Common prosperity: the essential requirement of Chinese modernization

The Communist Party of China (CPC) leads and unites all the people to follow the Chinese path of common prosperity, regards the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life as the starting point and end goal of modernization, strives to safeguard and promote social fairness and justice, and resolutely prevents polarization. This major proposition of Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all people scientifically answers the paradox of realizing modernization and achieving common prosperity caused by capital-centered Western modernization, profoundly expounds the intrinsic relationship between Chinese-style modernization and common prosperity, and provides Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions for solving the world problem of the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the process of modernization.

The Gap Between the Rich and the Poor: The Evils of Western Modernization

Western modernization centered on capital cannot solve the paradox between modernization and common prosperity. Since the Industrial Revolution, the capital-centered modernization of the West, which develops capitalist production relations and extracts surplus value, has not only failed to solve the problem of the gap between the rich and the poor, but has caused the antagonistic contradiction between the capitalist system and modern industry with the accumulation of capital and the continuous division of labor relations, which has further aggravated the problem. As Marx said, everything seems to contain its own opposite. With the evolution of capital modernization, the more material production develops, the poorer the laborers, and the more serious the problem of relative overproduction, which in turn leads to periodic economic crises. At the same time, capital has become the power to dominate and divide the wealth of society, further strengthening the gratuitous appropriation of the surplus value of labor, especially the fictitious capital that moves independently from the economic entity. In the period of monopoly capitalism, imperialism brought about a serious paradox between modernization and common prosperity around the world, resulting in a serious gap between the rich and the poor between capital and labor. After the Second World War, many countries achieved economic growth and social progress in the process of exploring the path of modernization, but the problem of disparity between the rich and the poor has not been fundamentally resolved.

It can be seen that the gap between the rich and the poor is an incurable drawback of capital-centered Western modernization. Therefore, in the process of realizing the modernization of human society, the creation and distribution of social wealth is a major issue that the people of all countries must face. The Chinese Communists attach great importance to the issue of the gap between the rich and the poor in the process of modernization on a global scale. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that some Western countries have long been polarized while their social wealth continues to grow. Some developed countries have been industrializing for several hundred years, but due to social system reasons, the problem of common prosperity has not yet been resolved, and the problem of disparity between the rich and the poor has become more and more serious.

Common Prosperity: A Scientific Answer to Chinese Modernization

Faced with the problem of the disparity between the rich and the poor in the process of modernization, the answer to Chinese-style modernization is to follow the path of modernization in which all people achieve common prosperity. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has placed greater importance in achieving common prosperity for all people. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) established "making solid steps towards common prosperity for all the people" as an important goal for basically realizing socialist modernization. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China once again emphasized and clarified the solid promotion of common prosperity, and at the same time, the discourse of Chinese modernization was explained for common prosperity.

First, adhere to the problem-oriented. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we must adhere to the problem-oriented approach, which is a scientific methodology to promote common prosperity. In the face of the conspicuous problem of unbalanced and inadequate development on the mainland, the gap between urban and rural development and income distribution is still quite large, and the impact of the scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation on employment and income distribution is still quite deep, we must enhance our awareness of being problem-oriented, focus on practical problems, and truly find new ideas and new methods for solving problems. Second, it is necessary to give play to the superiority of the socialist system on the mainland. The mainland's public-owned economy is an important foundation for the common prosperity of all the people, and the state-owned economy is an important form of realization of the public-owned economy. The third is to coordinate the overall and coordinated handling of common prosperity. Common prosperity is not a uniform egalitarianism, so it is necessary to improve the balance and coordination of development, and promote urban-rural integration and regional coordinated development; Improve the coordination of the distribution system, adhere to the distribution according to work as the main body, the coexistence of a variety of distribution methods, and build a coordinated system of primary distribution, redistribution, and third distribution; Improve the coordination of different income groups, insist on more work and more rewards, encourage hard work to get rich, promote equal opportunities, increase the income of low-income people, regulate excessive income, expand middle-income groups, and ban illegal income; Improve the coordination of people's livelihood services, improve the basic public service system, and enhance balance and accessibility. Fourth, we need to improve our ability to modernize governance for common prosperity. Adhere to the party's centralized and unified leadership, realize the party's overall situation, coordinate all parties, and provide a strong guarantee for the implementation of common prosperity; Implement the party's leadership in all aspects of modern governance to promote common prosperity, and provide governance efficiency for the implementation of common prosperity; Promote the modern governance of common prosperity with the party's self-revolution, and provide lasting impetus for the implementation of common prosperity.

