Modernization of China (Vol. 1, 2, and 3)

Author: Yu Heping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-09-01
Features: Achieving modernization is the greatest task facing China today. The Communist Party of China is leading the nation in its efforts to achieve this goal. In the more than 20 years since the reform and opening-up, China's socialist modernization has advanced by leaps and bounds under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, attracting global attention and national pride. However, due to major changes in the social and economic system, the intense adjustment of human interest relations, and the emergence of certain social corrupt practices, some people are confused, while others are bewildered. How can socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics advance more smoothly and steadily? How can people be even more convinced of its future prospects? Reviewing the entire process of China's modernization, explaining the role and status of the Communist Party of China and other social forces in the process, summarizing its successes and lessons from setbacks, understanding its uniqueness and challenges, and recognizing the inevitable process of transforming from capitalist modernization to classical socialist modernization, and finally to socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics, is undoubtedly very beneficial—what is known as "learning from the past to understand the future." This is the very goal behind the writing of this book. Modernization is a common trend and law in the development of human society worldwide. It originated with the emergence and initial development of capitalist factors in Europe and evolved as capitalism spread globally and socialism emerged. China's modernization is one strand in this global trend, sharing commonalities with the broader process while also having its own unique characteristics. It is influenced by the global trend of modernization but also has its own internal factors and path choices. Therefore, studying the course of China's modernization requires not only applying the relevant theoretical principles of modernization but also establishing and employing an explanatory system suited to China's specific modernization characteristics. It requires both looking globally at trends and paying close attention to the realities of the national context, as well as discerning external influences and internal transformations with sharp eyes. Only in this way can we conduct a realistic analysis of the development patterns, manifestations, and current state of China's modernization, thereby revealing the path of socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics.
Comprehensive analysis of Marx's remarks on capitalist society can be summarized into the following modernization concepts:
1. Capitalism and the bourgeois society are modern societies.
2. Large-scale industry and the developed urban market economy brought by it are the main modern characteristics of capitalist society.
3. Colonized and semi-colonized countries can only truly achieve modernization after gaining independence.
4. Socialism and communism, which arise from capitalism, are more advanced forms of modern society.
5. Regarding the driving forces of modernization, in addition to the common factors of science and technology and the general laws of modernization development, Marx also proposed the inherent dynamic laws of production methods, characterized by the interaction between productive forces and productive relations; the driving forces of societal development contained in the inevitable replacement of socialism by capitalism; and the limited transmission effects of the global spread of Western capitalism on the capitalist modernization of underdeveloped countries.
Therefore, when studying the course of China's modernization, we must not only adopt the basic principles of general modernization theory but also use Marx's modernization ideas, especially those concerning the spread of Western capitalism, colonialism, and the relationship between capitalist modernization and underdeveloped countries, as well as the integration of the development process of social formations with the modernization process.
If we consider the world nature of modernization and its goal—industrialization and democratization—China's modernization began after the Second Opium War in 1840. According to the generally accepted stages of modernization in academia worldwide, China's modernization went through a preparatory stage before 1911 and an initiating stage after the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. From the perspective of China's unique path to modernization, it can be divided into three phases: capitalist modernization under semi-colonial and semi-feudal conditions before October 1949; classical socialist modernization from October 1949 to 1978; and socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics from 1979 to 2000.
This book aims to study the course of China's modernization, covering its various stages and different paths. Through systematic and comprehensive research, it seeks to clarify the necessity of opening up; reveal the distorted state and general of modernization under colonial and semi-colonial social systems, which struggle to achieve healthy and successful modernization; and argue for the inevitability of shifting from capitalist modernization under semi-colonial and semi-feudal conditions to classical socialist modernization, and then from classical socialist modernization to socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics.