The Core Cultural Characteristics of Chinese-Path Modernization

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Chinese-path modernization is deeply rooted in fine traditional Chinese culture, embodies the advanced essence of scientific socialism, draws on and absorbs all outstanding achievements of human civilization, represents the direction of progress in human civilization, presents a new picture different from the Western modernization model, and is a completely new form of human civilization.” [1]1 Xi Jinping, speech at the opening ceremony of the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting, March 15, 2023. As the core of this completely new form of civilization, the cultural characteristics of Chinese-path modernization are deeply rooted in the fertile soil of fine traditional Chinese culture, organically integrate the essence of revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture, adhere to the truth of Marxism as the foundation, and manifest the unique character of the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, constituting a deep cultural structure and cultural-genetic code that differs from Western modernization. From the people-centered value stance and the inclusive mindset of harmony in diversity, to the development concept of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground and the ultimate pursuit of the free and comprehensive development of the individual, these cultural characteristics not only precisely define the civilizational character of Chinese-path modernization but also fundamentally overcome the inherent drawbacks of Western modernization, injecting lasting spiritual impetus into Chinese-path modernization.

习近平总书记指出：“中国式现代化，深深植根于中华优秀传统文化，体现科学社会主义的先进本质，借鉴吸收一切人类优秀文明成果，代表人类文明进步的发展方向，展现了不同于西方现代化模式的新图景，是一种全新的人类文明形态。”作为这一全新文明形态的核心，中国式现代化的文化特质深植于中华优秀传统文化沃土，有机融合革命文化与社会主义先进文化精髓，既坚持马克思主义真理底色，又彰显中国特色社会主义伟大实践的独特品格，构成了不同于西方现代化的深层文化结构和文脉基因。从以人民为中心的价值立场、和而不同的包容胸怀，到守正创新的发展理念、人自由而全面的发展的终极追求等文化特质，不仅精准界定了中国式现代化的文明品格，更从根源上克服了西方现代化的固有弊端，为中国式现代化注入了持久精神动力。

From the perspective of value orientation, Chinese-path modernization adheres to a people-centered cultural stance. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “People-centeredness is the essential attribute of Marxism. The Party’s theories are theories that come from the people, serve the people, and benefit the people. The people’s creative practice is the inexhaustible source of theoretical innovation.” This important exposition profoundly reveals the theoretical foundation of “people-centeredness” in Chinese-path modernization, which is rooted both in the scientific core of the Marxist mass viewpoint and in the millennia-old wisdom of “the people as the foundation of the state” from fine traditional Chinese culture, constituting a value marker that distinguishes it from Western modernization. Western modernization takes capital as its logical starting point, making capital accumulation its core goal. Driven by the profit-seeking nature of capital, wealth distribution is severely imbalanced, with a large amount of social wealth concentrated among a few capital owners, the wealth gap continuously widening, class solidification intensifying, ultimately falling into the development predicament of “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer,” making it difficult to achieve common development for all people. Chinese-path modernization, by contrast, is people-centered, taking “the people’s aspiration for a better life” as its goal of struggle. On the material level, through strategic deployments such as poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, it resolves the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development, enabling all people to participate equally in the process of modernization and jointly enjoy the fruits of reform and development. On the spiritual level, by improving the public cultural service system and promoting the coordinated development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries, it precisely meets the people’s growing spiritual and cultural needs. This prominently highlights the cultural essence of the people as the subject.

从价值导向看，中国式现代化坚持以人民为中心的文化立场。习近平总书记强调：“人民性是马克思主义的本质属性，党的理论是来自人民、为了人民、造福人民的理论，人民的创造性实践是理论创新的不竭源泉。”这一重要论述深刻揭示了中国式现代化“以人民为中心”的理论根基，既根植于马克思主义群众观的科学内核，也传承了中华优秀传统文化中“民为邦本”的千年智慧，构成了区别于西方现代化的价值标识。西方现代化以资本为逻辑起点，将资本增殖作为核心目标，受资本逐利本性驱动，财富分配严重失衡，大量社会财富向少数资本所有者集中，贫富差距持续扩大，阶层固化加剧，最终陷入“富者愈富、贫者愈贫”的发展困境，难以实现全体民众的共同发展。中国式现代化则以人民为中心，将“人民对美好生活的向往”作为奋斗目标，在物质层面，通过脱贫攻坚、乡村振兴等战略部署，破解发展不平衡不充分问题，让全体人民平等参与现代化建设进程，共同享有改革发展成果；在精神层面，通过完善公共文化服务体系、推动文化事业与文化产业协同发展，精准对接人民日益增长的精神文化需求。这就突出彰显了人民主体性的文化本质。

