The great rejuvenation of China

4. China’s modernization is a modernization that adheres to win-win cooperation and follows the path of peaceful development

China’s modernization adheres to the concept of peaceful development and win-win cooperation, does not follow the Western path of aggression, colonization and expansion, and does not agree with the logic of “a strong country must be hegemonic”, and has successfully opened up a road to the rejuvenation of a great power that is “strong but not hegemonic.”

As China’s policy proposition, “not seeking hegemony” stems from the profound immersion of Chinese culture, from the deep memory of the history of national suffering, from the profound understanding of the Western laws of “good war must die” and “hegemony must decline”, and from a profound grasp of the Communist Party’s ruling philosophy and historical mission. The Chinese nation is a peace-loving nation, and is well versed in the historical dialectics that a strong country must hegemony, hegemony is bound to decline, and that warring is bound to die, and forgetting war is dangerous.

In ancient times, the Silk Road was created for exchanges and mutual learning and shared development between the East and the West, and the “Belt and Road” initiative proposed today is also for exchanges and cooperation to promote prosperity. However, we should also realize that along with the rapid improvement of China’s economic strength and comprehensive national strength, the theory of “China’s threat” and “the theory that a strong country must be hegemonic” are very popular. Some people believe that the 500 years of world history since the discovery of geography is a history of national hegemony, the 16th century is Portugal and Spain, the 17th century is the “sea coachman” Netherlands, the 18th and 19th centuries is the Anglo-French hegemony, the achievement of the “sun never sets empire”, the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Germany and Japan rose one after another, two world wars followed, and the 20th century was the hegemony of the United States and the Soviet Union. After these countries became strong, they all embarked on the road of no return of hegemonism. China has not repeated the old path of the rise of great powers, but has risen peacefully and still followed the path of peaceful development after its rise. Comrade Xi Jinping stressed: “China will always be a builder of world peace, firmly follow the path of peaceful development, no matter how the international situation changes, no matter how it develops, China will never seek hegemony, never expand, and never seek spheres of influence.“1 “This is how we set out in policy, this is how we design our system, and we have always done this in practice.” 2 China is not a challenger or destroyer of the international order, nor a bystander or outsider of the global governance system; China was, is and will be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of international order. China has made a solemn commitment to the world never to seek hegemony or expansion, and at the same time interprets the concept of adhering to win-win cooperation and taking the path of peaceful development with its own concrete actions. The concept of “a community with a shared future for mankind” advocated by Comrade Xi Jinping is a clear declaration of China’s adherence to the path of peaceful development, a top-level design proposed by China to plan the blueprint for world development, and a Chinese idea and plan for improving the global governance system as a responsible major country.

A strong China is not a threat to world peace, but the backbone of maintaining world peace. China’s peaceful rise has not only rewritten the development logic of the hegemonic expansion of great powers in the past, but also rewritten the historical destiny of claiming hegemony after the rise of great powers.

China’s path of peaceful development shows the world that the rise of a great power is not only based on the path of starting with war, plundering to get rich, and expanding hegemony, but that peaceful development and civilization will be the priority option for the future world. China’s rejuvenation means the decline of the old logic of “a strong country must hegemony”, and the development logic of “strong but not hegemonic” will rise to the main axis of the new era. All in all, a modern socialist power is not an empty slogan, nor is it an empty concept, but it expands the new realm and new requirements of modern national construction. It is a collection of manufacturing power, science and technology power, quality power, aerospace power, network power, transportation power, maritime power, trade power, sports power, cultural power, education power and talent power; it is also a collection of beautiful China, rule of law China, safe China, healthy China and digital China; it is also a collection of innovative countries, rule of law countries, learning countries, responsible countries, and peaceful countries; or a smart society, a harmonious society, a rule of law society, and a society ruled by law. The collection of learning society has very rich and specific connotations. Section 3 Firmly implement the strategic arrangement for building a modern socialist country in an all-round way The strategic arrangements made by the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era are not only based on the current development reality of China, but also adapt to the future development trend of China, completely outline the timetable and road map for the construction of China’s modern socialist power, and provide important guidelines for adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

1. decisively build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way Building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way is a solemn commitment made by the Communist Party of China to the people and to history, and is the common aspiration of all Chinese people. This grand goal is the first centenary goal of the “two centenary goals” and an important milestone in the journey of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Over the past 40 years and more since reform and opening up, our party has firmly grasped this goal of struggle, worked one stubble after another, and run one stick after another, and the grand blueprint for building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way is about to become a reality. The building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way by 2020 is of great significance in the history of the development of the Chinese nation, the history of world development, and the history of socialist development. Achieving this grand goal means high-quality economic development, general improvement of people’s living standards and quality, marked improvement of national quality and social civilization, overall improvement of the quality of the ecological environment, and more mature and stereotyped systems in all aspects. Achieving such a goal requires us not only to achieve the goal in terms of volume and speed, but more importantly, to solve the problems of balance, coordination and sustainability of development. To be moderately prosperous in an all-round way, the areas covered should be comprehensive, and the “five-in-one” should be comprehensively progressive; the population covered should be comprehensive, which should benefit the entire people; and the areas covered should be comprehensive, so as to be well-off in urban and rural areas. “Building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way is not a numbers game or a speed game, but a real goal. While maintaining economic growth, it is more important to implement the people-centered development thinking, think about what the masses think, be anxious about what the masses are anxious about, and solve the difficulties of the masses.“1 The comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society has reached the historical point of vigor and decisive victory, and the sprint stage is particularly difficult, and it is even more necessary to resist all kinds of interference. Today’s world is facing major changes unprecedented in a century, global sources of turmoil and risk points have increased, and the external environment has become more complex and changeable. China’s economy is shifting from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, with old and new contradictions intertwined, cyclical and structural problems superimposed, and stable economic operation changing and worrying in change. The downward pressure on the economy has increased, the growth rate of consumption has slowed down, and the growth of effective investment has been weak; there are many difficulties in the real economy, and the problem of “difficult financing and expensive financing” of private and small and micro enterprises has not been effectively alleviated; the ability of independent innovation is not strong, and the shortcomings of key core technologies are prominent; the three major battles are still arduous, and there are still many places where the masses are dissatisfied in the field of social undertakings.

