On the New Form of Twenty-First-Century Scientific Socialism

The development of human civilization has always been accompanied by the exploration of a more rational social form. Since its birth in the mid-nineteenth century, the theoretical form and practical path of scientific socialism have continuously evolved in the historical currents of nearly two centuries, profoundly responding to the major questions posed by the times. Entering the twenty-first century, the world pattern has undergone profound changes, and global development faces unprecedented opportunities and challenges. The internal contradictions of the capitalist system have manifested themselves in new forms, and the defects of the Western modernization model have become increasingly apparent, calling for new development concepts and practical solutions. At the same time, China, as the world's largest socialist country, has demonstrated a unique path and strong vitality in the magnificent process of Chinese-path modernization, injecting new content and vitality into the contemporary development of scientific socialism. This new form of scientific socialism, opened up by Chinese-path modernization, possesses unique historical significance because it is based on the great achievements of socialism with Chinese characteristics that have developed, aims to surpass contemporary capitalism, and is oriented toward the next stage of future socialism. Understanding the theoretical value embodied in this great practice, examining its historical position in the genealogy of the development of scientific socialism, and thereby exploring the construction of a corresponding new theoretical narrative have become a research topic of great theoretical significance and contemporary value.

人类文明的发展始终伴随着对更合理社会形态的探索。科学社会主义自19世纪中期诞生以来，其理论形态与实践路径在近两个世纪的历史洪流中不断演进，深刻回应着时代提出的重大问题。进入21世纪，世界格局发生了深刻的变革，全球发展面临前所未有的机遇与挑战。资本主义体系的内在矛盾以新的形式凸显，西方现代化模式的弊端日益显现，呼唤着新的发展理念与实践方案。与此同时，中国作为世界上最大的社会主义国家，在波澜壮阔的中国式现代化进程中展现出独特的路径与强大的生命力，为科学社会主义的当代发展注入了新的内涵与活力。这种由中国式现代化所开辟的科学社会主义的新形态，因其基于发展起来的中国特色社会主义的伟大建设成就、以超越当代资本主义为目标和面向未来社会主义的下一个阶段而具有独特的历史意义。理解这一伟大实践所蕴含的理论价值，审视其在科学社会主义发展谱系中的历史方位，并由此探索建构与之相适应的崭新理论叙事，已成为一个具有重大理论意义和时代价值的研究课题。

I. Marxism as a Historical Science and the Historical Unfolding of Socialism

一、作为历史科学的马克思主义与社会主义的历史展开

Understanding the new form of twenty-first-century scientific socialism requires placing it within the historical context of the development of Marxist theory and the socialist practice guided by it. Marxism as a historical science "is a historical product, which in different times takes on completely different forms and at the same time completely different content." [1]1 This is a paraphrase of a well-known formulation by Lenin in *Karl Marx* (1914), where he states that Marx's theory "is not a dogma, but a guide to action" and that it "takes on different forms in different epochs." The specific phrasing here is a common Chinese scholarly rendering of this idea. Looking back at the nearly 200-year history of the development of Marxism, we can clearly see the historical characteristics of its theoretical evolution and practical unfolding, as well as the corresponding different concrete forms that scientific socialism has taken under different historical conditions. Together, they constitute a continuous genealogy of the deepening understanding and practical innovation of the cause of human liberation. In this historical process, scientific socialism began with classical theoretical conceptions, passed through creative practice in backward Eastern countries, and finally displayed strong vitality and a brand-new appearance in the great transformation of contemporary China.

理解二十一世纪科学社会主义的新形态，需要将其置于马克思主义理论及其指导下的社会主义实践发展的历史脉络之中。作为历史科学的马克思主义，“是一种历史的产物，它在不同的时代具有完全不同的形式，同时具有完全不同的内容” 。纵观近200年的马克思主义发展史，我们可以清晰地看到其理论演进与实践展开的历史性特征，以及与之相应的科学社会主义在不同历史条件下呈现出不同的现实形态，它们共同构成了一个关于人类解放事业认识深化与实践创新的连续谱系。在这一历史进程中，科学社会主义从经典理论构想开始，经由在东方落后国家的创造性实践，最终在当代中国伟大变革中展现出强大生机与崭新面貌。

1. Marxism Is a "Historical Science"

1.马克思主义是一门“历史科学”

