Author: Yu Zuhua (special researcher of Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center, the supreme leader of Shandong Province, and professor of ludong university Institute of History and Culture)
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s history of uniting and leading the people of China to pursue national rejuvenation for more than 100 years is also a history of constantly exploring the road to modernization. After several generations of unremitting efforts, we have embarked on the road of Chinese modernization. " The exploration of the road to modernization runs through the course of the party’s struggle for more than a hundred years. Several generations of communist party people have persisted in their exploration and embarked on Chinese modernization, which is the broad road to create a better life for the people and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This road is inseparable from the unremitting efforts of the pioneers of the party during the new-democratic revolution. Reviewing this course and summarizing its experience and enlightenment is of great historical significance for the new era and new journey to comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese modernization.
The Historical Choice of China’s Modernization Road
The Communist Party of China (CPC), founded in July 1921, entered the historical stage under the background of "various national salvation schemes were introduced in turn, but all ended in failure" during the old democratic revolution. Since its founding, the Party has become the leading force of China Revolution and China’s modernization, which has promoted a comprehensive exploration from early modernization to seeking a modernization road that truly suits China’s national conditions. The exploration and formation of China’s modernization road is inevitable after the repeated setbacks of modernization in the old democratic revolution, the trend of China’s advanced elements’ reflection on western-style modernization, and the historical choice after the selection of various modernization schemes in the new democratic revolution.
Awakening after frustration. After the Opium War in 1840, various political forces fought against imperialism and feudalism in response to the historical disaster of "the country was humiliated, the people were humiliated and the civilization was dusty". People with lofty ideals promoted the transformation and modernization of utensils, systems and culture from different angles, and put forward plans such as "saving the country through industry" and "saving the country through science", but these efforts failed in the end, leading and promoting the development direction of modern China.
The turning point after introspection. In the minds of advanced China people in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, western modernization was once a "blueprint for providing a bright future", but the first world war, 1929— The economic crisis in 1933 exposed the serious drawbacks of western modernization, which prompted all sectors of China society to deeply reflect on it, and the overall orientation changed from advocating western civilization to a non-capitalist future. In 1933, most of the 26 articles about China’s modernization in Shen Bao Monthly chose the socialist way or the non-capitalist way. Our party conforms to the historical trend, promotes the transformation from learning from France and Thailand to learning from Russia in the ideological trend of modernity reflection after World War I, and advocates the new democracy of "creating the premise for socialism" after the discussion on modernization caused by the economic crisis.
The choice after comparison. Chinese modernization is the inevitable result of historical choice. During the period of the new-democratic revolution, it was precisely under the circumstances that the bureaucratic capitalist modernization led by the Kuomintang regime was ruthlessly eliminated by history, and under the background that the liberal capitalist modernization expected by Anglo-American scholars "turned into a dream", it was proved by history that "more than 90% of the people in the country are in favor of it, and there is no other way to go" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 2, p. 679), which promoted the Chinese nation to stand in a new posture.
Creating the Political Premise of Modernization Development
In 1933, one of the topics of China’s modernization was "Difficulties and obstacles in China’s modernization" and "prerequisites" needed to promote China’s modernization. In this regard, our party had a clear answer in the founding period. The early leaders of the Party have realized that, fundamentally speaking, imperialism and feudal warlords are the two major obstacles that hinder China’s modernization process and disrupt the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. On September 13, 1922, the first issue of Guide Weekly issued the Declaration of this newspaper — — The preface to the Guide pointed out: "In China today, the civil strife of warlords is of course the biggest obstacle to peaceful reunification and freedom, and the foreign invasion of international imperialism is a demon that restricts the free development of our Chinese nation politically and economically." In the article "What is Imperialism" published by Li Da in April 1923, he pointed out: "We analyzed China’s chaotic sources politically and economically, and knew that there were two major obstacles that disturbed China, one was international imperialism, and the other was domestic military politics." Therefore, the historical task of the party in the period of democratic revolution is to "break" first, that is, to clear the way for modernization with anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles. In July 1922, the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of China adopted the "On the Democratic United Front"The Resolution of the National People’s Congress put forward the aim of "clearing away the oppression of imperialism by feudal warlords and building an independent country with real democratic politics" and formulated the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolutionary program.
