with a long history of more than 5,000 years, the chinese nation has created the splendid chinese civilization, made outstanding contributions to mankind and won the respect of people around the world. however, after 1840, china was plunged into the darkness of internal strife and foreign invasion, and the chinese people suffered from frequent wars, broken mountains and rivers, and poor livelihood. since then, it has been the lofty mission of all responsible political organizations on the chinese political stage to promote modernization, achieve national reunification, establish democracy, promote cultural prosperity and make their own contributions to mankind. this is the greatest common denominator in the interests of the chinese people and the chinese nation. from the perspective of the theory of historical synergy, all political organizations that represent and realize this common divisor will be chosen by history and the people, and all political organizations that deviate from this common divisor will be abandoned by history and the people, who ultimately choose the chinese communist party.
a small boat gave birth to a century-old party
on july 23, 1921, the communist party of china was founded in shanghai. a big party was born on a small boat. mao zedong later pointed out that this was an "epoch-making event". however, in its historical context, it was such a quiet little thing that a large group of delegates could not remember the exact time of the meeting. however, this incident has had an "epoch-making" impact on contemporary china.
in 1949, the communist party of china led the democratic parties and the people of all ethnic groups in china in founding the people's republic of china, ushering in an "earthchanging" china. before the founding of the people's republic of china, there were more than 170 members and alternate members of the cpc central committee, and 42 of them died, accounting for about a quarter. there were 55 members and alternate members of the politburo, 15 of whom were sacrificed, accounting for about a quarter. the figures are a microcosm of the party's "bitter glory".
in 1978, the communist party of china (cpc), having learned the lessons of the "cultural revolution", began by emancipating the mind, resolutely pushed forward reform and opening up, adhered to the basic line of "one central task and two basic points", and ushered in a new historical period of building socialism with chinese characteristics. over the past 40 years and more, china has undergone "earth-shaking" changes.
in 2012, the 18th cpc national congress was held, ushering in a new era of socialism with chinese characteristics. the communist party of china never forgot its original mission, packed its bags before setting out, and led the chinese people in forging ahead toward the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation and the goal of building a great modern socialist country. the chinese people are ushering in a new era of "a world of its own."
looking back at history, the reason why the cpc has grown from a small party to a large one, from a weak one to a strong one, and to a century-old party is because of its consistent temperament and character in carrying out the mission of the times. the mission of this era has been written into the party's two major manifestos, the highest program and the lowest program; it was included in the party's twelve major reports, namely, the "three major tasks" of "accelerating socialist modernization, striving for the reunification of the motherland including taiwan, opposing hegemonism, and safeguarding world peace"; it was included in the report of the 16th national congress of the cpc, namely, the three historical tasks of "promoting modernization, accomplishing the reunification of the motherland, maintaining world peace and promoting common development"; it was included in the report to the 19th national congress of the cpc, the original mission of "seeking happiness for the chinese people and rejuvenation for the chinese nation".
the mission of promoting modernization
so-called modernization, is mainly refers to from the agricultural society to industrial society, the agricultural economy to industrial economy, the agricultural civilization to industrial civilization transition process, the process includes the technology innovation, the development of science and technology, agricultural commercialization, industrialization, urbanization, etc., as well as the political system, the rule of law, ideas and methods of management, the overall change. modernization is a systematic engineering, and economic development and technological innovation are only the epitome of the modernization process.
since 1840, china has struggled all the way in the process of modernization, groping for self-improvement from objects. however, the sino-japanese war of 1894's shattered the dream of the modernization of chinese objects and made many elite intellectuals choose a new path of institutional modernization. the reform movement of 1898 and the constitutional movement of the late qing dynasty explored the way of china's system modernization, but it was divorced from the national conditions and inevitably failed. during the may 4th movement, the young people of china shouted out the slogans of "democracy" and "science", hoping to enlighten the people's wisdom from the perspective of ideas and move towards modernization. however, it was inevitable that they overcorrected and fell into the misunderstanding of setting tradition and modern against each other. the three steps of china's early modernization are called "three levels" by relevant scholars from implements to institutions to thoughts and behaviors. unfortunately, these three levels have always hovered over the template of the old system.
