On July 26, the 12th CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) Forum on Scientific Socialism and the Mao Zedong Thought Forum were held concurrently in Weihai, Shandong Province, under the theme “Chinese Modernization Theory and Scientific Socialism.”
The theory of Chinese modernization represents a major innovative achievement grounded in China’s specific realities, reflecting its distinctive characteristics and embodying Chinese insights. Xin Xiangyang, director of the Academy of Marxism at CASS, emphasized that deepening research on this theory requires adopting a grand historical perspective to grasp its innovative implications, and situating it within the broader context of human modernization to understand its theoretical and practical breakthroughs. He also highlighted the importance of maintaining a global outlook to fully appreciate its significance, and of adopting a problem-oriented approach to further advance research and interpretation of the theory.
Sun Laibin, Party secretary of the School of Marxism at Peking University, systematically elucidated the intrinsic logical connection between the development of Marxism and socialism with Chinese characteristics from the theoretical perspective of the evolution of scientific socialism in practice. He argued that the historical experience of scientific socialism lies in integrating unwavering adherence to fundamental principles with creative application and innovative development in response to changing times.
The adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times requires extracting new theories from China’s realities and elevating Chinese experience into fundamental principles, Sun continued. The basic tenets of Marxism can and must achieve a “localized” leap within specific contexts. The pursuit of Chinese modernization, national governance, and ecological civilization along the path of scientific socialism constitutes practical expressions of this leap, making an original contribution to scientific socialism.
Scientific socialism and Marxism provide the theoretical foundation for deepening systematic, theoretical research on Chinese modernization. Liu Zhiming, deputy director of the Institute of Philosophy at CASS, stated that coordinated development is a defining feature that both distinguishes Chinese modernization from and surpasses Western modernity. “Humanistic economics,” which integrates the market economy with socialist cultural-ethical civilization, fosters a new civilizational paradigm characterized by synchronic material and non-material advancement. By strengthening cultural confidence and intellectual development, it transcends the profit-driven, materialistic limitations of Western civilization, reflecting Chinese modernization’s historic breakthrough in civilizational evolution.
The proposition of “new quality productive forces” sheds light on the productivity logic underlying Chinese modernization. Cai Wencheng, dean of the School of Marxism at Lanzhou University, remarked that new quality productive forces represent both a fresh concept and a new driving force for advancing Chinese modernization, marking a contemporary development of Marxist productive forces theory. This concept aligns with the laws of advanced productive forces while addressing the demands of Chinese modernization—such as “harmony between humanity and nature” and “high-quality development.” Theoretically, it charts a path for Chinese modernization to move beyond traditional development models and achieve qualitative leaps. By innovating the forms of productive forces, it will resolve issues of imbalanced and insufficient development, injecting new theoretical and practical vitality into the modernization process.
The forum was co-hosted by the Institute of Marxism at CASS and Shandong University.