The History of China's Modernization (Vol. 1, 2, and 3)

Author: Yu Heping, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-09-01
Features: Achieving modernization is the greatest task of contemporary China. The Communist Party of China is leading the people of the nation in this effort. Over the 20 years of reform and opening-up, China's modernization under the leadership of the Communist Party of China has advanced at a remarkable pace, attracting worldwide attention and national excitement. However, due to significant changes in the socio-economic system, drastic adjustments in human interest relationships, and the emergence of certain social corruption, some people are confused, while others are bewildered. How can socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics proceed more smoothly and steadily? How can people develop unwavering confidence in the future of socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics? Reviewing the entire course of China's modernization, elaborating on the role and position of the Communist Party of China and other social forces in the process of modernization, summarizing its successes and lessons from failures, understanding its uniqueness and challenges, and recognizing the inevitable process of transforming from capitalist modernization to classical socialist modernization, and then to socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics—this is undoubtedly highly beneficial, as the saying goes, "learn from the past to understand the future." This is the very objective behind the writing of this book. Modernization is a common trend and law in the development of human society worldwide. It began with the emergence and initial development of capitalist factors in Europe and evolved as capitalism spread globally and socialism emerged. Chinese modernization is one form within the global modernization trend, sharing both commonalities with the general course of modernization and its own unique characteristics. It is influenced by the global modernization trend but also has its own internal factors and choices of path. Therefore, studying the course of Chinese modernization requires not only applying the relevant theoretical principles of modernization but also establishing and employing an explanatory system suited to the characteristics of Chinese modernization. It requires looking globally while focusing on the national context, and discerning external influences and internal changes. Only in this way can a realistic analysis be made of the development patterns, manifestations, and current state of Chinese modernization, thereby revealing the course of socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics.
Based on the above discussions about capitalist society by Marx, we can summarize the following modernization ideas:
1. Capitalism and the bourgeois society are modern societies.
2. Large-scale industry and the developed urban and market economy are the main characteristics of modernity in capitalist society.
3. Colonized and semi-colonized countries can only achieve modernization after gaining independence.
4. Socialism and communism, derived from capitalism, are higher forms of modern society.
5. Regarding the driving forces of modernization, in addition to science, technology, and the general laws of modernization development (which are shared with general modernization theory), Marx also proposed the internal dynamic laws of production methods, characterized by the interaction between productive forces and production relations; the driving force of social development inherent in the inevitable replacement of socialism by capitalism; and the limited transmission effect of the global spread of Western capitalism on the modernization of backward countries.
Therefore, when studying the course of Chinese modernization, it is necessary to adopt the basic principles of general modernization theory while also guiding the research with Marx's modernization ideas, particularly those concerning the global spread of Western capitalism, colonialism, and the relationship between capitalist modernization in backward countries, as well as the integration of the development process of social forms with the modernization process.
If we consider the world nature and the objective goals of modernization—industrialization and democratization—Chinese modernization began after the Second Opium War in 1840. According to the internationally recognized stages of modernization, China's modernization went through a preparatory phase before 1911 and an initiating phase 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 stages: 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 Chinese modernization by covering its various stages and different path phases, striving to demonstrate through systematic and comprehensive research the necessity of opening up to the outside world, reveal the abnormal state and general patterns of modernization in colonized and semi-colonized societies, and argue the inevitability of transitioning from capitalist modernization under semi-colonial and semi-feudal conditions to classical socialist modernization, and then to socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics.