ABSTRACTS OF MAIN ESSAYS

TheCreativeSublimationofChineseCulturebyXiJinping
ThoughtonSocialismwithChineseCharacteristicsforaNewEra

Meng Xin

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the quintessence of the times of Chinese culture and Chinese spirit. It inherits through innovation the essence of Chinese culture, such as ideology, humanistic spirit and code of conduct; it integrates and promotes the unique ways of thinking of Chinese culture that focuses on the whole and is good at dialectical, pragmatic or flexible; it acknowledges and highlights the Chinese culture’s value principles of a world of universal harmony, great unity of heaven and man or primacy of harmony, having produced a series of theoretical and practical achievements and achieved the creative sublimation of Chinese culture. In the inheritance and innovation of Chinese culture, this thought adheres to the principles of unity between inheritance and innovation, unity between the original and the foreign and unity between cognition and practice. It provides action and theoretical guidance for better inheriting and innovating Chinese culture in the new era and achieving ceaseless sublimation of Chinese culture and also provides a powerful spiritual motivation for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

TheRiseofInformalGovernanceinChina:
PoliticalOriginsofVillageCouncils/VillageConsultationCouncils

Deng Dacai

In the early 21st century, in addition to the system of villagers’ self-governance in rural China, the organizations, systems and institutions like village councils or village consultation councils were established in some areas to implement informal governance so as to solve the conundrums of ineffective operation and functional constraints of village self-governance system in rural China. The paper holds that the rise of informal governance institutions, such as village councils and village consultation councils, mainly originates from the awareness of governance and democratic ideas of local governments and officials, the legitimacy requirement of directional public financial input and allocation and the outcome of rational connection between supply and demand and effective construction. Their informal governance contains a certain formality with strong Chinese characteristics. This informal governance implies substitutability, complementarity and democracy and other important values and functions but it is constrained by its non-sustainability and limited maneuverability.

TowardsaPluralisticModernityBothHolisticandNormative:
AnAnalysisBasedonEisenstadt’sTheoryofMultipleModernities

Sun Guodong

As a third theoretical vision of modernization besides Huntington’s theory of “the clash of civilizations” and Fukuyama’s notion of “the end of history”, Eisenstadt’s theory of “multiple modernities” can provide a theoretical basis for a non-Western society to explore its own road of “alternative modernities”. Starting from the aspects of the human agency and “intensive reflexivity” inherent in modernity, the “elite functions” in social evolution and the historical continuity of transcendental orders in “axial civilization”, this theory lays a theoretical foundation for multiple modernities by religious sociology and historical sociology, but it is also believed to dispel the normative connotation of modernity. A pluralistic modernity theory which is truly suitable for the Chinese context should not only retain the normative connotation of modernity but also ensure that the pluralism of modernity realizing form has the wholeness of integrating value, system and practice.

AnAnalyticalFrameworkforImprovingLocalTaxSystem:
TheoreticalPrinciplesandApplicationExamples

Deng Liping/Deng Qiuyun

Centering on the important task of fiscal and tax reform of improving the local tax system, the paper puts forward an analysis framework based on the idea of “having both commonness and individuality”, which is embodied in “one persistence, two musts, and one can”, that is, persistence in the high unity of “the Party administering taxes” and “taxing for the people”; we must follow the principle of “fiscal and taxation linkage” and focus on coordinated progress in improving the local tax system and reforming the financial relationship between central and local governments; we must take “improving the tax system” as the guidance to achieve the dual goals of improving the local tax and direct tax systems; we can regard the “pilot real estate tax” as an opportunity to accelerate the improvement of the local tax system. Taking a city in south China as an example, this paper analyzes the path selection of improving the city’s local tax system by applying this framework to provide inspiration for the road to a sound local tax system with Chinese characteristics from the perspective of combining theoretical construction with practical examples.

AnAnalysisof“15-MinuteElderlyCareServiceCircle”
fromthePerspectiveofEconomicEfficiency

Shi Xiaodan/Chen Youhua

The upsurge of “15-minute elderly care service circle” needs to be rationally examined from the perspective of economic efficiency. As a kind of lifestyle service industry, the development of elderly care service industry is theoretically affected by residents’ income level, service price, economies of scale, demand density, service personnel development and other factors. In fact, China’s “15-minute elderly care service circle” is generally constrained by both supply and demand and the government’s regulation and control are also inadequate, so there is still a long way to go for the efficient development of elderly care service industry. At present, from the perspective of promoting the development of elderly care service industry, it is necessary to focus on policy guidance, flexible service radius, layout adjustment according to local conditions, intelligent platform connection, basic services, integration of various service circles and other aspects as well.

China’sPartnershipStrategyfromthePerspectiveofInternationalLaw:
Connotation,DirectionandPath

Zhao Jun/Liu Guowei

In the context of major changes in the power structure of the international community, China has constructed a partnership strategy with cooperation as its core connotation from the demand of interests in both domestic and international dimensions. The differences between partnership and alliance or the non-aligned movement can be analyzed from the perspective of integrity and innovation of international law. Unlike an alliance, a partnership does not distinguish among partners based on ideology or other factors so that the principles of international law, such as sovereign equality and non-interference in internal affairs, which have been damaged in alliance relations, can be maintained. In contrast to the non-aligned movement, a partnership can provide a broader platform for the development of international law and an opportunity for developing countries to better interpret and apply international law. In the process of constructing the rule of law framework of partnership, we need to highlight the individuality of field selection, promote the coordination and complementarity of normative paradigms and promote the effective combination of bilateral and multilateral relations.