Marx and Engels pointed out in *The German Ideology*: "We know only a single science, the science of history." [2]2 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The German Ideology* (1845–1846). The "science of history" here is both a holistic grasp of history from the standpoint of human practice and a historical grasp of the practice of real people, that is, social reality. After the Industrial Revolution, the greatest reality facing humanity was the reality of capitalism and the socialist reality that grew up alongside capitalist reality and possessed the significance of negating and transcending capitalism. "When serfdom was overthrown and 'free' capitalist society emerged, it immediately became apparent that this freedom meant a new system of oppressing and exploiting the working people. Hence various socialist doctrines reflecting this oppression and opposing it immediately arose." [3]3 V. I. Lenin, *The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism* (1913). Taking the typical sample of nineteenth-century world capitalism—the Western European sample—as their research object, Marx and Engels inherited the rational elements of utopian socialism, deeply analyzed and criticized the economic system characterized by industrial capitalism and the political system characterized by nation-states and liberal constitutionalism at that time, and for the first time profoundly revealed the essential logic of the operation of capitalist society. Under capitalist conditions, the "use-value of labor-power itself possesses the unique property of being a source of value," [4]4 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 6: "The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power." while the capitalist appropriates the surplus labor of the worker without compensation and extends this "dull compulsion of economic relations [which] completes the subjection of the laborer to the capitalist" [5]5 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 28: "Bloody Legislation against the Expropriated, from the End of the 15th Century. Forcing Down of Wages by Acts of Parliament." into control over the entire social and political structure. It was precisely through a thorough analysis of the internal contradictions of capitalist relations of production that Marx and Engels proved the historical transience of the capitalist system and scientifically predicted the historical inevitability of socialist society replacing capitalist society. The Marxism founded by Marx and Engels proved that the victory of socialism "is not to be invented, and spun out of the head, but to be discovered in the material facts of production by means of the head," [6]6 Friedrich Engels, *Socialism: Utopian and Scientific* (1880), Introduction. thereby pointing the way for the proletariat and all humanity to achieve freedom and liberation, realizing the great leap of socialism from utopia to science.

马克思恩格斯在《德意志意识形态》中指出：“我们仅仅知道一门唯一的科学，即历史科学。” 这里的“历史科学”既是从人的实践出发对历史的整体把握，也是历史地把握现实的人的实践即社会现实。工业革命之后，人类所面对的最大现实便是资本主义现实以及伴随资本主义现实生长起来的，对资本主义具有否定和超越意义的社会主义现实。“当农奴制被推翻，‘自由’资本主义社会出现的时候，一下子就暴露出这种自由意味着压迫和剥削劳动者的一种新制度。于是反映这种压迫和反对这种压迫的各种社会主义学说就立刻产生了。” 马克思恩格斯以19世纪世界资本主义典型样本——西欧样本为研究对象，继承空想社会主义的合理因素，深刻分析并批判了当时以工业资本主义为特征的经济体系和以民族国家与自由主义宪政为特征的政治体系，第一次深刻揭示了资本主义社会运行的本质逻辑。在资本主义条件下，劳动力的“使用价值本身具有成为价值源泉的独特属性” ，而资本家无偿占有劳动者的剩余劳动，并将这种“经济关系的无声的强制保证资本家对工人的统治” 扩展为对整个社会与政治结构的控制。正是通过对资本主义生产关系内在矛盾的透彻分析，马克思恩格斯证明了资本主义制度的历史暂时性，科学地预见了社会主义社会取代资本主义社会的历史必然性。由马克思恩格斯创立的马克思主义证明了社会主义胜利“不应当从头脑中发明出来，而应当通过头脑从生产的现成物质事实中发现出来” ，从而为无产阶级和全人类指明了实现自由和解放的道路，实现了社会主义从空想到科学的伟大飞跃。

Entering the twentieth century, the world's political map underwent fundamental changes, and capitalism exhibited the political and economic characteristics of imperialism. Against this backdrop, countries with relatively backward economies and cultures outside the major capitalist countries—first Russia, and then a series of Eastern countries including China—became the centers of world revolution. The proletarian parties and Marxists of this historical stage faced new historical tasks that Marx and Engels had not foreseen: in a social environment with a generally insufficient material base, a low degree of modernization, a complex class structure, and a large number of residual pre-capitalist elements, and faced with the encirclement and blockade of imperialism, how could scientific socialism truly take root? Facing this question of the times, Lenin creatively developed the Marxist theory of proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, profoundly explained the law of uneven economic and political development in the era of imperialism, led the Russian revolution to success, established the world's first socialist state, and initially explored the path of construction under capitalist encirclement. "The salvos of the October Revolution brought us Marxism-Leninism." [7]7 Mao Zedong, "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" (1949). The Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, integrated the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete reality of China, successfully explored a path of new-democratic revolution with Chinese characteristics, achieved victory in the Chinese revolution, established the socialist system, and made arduous explorations of a path of socialist construction suited to China's national conditions. The Chinese Communists, with Comrade Deng Xiaoping as their chief representative, based on the new characteristics of the times and the reality of China being in the primary stage of socialism, scientifically answered the fundamental question of "what is socialism and how to build socialism," initiated the great historical process of reform and opening up, and blazed the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Guided by Marxism, which was founded by Marx and Engels and continuously developed by their successors, "socialism turned from theory into reality, breaking the world pattern in which capitalism dominated the globe. After the end of the Second World War, a large number of socialist countries were born, and in particular the founding of the People's Republic of China greatly strengthened the forces of world socialism." [8]8 Xi Jinping, "Speech at the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" (2021). It provided a powerful ideological weapon and guide to action for the world's oppressed peoples in their struggles against imperialism, feudalism, and for national independence, and offered important practical experience and alternative models for developing countries exploring paths to modernization.