From the perspective of development concepts, Chinese-path modernization adheres to a cultural development view of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. Chinese-path modernization adheres to a cultural development view of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, innovating within inheritance and inheriting within innovation, breaking the binary opposition between tradition and modernity, and also breaking the path dependence on the Western modernization model. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have placed cultural development in a prominent position in governing the country, made a series of major deployments, formed the thought on socialist culture with Chinese characteristics for a New Era, and promoted cultural development to achieve historic achievements in the process of clarifying origins and upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. The cultural confidence of the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups in the country has been significantly enhanced, cultural creativity is thriving, cultural undertakings and cultural industries are more prosperous, the people’s spiritual and cultural life is richer, and solid steps have been taken in building a socialist cultural power.” [2]2 Xi Jinping, report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC, October 16, 2022. Upholding fundamental principles is the foundation, that is, adhering to the core spirit of fine traditional Chinese culture, adhering to the guiding position of Marxism, and adhering to the direction of socialist development. Breaking new ground is the driving force, that is, promoting the adaptation of traditional culture to modern society and its integration with scientific and technological innovation, promoting the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times, and exploring a path of modernization that suits China’s national conditions. The cultural development view of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground enables Chinese-path modernization to both adhere to the roots of fine traditional Chinese culture and continue the cultural genes, maintaining cultural continuity, while also standing at the forefront of the times to absorb new ideas and new achievements, endowing cultural development with new momentum, possessing the vitality to keep pace with the times, and injecting lasting spiritual strength into the modernization process.

从发展理念看，中国式现代化坚持守正创新的文化发展观。中国式现代化坚持守正创新的文化发展观，在传承中创新，在创新中传承，打破了传统与现代的二元对立，也打破了对西方现代化模式的路径依赖。习近平总书记指出：“党的十八大以来，我们坚持把文化建设摆在治国理政突出位置，作出一系列重大部署，形成新时代中国特色社会主义文化思想，推动文化建设在正本清源、守正创新中取得历史性成就，全党全国各族人民文化自信明显增强，文化创造生机勃勃，文化事业和文化产业更加繁荣，人民群众精神文化生活更加丰富，社会主义文化强国建设迈出坚实步伐。”守正是根基，即坚守中华优秀传统文化的核心精神，坚守马克思主义的指导地位，坚守社会主义的发展方向。创新是动力，即推动传统文化与现代社会相适应、与科技创新相融合，推动马克思主义中国化时代化，探索符合中国国情的现代化路径。守正创新的文化发展观，使中国式现代化既坚守中华优秀传统文化根脉、延续文化基因，保持了文化的连续性，又立足时代潮头吸纳新思想新成果，赋予文化发展新动能，具备了与时俱进的活力，为现代化进程注入持久的精神力量。

From the perspective of civilizational patterns, Chinese-path modernization upholds a cultural inclusiveness view of harmony in diversity. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Chinese civilization has a prominent characteristic of inclusiveness. The inclusiveness of Chinese civilization fundamentally determines the historical orientation of interaction, exchange, and integration among the Chinese nation’s various ethnic groups, determines the harmonious pattern of coexistence of multiple religious beliefs in China, and determines the open-mindedness of Chinese culture to embrace all civilizations of the world.” [3]3 Xi This important exposition is rooted in the millennia-old historical tradition of the Chinese civilization of amity and good-neighborliness and harmony among all nations, profoundly elucidating the civilizational foundation of the “harmony in diversity” cultural inclusiveness view of Chinese-path modernization, providing profound cultural nourishment for the exchange and mutual learning between contemporary China and world civilizations. The process of Western modernization has always been accompanied by the proliferation of “theories of civilizational superiority” and “clashes of civilizations.” Western countries, positioning themselves as civilizational saviors, absolutize and universalize their own development models, forcibly export values and development models through hegemonic means such as colonial expansion and cultural infiltration, leading to continuous contradictions and conflicts between different civilizations. Chinese-path modernization completely abandons this hegemonic mindset, upholds a cultural inclusiveness view of harmony in diversity, firmly advocates that there is no distinction between superior and inferior civilizations, only differences in characteristics, and respects the diversity of world cultures. This concept is concretely manifested in practice: at the level of development cooperation, through the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, it carries out equal and mutually beneficial cooperation with countries along the routes, allowing civilizational exchange and mutual learning to take root; at the level of global governance, it advocates the concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, opposing unilateralism and protectionism… The cultural inclusiveness view of harmony in diversity, rooted in the profound foundation of the Chinese civilization’s harmony among all nations, abandons the civilizational hegemonic logic of Western modernization, fundamentally determining that Chinese-path modernization is a modernization that promotes the coexistence, common prosperity, and peaceful development of human civilizations.