Only by having a clear understanding of the situation can we face problems and challenges head-on and win the decisive battle to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

In accordance with the strategic deployment determined by the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we must make overall plans to promote the overall layout of the “five- in-one”, coordinate and promote the “four comprehensive” strategic layout, firmly implement the seven major strategies of rejuvenating the country through science and education, strengthening the country with talents, innovation-driven development, rural revitalization, coordinated regional development, sustainable development, and military-civilian integration development, and build an integrated national strategic system and capabilities. It is necessary to closely grasp the changes in the main contradictions in our society, seek truth from facts, adapt measures to local conditions, comprehensively implement policies, exert precise efforts, highlight key points, make up for shortcomings, and strengthen weaknesses; in particular, we must resolutely fight the three major battles, promote sustained and healthy economic and social development, and enable the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way to be recognized by the people and withstand the test of history.

Resolutely fight the battle of preventing and defusing major risks. Putting the prevention and resolution of major risks at the top of the three major battles reflects the strong sense of distress and bottom-line thinking of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. The current and future period is a period in which the risks facing China’s development in all aspects continue to accumulate and even become concentrated and exposed. The major risks facing our country include domestic economic, political, ideological and social risks and risks from the natural world, as well as risks from international economic, political, strategic, sovereign and military risks. Moreover, these risks often do not arise in isolation, but are likely to be intertwined and form a complex of risks. If major risks occur and cannot be shouldered, the process of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and even national rejuvenation may be interrupted. To resolutely fight this tough battle, it is necessary to strengthen the investigation of hidden risks, find out the bottom number of risks, persist in treating both the symptoms and the root causes, and pay attention to improving the institutional mechanism to prevent and resolve risks. It is necessary to strengthen the investigation and judgment of various risk sources, improve dynamic monitoring, real-time early warning, and emergency response capabilities, pay special attention to potential problems of emerging sexual tendencies, effectively prevent the impact of “black swan” events and “gray rhino” events, prevent small risks from evolving into large risks, prevent external risks from evolving into internal risks, prevent economic and financial risks from evolving into social and political risks, prevent individual risks from evolving into systemic risks, and create a safe and stable good environment for the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society. Resolutely win the battle against poverty. Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that no ethnic minority or region should be left behind, and all Chinese people should share the fruits of all-round moderate prosperity. At present, deep poverty is a “hard bone” on the road to overall moderate prosperity, and it is necessary to mobilize the strength of the whole party and the whole society, adhere to the basic strategy of targeted poverty alleviation and targeted poverty alleviation, and adhere to the “three-in-one” poverty alleviation pattern of special poverty alleviation, industry poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation. It is necessary to give play to the advantages of the socialist system in concentrating forces to do major things, strengthen cooperation and counterpart support in poverty alleviation in the east and west, and do a good job in providing designated assistance to central units. We should properly implement the “five batches” project, that is, one batch of poverty alleviation through development, one batch of poverty alleviation through relocation, one batch of poverty alleviation through ecological compensation, one batch of poverty alleviation through education, and one batch of social security.

Attention should be paid to combining poverty alleviation with support for aspirations and wisdom, and to improve the self-development ability of poor areas and the poor people and the internal motivation to get rid of poverty and become rich. Adhering to the “two worries and three guarantees” poverty alleviation standard can neither be divorced from reality, raise standards, and raise appetites, nor can we falsely get rid of poverty, lower standards, and affect quality. Implement the strictest assessment and evaluation to ensure that the rural poor under China’s current standards will be lifted out of poverty by 2020, and all poverty-stricken counties will be removed, regional overall poverty will be solved, so as to get rid of real poverty and poverty alleviation, and make up for the biggest shortcoming of building a moderately prosperous society.

Resolutely fight the battle against pollution. Building a moderately prosperous society in an all- round way inevitably requires obvious progress in improving the quality of the ecological environment. Resolutely fighting the battle of pollution prevention and control and accelerating the solution of ecological and environmental problems at the intersection of history is a major task entrusted by the times. It is necessary to adhere to the principle that green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains, promote green development, strengthen energy conservation and emission reduction, and at the same time take the solution of outstanding ecological and environmental problems as a priority area for people’s livelihood, resolutely win the battle for blue skies, implement the water pollution prevention and control action plan, fully implement the soil pollution prevention and control action plan, continue to carry out rural living environment improvement actions, strengthen the protection and restoration of important ecosystems, and form a pattern and atmosphere of ecological environmental protection in which the whole society grasps and manages together, so that the improvement of the ecological environment is compatible with the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society.