Nearly half a century ago, the British historian Arnold Toynbee, author of the masterpiece A Study of History, engaged in a dialogue with the Japanese social activist Daisaku Ikeda. Their discussion was on the theme “The Future of Humanity in the 21st Century,” in which he suggested that the hope of humanity lies in the East and that Chinese civilization will provide endless cultural treasures and ideas for the future transformation of the world and human society in the 21st century. Toynbee clearly predicted that China would be the most qualified and most likely to create a new civilization for human society in the future and that Chinese civilization would unify the world. As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, we cannot look at contemporary China and the world today without admiring the historical foresight of the abovementioned two Western philosophers. Today, many educated people worldwide have come to the insight that it is time to look China in the eye. China has become an essential part of the life of the rest of the world. China is taking on responsibilities befitting its place and writing the chapter of its own destiny and the chapter of the world’s destiny in history. As we build up our own society, we also develop a set of value standards that differ from those of the West. Today, we are increasingly aware that China’s development path and values are distinctly Chinese and unique. Nevertheless, they harbor broad world significance and universality, making it an organic unity of nationhood and worldliness, particularity, and universality. China’s magnificent creations and miracles in the new era are of far-reaching contemporary and world significance, a matter of great epochal importance that deserves our in-depth study.