从文明格局看，中国式现代化秉持和而不同的文化包容观。习近平总书记指出：“中华文明具有突出的包容性。中华文明的包容性，从根本上决定了中华民族交往交流交融的历史取向，决定了中国各宗教信仰多元并存的和谐格局，决定了中华文化对世界文明兼收并蓄的开放胸怀。”这一重要论述根植于中华文明数千年亲仁善邻、协和万邦的历史传统，深刻阐明了中国式现代化“和而不同”文化包容观的文明底蕴，为当代中国与世界文明交流互鉴提供了深厚的文化滋养。西方现代化进程始终伴随“文明优劣论”与“文明冲突论”的泛滥，西方国家以文明救世主自居，将自身发展模式绝对化、普世化，通过殖民扩张、文化渗透等霸权手段强行输出价值观念与发展模式，导致不同文明之间的矛盾与冲突不断。中国式现代化彻底摒弃这种霸权思维，秉持和而不同的文化包容观，坚定主张文明无优劣之分、唯有特色之别，尊重世界文化多样性。这一理念在实践中则具体表现为：在发展合作层面，通过高质量共建“一带一路”，与沿线国家开展平等互利合作，让文明交流互鉴落地生根；在全球治理层面，倡导共商共建共享理念，反对单边主义与保护主义……和而不同的文化包容观，根植于中华文明协和万邦的深厚底蕴，摒弃了西方现代化的文明霸权逻辑，从根本上决定了中国式现代化是推动人类文明共生共荣与和平发展的现代化。

From the perspective of goals and purposes, Chinese-path modernization pursues a cultural value theory of the comprehensive development of the individual. Western modernization, with capital accumulation as its core goal, is excessively obsessed with the accumulation of material wealth, falling into the deep predicament of the expansion of instrumental rationality and the loss of value rationality. Driven by the profit-seeking nature of capital, people are reduced to tools of capital, and spiritual pursuits are completely materialized. This one-sided development model ultimately leads to a serious imbalance between material civilization and cultural-ethical progress, constraining the sustainable development of society. Chinese-path modernization breaks out of this misconception, taking the promotion of the comprehensive development of the individual as its ultimate goal, achieving a dialectical unity of instrumental rationality and value rationality. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must respond to the people’s growing spiritual and cultural needs, build a socialist ideology with strong cohesion and guiding force, strengthen education in ideals and convictions and education in the history of the Party, the history of the People’s Republic of China, the history of reform and opening up, and the history of socialist development, cultivate and promote the core socialist values, develop advanced socialist culture, produce more excellent literary and artistic works, continuously enrich the people’s spiritual world, raise the level of social civility, and promote the comprehensive development of the individual.” [4] The comprehensive development of the individual is both material sufficiency and spiritual and cultural abundance; it concerns both the improvement of individual qualities and the harmony of social relations. In the process of Chinese-path modernization, it always insists on advancing material civilization and cultural-ethical progress simultaneously. By cultivating and practicing the core socialist values, it educates and nurtures people through culture, cultivating cultural confidence in the “poetry craze” and “cultural relics craze,” guiding people to establish correct worldviews, outlooks on life, and values. Through continuous reforms in areas such as balanced education, universal healthcare, and employment security, it improves the public service system, creating fair conditions for everyone’s growth and talent development. This cultural value theory centered on the comprehensive development of the individual anchors the dual goals of material sufficiency and spiritual abundance, fundamentally avoiding the one-sidedness of Western modernization that emphasizes material over spirit, and highlighting the distinctive advantages of Chinese-path modernization in balancing efficiency and fairness, achieving comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable development.

从目标旨归看，中国式现代化追求人的全面发展的文化价值论。以资本增殖为核心目标的西方现代化，过度痴迷物质财富积累，陷入工具理性膨胀、价值理性迷失的深层困境。在资本逐利本性驱动下，人沦为资本的工具，精神追求被彻底物化。这种片面发展模式，最终导致物质文明与精神文明严重失衡，制约了社会的可持续发展。中国式现代化则跳出这一误区，将促进人的全面发展作为终极目标，实现了工具理性与价值理性的辩证统一。习近平总书记指出：“要顺应人民日益增长的精神文化需求，建设具有强大凝聚力和引领力的社会主义意识形态，加强理想信念教育和‘四史’宣传教育，培育和弘扬社会主义核心价值观，发展社会主义先进文化，推出更多优秀文艺作品，不断丰富人民精神世界，提高全社会文明程度，促进人的全面发展。”人的全面发展既是物质生活的富足，更是精神文化的丰盈；既关乎个体素质的提升，也离不开社会关系的和谐。中国式现代化进程中，始终坚持物质文明与精神文明同步推进，通过培育践行社会主义核心价值观，以文化人、以文育人，在“诗词热”“文博热”中厚植文化自信，引导人们树立正确三观；通过教育均衡、医疗普惠、就业保障等领域的持续改革，完善公共服务体系，为每个人成长成才创造公平条件。这种以人的全面发展为核心的文化价值论，锚定物质富足与精神丰盈的双重目标，从根源上规避了西方现代化重物质轻精神的片面性，彰显了中国式现代化兼顾效率与公平的全面协调、永续发展的鲜明优势。

(Author: Zhen Xiaoying, Researcher at the Gansu Provincial Research Center for the Theory of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Professor at the School of Marxism, Gansu University of Political Science and Law)

（作者：甄晓英，系甘肃省中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心研究员、甘肃政法大学马克思主义学院教授）