进入20世纪，世界的政治版图发生了根本性变化，资本主义呈现出了帝国主义的政治经济特征。在这样的背景下，主要资本主义国家之外的经济文化相对落后的国家——首先是俄国，继而是包括中国在内的一系列东方国家——成为世界革命的中心。这一历史阶段的无产阶级政党和马克思主义者面对的是马克思恩格斯未曾预见到的新的历史课题：在一个物质基础普遍不足、现代化程度较低、阶级结构复杂、前资本主义因素大量残留的社会环境中，面对帝国主义的包围与封锁，科学社会主义如何才能真正落地生根？面对这样的时代课题，列宁创造性地发展了马克思主义的无产阶级革命和无产阶级专政学说，深刻阐释了帝国主义时代经济政治发展不平衡规律，领导俄国革命取得成功，建立了世界上第一个社会主义国家，并初步探索了在资本主义包围下的建设道路。“十月革命一声炮响，给我们送来了马克思列宁主义。” 以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人，将马克思列宁主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合，成功探索出一条具有中国特色的新民主主义革命道路，取得了中国革命的胜利，建立了社会主义制度，并对符合中国国情的社会主义建设道路进行了艰辛探索。以邓小平同志为主要代表的中国共产党人立足新的时代特征和中国社会主义初级阶段的实际，科学回答了“什么是社会主义，怎样建设社会主义”的根本问题，开启了改革开放的伟大历史进程，开创了中国特色社会主义道路。在由马克思恩格斯创立并为后继者所不断发展的马克思主义的指引下，“社会主义从理论变为现实，打破了资本主义一统天下的世界格局。第二次世界大战结束后，一大批社会主义国家诞生，特别是中华人民共和国成立，极大壮大了世界社会主义力量” 。为世界被压迫民族反抗帝国主义、封建主义和争取民族独立的斗争提供了强大的思想武器与行动指南，并为广大发展中国家探索现代化道路提供了重要的实践经验和替代方案。

As human society enters the twenty-first century, contemporary Marxism confronts an epochal background in which the accelerated evolution of changes unseen in a century and the comprehensive unfolding of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation intersect historically. “A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is reshaping the global innovation landscape and restructuring the global economy.” At the same time, “unilateralism and protectionism have risen markedly, the world economic recovery is faltering, local conflicts and turbulence occur frequently, and global problems are intensifying, plunging the world into a new period of turbulence and transformation.” The internal contradictions of the capitalist system manifest themselves in forms of “chaos in the West” such as financial crises, social fragmentation, and governance dilemmas. Meanwhile, China has become the world’s principal socialist country, and the development of socialism is inevitably closely bound up with China’s concrete development. After long-term struggle, especially the rapid development since reform and opening up, China has embarked on a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Therefore, for the historical mission and object of study of twenty-first-century Marxism, its core lies in “answering the questions of China, the questions of the world, the questions of the people, and the questions of the era,”[n] and scientifically resolving the fundamental questions concerning the future of China and human society—namely, under a world pattern full of complexity and uncertainty, how socialism can achieve the historical goal of surpassing capitalism. Concretely, it needs, from the combination of theory and practice, to profoundly clarify how, under contemporary conditions in which the material foundation, cultural background, developmental impetus, and external environment have all undergone major changes, to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, to comprehensively advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization, and, in this great process, to explore the realistic path, institutional advantages, and civilizational value of socialism surpassing capitalism, thereby providing Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach for solving the common problems facing humanity, and thus truly demonstrating the powerful vitality and vigorous life-force of scientific socialism in the twenty-first century.