Mao Zedong profoundly explained the relationship between the democratic revolution and national industrialization, and proposed to create the necessary political premise for China’s modernization by striving for the victory of the new-democratic revolution. In On the Coalition Government, he pointed out that in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China, it is impossible to "develop industry, build national defense and benefit the people", and "the possibility of liberating the productive forces of China people and making them fully developed needs to be realized in the whole China" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 3, pp. 1080-1081). In the report "Current Situation and Our Tasks" in December 1947, "completing the reform of new democracy and realizing the unity and independence of the country" was regarded as the necessary basis for "changing from an agricultural country to an industrial country" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 4, p. 1245). At the end of 1948, in the article "Carry the Revolution through to the End", the realization of national independence and people’s liberation was regarded as "a prerequisite for transforming an agricultural country into an industrial country" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 4, p. 1375). The war of liberation overthrew the "three mountains" and established a powerful people’s democratic regime with modernization orientation, thus establishing the political premise and fundamental direction of China’s modernization.
The gestation and development of the transitional form of Chinese modernization
During the period of the new democratic revolution, the discussion and exploration of China’s modernization cannot avoid an important proposition: "Which way should China modernize? Capitalism or socialism?"? Early Marxists had a clear choice before and after the founding of the Party: they must develop industry with socialism. Li Dazhao pointed out in the article "Industry under Socialism" in March 1921: "The revitalization of China’s industry must be carried out in socialism" (Dawn, Volume 2, No.2). Cai Hesen pointed out in the article "Guidelines for Labor Movement in China" published in May 1922: "In any case, capitalism cannot be fully developed in China to solve China’s economic problems", and it should "develop China’s large-scale production with socialist production methods" (Pioneer No.7).
According to the three choices that the intellectuals focused on at that time: industrialization or agriculture, capitalism or socialism, westernization or China, the new-democratic modernization plan made a profound explanation in line with the world modernization trend and China’s national conditions.
One is "Strive for the industrialization of China", which depicts the goal of "transforming China from an agricultural country into an industrial country" and building a new democratic society. At that time, the understanding of the concept of modernization included not only the economic and technological changes with industrialization as the core in a narrow sense, but also the "overall changes in politics, economy and culture" in a broad sense.
On the economic and technological level, industrialization is regarded as the core connotation of modernization. The party’s industrialization thought was first expounded in the debate between "building the country by agriculture" and "building the country by industry" The early leaders of the Communist Party of China opposed Zhang Shizhao and others’ theory of "building a country through agriculture" and advocated promoting national industrialization. In July 1923, Qu Qiubai criticized Zhang’s article "The Parliamentary System and Warlords in Modern China". "It should not be said that China is still an agricultural country; Not to mention, China is an agricultural country, and it will stagnate forever ",pointing out that" China is gradually becoming a commercial industrial country from a patriarchal agricultural country according to historical logic "(Forward, No.1). Yun Daiying published in October 1923, "Can China not be industrialized?" "The article points out that" China will also become an industrial country and then it can survive on its own "(Shenbao, October 30, 1923). This fully shows that once the Party was founded, it consciously represented the development requirements of China’s advanced productive forces. Mao Zedong advocated "developing China industry" in the later period of the Great Revolution (Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1, page 43). Later, he talked about it in documents such as On the Coalition Government, Speech at the Jin-Sui Cadre Meeting, Report at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee in communist party, China, and On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship.From an agricultural country to an industrial country "or" national industrialization ". In addition to paying attention to industrialization, the other three aspects of the later "four modernizations", namely agriculture, national defense and scientific and technological modernization, have also been brought into view. Mao Zedong mentioned in "On protracted war" that "the innovation of military system can not be separated from modernization" and called for "fighting for industrialization and agricultural modernization in China" in the report of "On Coalition Government". Xinhua Daily has successively set up a supplement of "Natural Science" and "Special Page for Science", which shows that it attaches great importance to promoting the development of science and technology.