Common Prosperity for All: The World Historical Significance of Chinese Modernization

The capitalist mode of production has profoundly shaped the process of modernization, created a modern world market, and opened up world history. As Marx said, the state of local and national self-sufficiency and self-isolation of the past has been replaced by the intercourse and interdependence of all nationalities in all aspects. The modernization of the capitalist mode of production dominated the world market and the process of globalization, and the production and consumption of human society gradually developed into a cosmopolitan one. At the same time, the modernization of capitalism inevitably reveals itself the paradox of common prosperity and develops into a worldwide problem that human society must face.

The Chinese Communists have abandoned the capital-centered Western modernization of polarizing the rich and the poor, and have opened up a Chinese-style modernization path of common prosperity for all the people, creating a new form of human civilization, which is of great world historical significance.

First, the Chinese-style modernization of common prosperity for all people has answered the question of the coexistence of modernization and common prosperity. Most capital-centric Western paths to modernization are inevitably accompanied by the polarization of the rich and the poor. As Engels said in The Condition of the Working Class in United Kingdom, the result of machine mass industrial production is that there is only one rich class and one poor class. In Capital, Marx emphasized the character of the working class as an appendage of capital, because the personal consumption of workers is always an element of capital production and reproduction. The people-centered Chinese-style modernization, which is common prosperity for all the people, is fundamentally different from the capital-centered Western-style modernization. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that we should adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and let the fruits of modernization benefit all the people more and more fairly, because Chinese-style modernization is socialist modernization under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the people's nature is the essential attribute of a Marxist political party, and serving the people is the fundamental purpose of the party. That is to say, common prosperity itself is an important goal of socialist modernization, and while realizing socialist modernization, we must constantly and gradually solve the problem of common prosperity. It can be seen that achieving common prosperity for all people is the essential requirement of Chinese modernization. Chinese modernization not only adheres to the basic principles of scientific socialism, but also endows it with distinctive Chinese characteristics, so that all the people not only participate in the production of social wealth, but also participate in the distribution of social wealth, and meet the aspirations of all the people for a better life while the social productive forces continue to develop.

Second, the Chinese-style modernization of common prosperity for all people has successfully realized the benign interaction between modern social production and common prosperity. The capital-centered Western modernization one-sidedly relied on high welfare in order to take into account modernization and common prosperity, which did not touch the root of the problem, and thus still led to the disorder of social governance, and the growing social welfare caused a huge financial burden, seriously affected the enthusiasm of workers, and constrained the political, economic and social development of the country. In fact, Marx pointed out in the Critique of the Gotha Program that any kind of distribution of the means of consumption is only the result of the distribution of the conditions of production themselves; The distribution of the conditions of production expresses the nature of the mode of production itself. That is to say, common prosperity is not only a matter of distribution, but also of production. Chinese modernization adheres to high-quality development, makes the cake bigger, adheres to the "two unwavering", not only plays an important role in the public economy, but also plays the role of the non-public economy, and at the same time, divides the cake well, improves the distribution system, and forms a reasonable distribution pattern for everyone to enjoy, so that all the people's sense of gain, happiness and security is more fulfilling.

Third, the Chinese-style modernization of common prosperity for all people has provided the world with a brand-new theory and practice for the modernization of human society. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that Chinese-style modernization has shattered the myth of "modernization = Westernization", presented another picture of modernization, and provided a Chinese solution for mankind's exploration of a better social system. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese Communists have solved the problem of absolute poverty in the mainland for thousands of years, truly proved the scientific nature of common prosperity for all people with practical actions, and truly broke the historical limitations of capital-centered modernization in the West with the superiority of socialist modernization, which has provided a new path for the people of all countries in the world to achieve modernization, contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the realization of common prosperity for the whole mankind, and successfully created a new form of human civilization.

(Author: Tian Qiangqiang Unit: School of Marxism, Henan Polytechnic University)