Since 1949, after arduous exploration and countless setbacks, the Communist Party of China has finally succeeded in blazing a unique path of building a modern socialist country that is rooted in China’s historical endowments, cultural heritage and reality, as well as Sinicized Marxism.
This unique path is a preponderant factor in China achieving world-renowned success. China did not follow the development model of the West. Instead, it relies on the strong and wise leadership of the CPC and the hard work of the Chinese people. It has achieved modernization in just a few decades that Western countries took hundreds of years to achieve. Most notably, it has eradicated poverty, a task that many advanced countries have failed even today. Consequently, the Chinese nation now can “stand on its own among the nations in the world”, making most countries in the world stunned and showing genuine appreciation.
Since 1978, when China embarked upon the strategy of reform and opening-up, the country has rapidly transformed from a poor and backward place to a moderately prosperous society. Even if its development experience cannot be fully replicated in other countries, it nonetheless can still provide them with valuable inspiration and lessons. Five years ago, in his report to the 19th National Congress of the CPC on Oct 18, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly and confidently declared to the world that “socialism with Chinese characteristics” has entered a new era, which “means that the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics are evolving continuously. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has expanded the way for developing countries to modernize, provided a new choice for those countries and nations in the world which wish to speed up development and at the same time maintain their independence, and contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to resolving the problems of humanity”. In my view, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s audience in this report consists mainly of those developing countries that do not want to follow the Western development path but are uncertain about the right paths to take to achieve their goals of modernization. Understandably, General Secretary Xi does not have the United States and other Western countries in mind.
Today, China has built a moderately prosperous society in an all-around way. The CPC and the Chinese people will continue to exude full confidence and passion and continue to make persistent and dedicated efforts to make China a prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist country by the middle of this century. From now on, the value and significance of China’s unique development path will become more apparent and attractive. General Secretary Xi believes that China’s increasingly mature and complete unique development path is worthy of reference not only by developing countries but by all countries, including the US and other Western countries.
On Oct 16, 2022, General Secretary Xi delivered a report to the 20th Party Congress, proudly declaring, “Scientific socialism has radiated new vitality in China in the 21st century with Chinese-style modernization. It provides a new choice for mankind to realize modernization. The CPC and the Chinese people will provide more and better Chinese wisdom, Chinese solutions and Chinese strength to solve the common problems faced by mankind and will make new and greater contributions to the noble cause of human peace and development.”
The CPC calls China’s unique development path “Chinese-style modernization” for the first time, and “Chinese-style modernization” is deemed as the key to building socialism with Chinese characteristics, realizing the nation’s second centenary goal, and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As pointed out by General Secretary Xi, “based on long-term exploration and practice since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially since the reform and opening-up, and through theoretical and practical innovations and breakthroughs since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, our party has successfully promoted and expanded Chinese-style modernization. … Chinese-style modernization is socialist modernization led by the CPC. It has both the common characteristics of modernization of all countries and Chinese characteristics derived from China’s national conditions”. The concept of “Chinese-style modernization” has been solemnly incorporated in the amended Constitution of the CPC by the 20th Party Congress.
In General Secretary Xi’s report to the 20th Party Congress, the defining features of “Chinese-style modernization” include (1) modernization with a huge population, unprecedented in arduousness and complexity, (2) modernization for the common prosperity of all people, (3) modernization with the material civilization and spiritual civilization in harmony, (4) modernization with harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and (5) modernization along the road of peaceful development. Crucially, the essential requirements of Chinese-style modernization include adherence to the leadership of the CPC, adherence to socialism with Chinese characteristics, attaining high-quality development, development of whole-process people’s democracy, enrichment of the spiritual world of the people, achievement of common prosperity for everyone, advancing humanity’s harmonious coexistence with nature, promoting the building of a community with a common destiny of mankind, and creating a new form of human civilization.
The concept of “Chinese-style modernization” has greatly enriched the modernization theories in the world and is a breakthrough in the field of ideology and theory. For a long time, Western intellectuals believed that the Western modernization path is the only modernization path for human society, in which individualism, capitalism and “Western-style democracy” are the core elements. The so-called “Washington Consensus” represents its condensed and canonical expression. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe in the last decade of the 20th century, political and academic elites in the US and the West, such as the Japanese-American scholar Francis Fukuyama, wax triumphalist and even boastfully describe the Western development model featuring liberal democracy and market capitalism as “the end of history”. The US and the West and the international organizations under their control, such as the International Monetary Fund, not only ferociously peddle “Western-style modernization” to the world as an ideology akin to religion, but also use coercion, inducements, “color revolutions” and even military invasions to force other countries to adopt the Western model. Its adoption by many developing countries has sadly not only engendered many aborted or stalled development but also left those countries impoverished and backward.
What’s more, many countries have been saddled with perennial political turmoil, heavy debts, miserable people’s livelihoods, and even humanitarian disasters due to stagnant development or retrogression. Politically, economically and diplomatically, many countries have become vassals and pawns of the US and the West. Only a few countries or regions — such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore — that have not fully copied the Western model are able to escape the bad luck. Because of many accidental and special factors, Hong Kong could create an “economic miracle” after World War II by pursuing the strategy of “small government, big market”. However, Hong Kong has not adopted the “Western democratic political system”, and this development model of overreliance on the market has already become lately an impediment to Hong Kong’s further progress. Today, to the dismay of the US and the West, more and more countries and regions have abandoned, started to give up, or drastically revamp “Western-style modernization”, striving to find development paths that suit their conditions, and increasingly looking for inspiration and examples from “Chinese-style modernization”.
In the US and the West, “Western-style modernization” has also become unsustainable, and more and more people there have lost confidence in Western democracy, the market economy, political parties and politicians, social conditions, and moral values. The success of “Western-style modernization” in the past owes a lot to the technological superiority and industrial prowess of the US and the West. However, more importantly, the US and the West have also relied on imperialism, colonialism, slavery, military invasion, financial hegemony, the hegemony of the dollar, and the imposition of an unfair and exploitive division of economic labor on other countries. However, with the continuous rise of non-Western countries and the increasing assertion of their independence and interests, “Western-style modernization” has substantially lost the pillar of coercion and exploitation over other countries for its success. At the same time, the potential drawbacks of the Western development model for the US and the West have been exposed one after another because of declining economic competitiveness and stagnant economic growth. They include constant political struggle, rivalries between political parties, failure of governance, internal friction, incompetent political leadership, the prevalence of monopolies and oligopolies, the dominance of individual interests, the demise of the sense of collectivity, staggering economic inequality, a shrinking middle class, racial conflicts, class struggles, xenophobic populism, regional conflicts, separatism, and the collapse of the welfare state. More seriously, the US and other Western countries lack strong, united, idealistic, courageous and popular political leadership to undertake the desperately needed fundamental political, economic and social reforms. These phenomena are vividly in contrast to the good results brought about by “Chinese-style modernization”. US and Western politicians, political parties, experts, scholars and media who are pessimistic about the future of the West but are reluctant to recognize the merits of “Chinese-style modernization” can only resort to overlooking their problems, shirking their responsibilities to their nations, blaming each other, constantly pushing back issues or “sweeping them under the carpet”, using ethnic minorities as scapegoats, and treating China as the culprit that “causes” their troubles. All these gimmicks are primarily means of political self-preservation. However, these “self-mutilating” or destructive behaviors are not enough to revive the US and the West in the long run.
General Secretary Xi adamantly indicated in his report to the 20th Party Congress that “we will not follow the old path of some countries to achieve modernization through war, colonization, plunder and other methods”. In its essence, “Chinese-style modernization” is not only the only way for China to become prosperous and strong but also benefits mankind, including the people of the US and the West, demonstrating the broad-mindedness and wisdom of the Chinese nation and its commitment to mankind. It has broad prospects and will be increasingly admired by the world. On the contrary, “Western-style modernization” has reached a cul-de-sac. If it does not change fundamentally, the secular decline of the US and the West will be unavoidable. Out of arrogance, prejudice, jealousy and addiction to the “free market”, American and Western media and intellectuals have almost unanimously denounced, slandered and ridiculed “Chinese-style modernization”, defiantly portended its ultimate failure, and refused to admit that “Chinese-style modernization” has any referential value to the West. The brutal reality, however, will eventually prove their conceit, arrogance, shortsightedness and wrongness, but it will be too late for the West by then.
The author is a professor emeritus of sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.