On the level of overall change, the new democratic program of trinity of politics, economy and culture is put forward. Mao Zedong put forward the goal of "building a new society and a new country of the Chinese nation" in "On New Democracy", resulting in the "new democratic republic" of "combining new democratic politics, new democratic economy and new democratic culture" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 2, pp. 663 and 709).
The second is to choose socialism and design a road map of "developing from a new democratic society to a future socialist society". Mao Zedong pointed out in his talk with American journalist Si Nuo: "The China Revolution consists of two articles, the first and the second", the first "carrying out the national democratic revolution" and the second "carrying out the socialist revolution". "At present, it is a national democratic revolution, which will turn into a socialist revolution when it develops to a certain stage" (Collected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 2, pp. 243-244).
Third, put forward the proposition of "Marxism in China", and explore the modernization road in line with China’s reality under the guidance of the theoretical achievements of Marxism in China. In October, 1938, Mao Zedong put forward that "Marxism should be China-oriented, so that it will have the characteristics of China in every performance" in his report on the New Stage made at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee. In his Theory of New Democracy, he pointed out: On the one hand, the new democratic republic is different from the old form, European-American style, bourgeois dictatorship and capitalist republic; On the other hand, it is also different from the Soviet-style, proletarian dictatorship and socialist Republic. "China’s economy must go ‘ Restrain capital ’ And ‘ Average land ownership ’ The road ","we must never establish a European-American capitalist society "; Nor does it copy Soviet-style socialism. In the stage of new democracy, "socialist agriculture has not been established in general", except for big banks, big industries and big businesses, "the private property of other capitalism is not confiscated" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 2, pp. 675-679).
In a sense, the road of new-democratic modernization is the accumulation of quantitative changes in China’s modernization before the "qualitative change", that is, the establishment of the socialist system, and it is a vigorous seedling that breaks through the ground before it grows into a towering tree.
Lay a solid foundation for the exploration of Chinese modernization
The victory of the new-democratic revolution and the establishment of People’s Republic of China (PRC) show that the history of China and the people of China have finally made three correct historical choices since modern times, namely, they chose the Communist Party of China (CPC), Marxism and socialism, thus establishing the leadership, fundamental compliance and institutional foundation for Chinese modernization. National independence, people’s liberation and three historic choices have promoted the transformation and leap of China’s modernization road, and created fundamental social conditions for the comprehensive exploration of Chinese modernization in the whole country. As the largest ruling party in the world, the Communist Party of China (CPC) "has the qualification to lead the people’s revolution in China" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 4, p. 1430), and also has the position of leading large-scale modernization. The leadership of the party determines the fundamental nature of Chinese modernization and is a strong driving force to stimulate Chinese modernization. Socialism has become a social system with obvious advantages. Socialism has provided new China with the basis for accelerating the development of social productive forces and the conditions for achieving common prosperity. Socialism determines the direction of Chinese modernization and is the institutional guarantee for ensuring its stability and far-reaching development. Marxism is a powerful spiritual force that makes China people "change from passive to active". The promotion of "Marxism in China" provides theoretical guidance for exploring Chinese modernization, and China-style Marxism is the fundamental follow-up of Chinese modernization.It is the three historic choices that made the modern capitalist modernization led by other forces turn into "socialist modernization led by the Communist Party of China (CPC)", made the modernization follow the example of "others" and made the passive and dependent early modernization of China turn into active and independent Chinese modernization, thus opening up a new era of China’s modernization process.
Guangming Daily (11th edition, August 30, 2023)
