Source: CGTN   Published: 2022-10-27

Editor's note: Dong Shaopeng is the executive deputy editor-in-chief of the Securities Daily. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has concluded and its description of the Chinese path to modernization mainly includes five aspects: modernization with a huge population, modernization with common prosperity for all people, modernization with coordinated material and spiritual civilization, modernization with harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and modernization with peaceful development. These reflect the distinct value orientation and pursuit that is in sharp contrast to the traditional capitalist theory of profit maximization, which demonstrates that the Chinese path to modernization will create a new civilization.

As part of the second largest economy in the world, China's manufacturing industry reached about 30% of the global scale in 2021 while its contribution to world economic growth has exceeded 30% for many years. These tangible material foundations that China has are the basis for continuing to promote modernization and participate in shaping the new international order. President Xi Jinping emphasized in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that "without a solid material and technological foundation, it is impossible to build a powerful socialist modernization country in an all-round way". This shows that he attaches great importance to and has a deep understanding of the material foundation supporting a modern country – that is, only by creating real material value can he build the corresponding social civilization form.

The concept of "powerful modern socialist country " refers to the realization of high-quality development in politics, economy, culture, society and ecological civilization, not just the gross national product and the amount of goods exported. However, without these material and technological bases, a modern society is impossible to talk about. Without a strong industrial foundation, scientific and technological foundation, and governance system, China is bound to fall into a passive position in international affairs, or even be beaten as before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Therefore, Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of the real economy and has repeatedly stressed on many occasions that China's economy cannot turn from reality to emptiness.

Since the National Financial Work Conference in July 2017, Xi Jinping has led the major reorganization of China's financial system, demanding that finance return to its original source and serve economic and social development. Since then, the banking and insurance industries have created a package of financial instruments and products that focus on supporting small, medium-sized and micro enterprises, and the securities industry has built a relevant service platform. The "finance for the people" ecology is taking shape. Of course, this exploration is still in progress, and measures need to be constantly improved to shape the ecology, but the direction of Chinese path to modernization is irreversible.

Over the years, Xi Jinping also put forward the concept of capital for good, entrepreneurs for good, and science and technology for good, which is intended to emphasize that the allocation of production factors should be "people centered", conform to and maintain human moral values and social ethical values, and do not put the interests of a few people first, let alone be inspired by interests. In the past two years, the Chinese government has improved regulatory measures against excessive monopoly and unfair competition in the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence industries to protect industrial development, prevent the spillover of capital monopoly effects, prevent the infringement of personal information rights and interests and related benefits, and maintain public order and security.

The description of the five aspects of Chinese modernization is a comprehensive consideration and deployment of the market economy, social distribution, value creation, moral restraint and international order. Human labor production, enterprise development and operation, commercial exchanges and circulation and exchanges among countries should all improve the well-being of the people and converge into positive energy. If an economy with a large scale and advanced technology cannot benefit the vast majority of people, maintain a fair order, promote the harmonious development of man and nature, or even lead to social chaos or even war, it will not be a real modernization, but a lame modernization and distorted modernization. Therefore, in the process of promoting modernization, China emphasizes the solid development of the real economy, and must not break away from reality. It is necessary to reduce the energy consumption per unit output value, and actively advance the time point of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, in order to build a better China and a better world, and fulfill the concept of development for the people.

Xi Jinping put forward the strategic thought of Chinese path to modernization, which is a major theoretical achievement that conforms to the development trend of human society, starting from the Marxist labor value theory and coordinating economic and philosophical values. This strategic thought focuses on the value of "real" and "long". "Real" is the real economy and development effectiveness; "Long" means long-term development and long-term security.

Marxist axiology holds that the value of all commodities is created by human labor, and the socially necessary labor time condensed in the value of commodities is the ultimate reason for the change of commodity prices. However, human physical labor and mental labor are combined, and their superposition determines the value of commodities. Only by respecting labor and science, advocating innovation and fair distribution, and establishing a mechanism to discover and adjust inequities and imbalances, can we ensure that value creation continues to benefit the people, improve human civilization, and prevent the trajectory of value creation from shifting to the opposite.

The Chinese path to modernization insists on serving the majority of people, adhering to the dual prosperity of material and spiritual civilization and sticking to the harmonious development of man and nature. That's while adhering to the path of peaceful development that reflects the broad mind of developing the real economy, promoting high-quality development and achieving high-quality life. It also includes promoting high-level common security and common development of the whole world, and unifying the value of "reality" and the value of "long", which is the way for human society to move towards peaceful development and a guide to common prosperity.