marx and engels repeatedly expounded a point of view in the manifesto of the communist party: the contribution of the bourgeoisie lies in the realization of large-scale socialized production, but it concentrated the means of production in the hands of a few people, thus forming the contradiction between the socialization of production and the private possession of the means of production. without solving this contradiction, it will be impossible to truly liberate and develop the productive forces, dissolve alienation and realize freedom. in order to solve this contradiction thoroughly, marx and engels designed a new way of modernization: the establishment of the communist party, the establishment of the socialist system. on the one hand, the contradiction between socialized mass production and private possession of the means of production should be overcome to truly liberate and develop the productive forces. on the other hand, we should ensure the elimination of alienation and the realization of all-round human development.
at the beginning of the founding of new china, mao zedong famously said, "prevent expulsion from football." the first national people's congress held in 1954 put forward the task of realizing the "four modernizations" of agriculture, industry, transportation and national defense, which was written into the party constitution adopted at the eighth national congress of the cpc. on december 21, 1964, on the advice of mao zedong, zhou enlai drew a grand blueprint for building a great socialist country with "modern agriculture, modern industry, modern national defence and modern science and technology". in 1965 the three national people's congresses proposed the two-step strategy. the first step was to build an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system in 15 years to 1980. the second step is to realize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, science and technology in an all-round way by the end of the 20th century, and make china's national economy take the lead in the world.
after the reform and opening up, deng xiaoping famously said, "poverty is not socialism." deng xiaoping put forward three major tasks for the 1980s. "the core of the three tasks is the modernization drive. this is the most important condition for solving international and domestic problems. "deng xiaoping also designed a trilogy of china's modernization:" food and clothing, "" a moderately prosperous society," and "the people live a relatively rich life." the thirteenth national congress of the communist party of china put forward the strategy of "three steps" to china's economic construction. the party's 15th national congress put forward the new "three-step" strategy, and for the first time put forward the "two centenary goals". the 16th national congress of the cpc put "building a well-off society in an all-round way" as the goal of the first twenty years of this century. the 18th national congress of the cpc revised this goal to "complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects." the 19th national congress of the communist party of china laid out the goals of basically realizing socialist modernization from 2020 to 2035 and building china into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 to 2050. all these are the top-level design and strategic planning for the cpc to fulfill the mission of the times.
to realize the mission of national unity
the chinese nation gradually moved towards unification and integration from the pre-qin period to the qing dynasty. china was still a unified multi-ethnic country. although china has experienced ups and downs in history, the idea of "great unity" has always been a deep-rooted political thought of the chinese nation, and national unification has always been the struggle theme of the chinese nation.
after 1840, china entered a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and suffered many invasions and was forced to cede land to foreign powers and pay reparations. on january 1, 1912, when sun yat-sen took office as the provisional president of the republic of china, he called for "the unification of the nation, the unification of the territory, the unification of the military and government, the unification of the internal affairs, and the unification of the finance" (zhang lei, zhang ping: biography of sun yat-sen, people's publishing house, 2011, p. 372). however, the kmt was unable to effectively defend national and ethnic interests and achieve territorial integrity. after the september 18 incident in 1931, japan made every effort to launch a war of aggression against china. in the face of the aggressors, the chinese kuomintang could not organize the "scattered masses", its weak finance could not promote national defense and economic construction, its weak industrialization foundation, and its weakness of "fighting with the inside and fighting with the outside" doomed it to fail to lead the people to successfully resist the japanese invasion.
as early as in its second program, the communist party of china (cpc) explicitly proposed: "to eliminate civil strife, overthrow warlords, and build domestic peace; to overthrow the oppression of international imperialism and achieve the complete independence of the chinese nation; the whole of china (including the three eastern provinces) shall be a truly democratic republic." in october 1949, the chinese communist party established the people's republic of china, and the kuomintang retreated to taiwan in a rout. according to the cairo declaration, potsdam proclamation and other international laws, the mainland and taiwan belong to one and the same china, although they are not yet unified. since 1971, the government of the people's republic of china has been the sole legal government of china in the united nations. in 1997 and 1999, the people's republic of china resumed the practice of "one country, two systems" in hong kong and macao respectively. on the taiwan question, generation after generation of chinese communists have looked forward to the early realization of this goal, from the policy of "peaceful liberation" to the policy of "peaceful reunification". mao zedong once said, "it is the sacred task of our 650 million people to recover the entire territory of taiwan, peng, jin and ma and complete the reunification of the motherland." deng xiaoping also pointed out that "the chinese people will die with their eyes closed if they do not resolve the taiwan question." "this is, above all, a matter of national sentiment. all the descendants of the chinese nation hope that china will be reunified. the split is against the will of the nation." (deng pu: 1975-1975 (on), the central literature press, 2004), p. 328) on august 1, 2017, xi jinping, general secretary pointed out in the 90th anniversary of the founding conference: "we will never allow anyone or any organization, any political party, at any time, in any form, any a piece of china's territory from china, who all don't expect we will swallow harm china's sovereignty, security and development interests."
there is much opposition to the communist party of china's mission of national reunification. for example, the idea of "saving history from the nation-state". to the effect that china is not a nation-state, there is no question of national unification. professor ge zhaoguang also introduced several historical viewpoints on the "unification of china", including east asian history, regional history, conquest of dynasties, concentric circles, and post-modern history. (1) some european and american scholars believe that the regional differences within china are so great that there is no "identity" of china. (2) before the second world war, scholars from japan, korea and other places started from the study of asia and east asia, reconstructed a political imagination space, diluted the identity and unity of china, and put forward the viewpoint of "there is no china after the ming dynasty"; (3) the scholars in taiwan tu cheng-sheng coined the so-called "new theory of concentric circles" theory, i.e., according to taiwan's local history as the first circle concentric circles, history for the second circle of taiwan, china is the third lap, the fourth ring is asian history, the fifth ring is world history, the formation of the splitting of taiwan, the taiwan from the chinese cultural identity. (zhao-guang ge: "curtilage, china: reconstruction of the history of the" china "discourse", zhong hua press, 2011), page 38) if these history textbooks in china, hong kong and taiwan are widely spread, community consciousness of the chinese nation will be more and more indifferent, the legitimacy of the communist party of china to realize national unity will be "right" to erode away.
in fact, the chinese nation of more than 5,000 years has turned china into a memory china with a long history of civilization, a cultural china in which the roles of "we" and "others" are constantly changing, a multi-ethnic china, and a political china that has risen up against the invasion of foreign forces. as dr. kissinger once observed, "in the historical consciousness, china is an existing state that needs to be restored, not created." (henry kissinger, on china, citic publishing group, 2015, p. 1) the cpc must undertake the historical mission of achieving national reunification. on the issue of national reunification, the cpc has no retreat.
to advance the mission of people's democracy
since modern times, the concept and practice of the chinese people's acceptance of democracy has been branded with the mark of saving the nation from extinction and striving for survival. its reference is not ancient china, but the distant west. however, imitating the way of democracy in europe and the united states, the chinese have paid the tuition but not gained the fruits of success. on the basis of drawing lessons from previous failures, the chinese communists combined the marxist theory of democracy with the practice of china's political development, and successfully found a new path to democracy -- people's democracy.
marx and engels in the "communist manifesto" stressed that the fight for democracy, is the first condition of the proletariat liberation, "the first step in the revolution of workers is to make the rise of the proletariat as the ruling class, fight for democracy", "our party and it is only in the democratic republic of the working class political form, rule" can be achieved. lenin also emphasized "direct participation of the masses from the bottom up in the democratic construction of the whole national life". in february 1940, mao zedong pointed out in his speech "new democratic constitutionalism" : "china is indeed short of many things, but the main thing is the lack of two things: one is independence, and the other is democracy. without one of these two things, china cannot do well." during the period of local governance, whether during the period of the chinese soviet republic or the period of the shaanxi-gansu-ningxia border region government, the people under the leadership of the communist party of china boldly promoted the democratic election and the construction of democratic political power, and accumulated valuable experience of democratic governance.
in september 1949, the first plenary session of the cppcc was held, marking the formal establishment of the cppcc system. with the establishment of the cppcc, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the cpc was also formally formed. this is a new political party system that has grown out of china's soil. in 1954, the first session of the national people's congress was held and the constitution of the people's republic of china was adopted, establishing the system of government with the people's democratic dictatorship and the people's congress system. the people's congress system is the true embodiment of china's electoral democracy and the fundamental political system of our country. the system of regional ethnic autonomy adopted during the revolutionary period and after the founding of the people's republic of china is the source of the cpc's ethnic policy and reflects the unification of economic and political autonomy, ethnic autonomy and regional autonomy. the grass-roots mass autonomy system, which was written into the 1982 constitution and implemented in china after 1987, is the true embodiment of grass-roots direct democracy and an important part of the construction of socialist democracy. these systems have been implemented in accordance with the principle of the organic unity of the party's leadership, the position of the people as masters of the country and the rule of law.
march 30, 1979, deng xiaoping said at a conference in the party's theoretical work regarded "must make socialist democracy with bourgeois democracy, individualism, democracy strictly distinguish, must bring to people's democracy and dictatorship over the enemy, the democracy and centralism, democracy and the rule of law, democracy and discipline, democracy and the leadership of the party." in state political life, democratic centralism and democratic consultation are combined to ensure the realization of the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. the cppcc is a united front organization, organized on the principle of democratic consultation. through the democratic consultative system, the cppcc fully expresses the "will" of different sectors of society. the people's congress is the organ of state power and its organizational principle is democratic centralism. through democratic centralism, deputies to the people's congresses synthesize the different opinions of the people and translate them into the will of the state, that is, the general will, so as to identify and realize the greatest common denominator of the interests of the people and make sure that the whole country is a board of chess. democratic centralism is the fundamental organizational principle of the party and state and the fundamental leadership system of the party and state. it not only gives full play to the initiative of all parties, but also forms a unified will to prevent fragmentation of national governance.
since the 18th national congress of the cpc, the cpc has adhered to the organic integration of party leadership, the position of the people as masters of the country, and the rule of law. while promoting electoral democracy, the cpc has vigorously promoted the extensive, multi-tiered and institutionalized development of consultative democracy, and constantly enriched and developed the forms of socialist democracy. in 2014, general secretary xi jinping pointed out at the 60th anniversary of the founding of the national people's congress that "since the day of its founding, the cpc has taken it as its mission to realize the chinese people's position as masters of the country and the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation" and that "people's democracy is the banner the cpc has always held high."
the mission of promoting cultural prosperity
the failure of great power governance begins with ideological decay. since modern times, under the impact of western civilization, confucianism, the mainstream ideology of the chinese nation, has been unprecedentedly declining and helpless, with only the ability to resist but no ability to fight back. faced with the challenge from the west, traditional confucianism can neither become a weapon for ideological emancipation nor guide the modernization movement. against the background of declining confucianism, the chinese people successively borrowed christian theology (the taiping heavenly kingdom movement), social evolution, reformism (the reform movement of 1898) and bourgeois democracy (the revolution of 1911) from the west in order to strengthen the country and save the nation.
the cannon of the russian october revolution brought marxism-leninism to china. the communist party of china adheres to the guidance of marxism and combines it with china's reality to promote the prosperity of chinese culture. in yan 'an, mao zedong fought while reading; write an article as you read. on dec. 1, 1939, he wrote "the mass absorption of intellectuals," proposing "a cultural movement to develop the revolution." in january 1940, mao zedong delivered a speech entitled "politics of new democracy and culture of new democracy" at the cultural association of shaan-gansu-ningxia border region, proposing to develop "scientific and popular culture of the nation" and issuing an mobilization order for cultural construction. on july 14, 1944, mao zedong talking with a british journalist stein pointed out that "our belief in marxism is the correct way of thinking, this does not mean that we ignore china's cultural heritage and the value of the marxist ideas of foreign", "chinese history left us with a lot of good things, it's true. we must make this heritage our own. "(selected works of important documents since the founding of the party: 1921-1949, vol. 21, 2011, p. 398). the communist party of china finally united and led the chinese people in a long struggle to realize the great transformation of the chinese nation from a poor and weak nation to one of the nations of the world, and formed the great achievement of mao zedong thought, the first historic leap forward in adapting marxism to chinese conditions.
since the reform and opening up, with great strides in industrialization, urbanization, it application and agricultural modernization, the communist party of china has led the chinese people in vigorously advancing the modernization drive, achieving high-speed economic growth in a relatively short period of time and creating material conditions for cultural prosperity and prosperity. by combining the basic principles of marxism with the practice of socialism with chinese characteristics, the cpc has formed a system of theories of socialism with chinese characteristics and realized the second historic leap forward in adapting marxism to china's conditions.
socialism with chinese characteristics has entered a new era. the communist party of china has combined the basic principles of marxism with the concrete practice in china for a new era, forming the latest achievement of xi jinping thought on socialism with chinese characteristics for a new era, and has used this theoretical achievement to guide and advance the cultural development of socialism with chinese characteristics.
in november 2013, during an inspection tour in qufu, shandong province, general secretary xi jinping stressed that "the prosperity of a country and a nation is always supported by the prosperity of its culture. the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation requires the development and prosperity of chinese culture." since the eighteenth congress, the party central committee with comrade xi for the core with practical action to restore the contemporary chinese cultural self-confidence, combine with the practice of the contemporary chinese marxism, the construction of the socialist cause with chinese characteristics with five thousand years civilization of the base, in promoting the creative transformation of chinese excellent traditional culture, creative development, to learn from the excellent achievements of human civilization, led the chinese people of all ethnic groups work together with the chinese people at home and abroad, realizing the prosperity of socialist culture prosperity. the report to the 19th national congress of the communist party of china (cpc) states: "since its founding, the cpc has actively guided and practiced china's advanced culture, and it has faithfully inherited and promoted china's fine traditional culture. the contemporary chinese communists and the chinese people should and will be able to shoulder the new cultural mission, create culture through practice and achieve cultural progress through historical progress."
to make new and greater contributions to mankind
according to the book of rites, confucius painted a beautiful harmonious society in his dialogues with his students. since then, the ideal of great harmony has taken root in the minds of chinese intellectuals and integrated with the complex of "the world" and "the mandate of heaven". marx and engels once pointed out: "the proletariat can only exist in the historical sense of the world. just as communism -- its cause -- can only be realized as a 'world history'." the chinese communists born in the soil of china not only have the world complex of "first worrying about the world and then enjoying the world", but also have the mission of the times to promote the transformation of human history to "world history".
in 1956, mao zedong wrote in "in memory of dr. sun yat-sen" that by the 21st century, "china will become a powerful socialist industrial country. china should. because china is a country with 9.6 million square kilometers of land and 600 million people, china should make a greater contribution to mankind. for a long time, this contribution has been too small. this makes us feel ashamed "(vol. 6 of mao zedong's manuscripts since the founding of the people's republic, china central documentation press, 1992, pp. 241-242). since then, the chinese communists have been working hard along the goal of "making a greater contribution to mankind".
on april 1, 1975, deng xiaoping met with carl albert, speaker of the us house of representatives, and pointed out, "as a socialist country, china has the responsibility to make its due contribution to mankind, but now this contribution is few." on october 27, 1977, when meeting with a swedish guest, deng xiaoping also pointed out, "only by changing backward conditions can we make more contributions to mankind, and then people will truly believe that china is capable."
the interests of china and the peoples of the world in the 21st century have merged. in the age of globalization and information technology, the interests and security of all countries are closely linked and each other has obligations and rights. only by strengthening cooperation can countries realize their common interests and make the world safer and more peaceful. this is the "big source" of international politics. on november 15, 2012, xi jinping in the 18th session of the standing committee of the political bureau of the central committee general secretary when meet chinese and foreign journalists said: "our responsibility is to unite to lead the party people of all ethnic groups across the country, took over the baton of history, continue to work hard for realizing the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation, the more strong and the chinese nation to stand proudly in the family of nations, to make new greater contributions for human being." on march 23, 2013, general secretary xi jinping delivered a speech at the moscow institute of international relations, proposing the concept of a "community of shared future" to the world for the first time on an international occasion. since then, the concept has evolved into a "community with a shared future for mankind" and was first incorporated into a un resolution in february 2017. the report to the 19th cpc national congress clearly states that "the cpc has always taken it as its mission to make new and greater contributions to mankind" and explains the meaning of "building a community with a shared future for mankind", which means "building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity".
if china in the 20th century was about "changing itself and influencing the world", then china in the 21st century is about "influencing the world and improving itself". "only when the world does well can china do well; when china does well, the world does better. in building a community with a shared future for mankind, the communist party of china has, as always, contributed to world peace and development, common development and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
source: study times