人类社会进入21世纪，当代马克思主义所面对的，是一个世界百年未有之大变局加速演进与中华民族伟大复兴全面展开之历史性交汇的时代背景。“新一轮科技革命和产业变革正在重构全球创新版图、重塑全球经济结构。” 与此同时，“单边主义、保护主义明显上升，世界经济复苏乏力，局部冲突和动荡频发，全球性问题加剧，世界进入新的动荡变革期” 。资本主义体系的内在矛盾呈现出金融危机、社会撕裂、治理困境等“西方之乱”的形态。与此同时，中国成为世界上最主要的社会主义国家，社会主义的发展不可避免地与中国的具体发展紧密结合在一起。经过长期奋斗特别是改革开放以来的快速发展，中国已踏上了全面建设社会主义现代化国家的新征程。因此，对于二十一世纪马克思主义的历史使命与研究对象而言，其核心在于“回答中国之问、世界之问、人民之问、时代之问” ，科学解答关乎中国与人类社会未来的根本问题，即在充满复杂性和不确定性的世界格局下，社会主义如何实现超越资本主义的历史性目标。具体而言，它需要从理论和实践的结合上，深刻阐明在物质基础、文化背景、发展动力和外部环境都发生重大变化的当代条件下，如何坚持和发展中国特色社会主义，以中国式现代化全面推进中华民族伟大复兴，并在这一伟大进程中，探索社会主义超越资本主义的现实路径、制度优势与文明价值，为解决人类面临的共同问题提供中国智慧和中国方案，从而真正展现科学社会主义在21世纪的强大生机活力和蓬勃生命力。

2. Scientific socialism “is by no means a fixed and immutable dogma”

2.科学社会主义“绝不是一成不变的教条”

One major difference between scientific socialism and utopian socialism is that the former is not a fixed and immutable dogma but regards socialism as a practical process of continuous improvement and development. In the course of its development, scientific socialism, based on different historical conditions and practical contexts, has manifested itself in significantly different forms. The Paris Commune revolution of 1871 was the first great attempt by the proletariat to establish political power; the practice of the Commune proved that the proletariat could overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie through revolution and establish its own political power. Historically, however, scientific socialism born in developed capitalist societies did not actually unfold in reality, yet its core conception remains crucial for understanding the original logic of scientific socialism. Marx and Engels’ original conception was based on a profound analysis of the reality of the developed capitalist countries of Western Europe at that time, and its core points can be summarized in three aspects. First, socialism was conceived as something that could only be gestated in the womb of the most mature capitalist society of the time. Socialism “can become possible, can become a historical necessity, only when the material conditions for its realization are already present.”[n] Second, the development of capitalism itself contains factors that negate it; no matter how long it lasts, it is only a specific stage in the long river of human historical development. When “the centralization of the means of production and the socialization of labor reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. This integument is burst asunder.”[n] Capitalism ultimately moves toward its own internal negation and is replaced by a higher social form; this is the inevitable destination of its historical development. Third, the starting point of socialism is directly connected to the end point of capitalism. Socialism does not mean completely discarding all the achievements of the capitalist era, especially its enormous accumulation of material wealth and the form of large-scale socialized production, but rather sublating and transcending them on the basis of capitalist accumulation. “This does not re-establish private property, but re-establishes individual property on the basis of the achievements of the capitalist era, that is, on the basis of cooperation and the common possession of the land and of the means of production produced by labor itself.”[n] The task of socialism is to resolve the profound social problems caused by the basic contradiction of capitalism, to overcome the fundamental conflict between private ownership of the means of production and socialized production, and the series of social contradictions and class antagonisms arising from it, and to establish a new society based on public ownership of the means of production, planned production, and ultimately the free and comprehensive development of the individual. Scientific socialism solved the fundamental and principled question of “what socialism is and why it must inevitably come,” providing scientific worldview and methodological guidance for subsequent practice.

科学社会主义和空想社会主义的一大区别，就在于它不是一成不变的教条，而是把社会主义看作一个不断完善和发展的实践过程。科学社会主义在其发展历程中，基于不同的历史条件与实践背景，呈现出了具有显著差异的不同形态。发生于1871年的巴黎公社革命是无产阶级建立政权的第一次伟大尝试，公社的实践证明了无产阶级可以通过革命的手段推翻资产阶级的统治，建立自己的政权。然而，历史地来看，生发于发达资本主义社会的科学社会主义在现实中并未实际展开，但其核心构想对于我们理解科学社会主义的原初理路至关重要。马克思恩格斯最初的构想建立在对当时西欧发达资本主义国家现实深刻分析的基础上，它的核心要点可以概括为三个方面。第一，社会主义被设想为只能在人类社会当时最成熟的资本主义母体中孕育。社会主义“只有在实现它的物质条件已经具备的时候，才能成为可能，才能成为历史的必然性” 。第二，资本主义的发展本身包含着否定自身的因素，无论它持续多久，都是人类历史发展长河中的一个特定阶段。当“生产资料的集中和劳动的社会化，达到了同它们的资本主义外壳不能相容的地步。这个外壳就要炸毁了” 。资本主义最终走向自身的内在否定，为更高级的社会形态所取代，是其历史发展的必然归宿。第三，社会主义的起点与资本主义的终点直接相连。社会主义不是要完全抛弃资本主义时代的一切成果，特别是其中巨大的物质财富积累和社会化大生产的形式，而是要在资本主义积累的基础之上进行扬弃和超越。“这种否定不是重新建立私有制，而是在资本主义时代的成就的基础上，也就是说，在协作和对土地及靠劳动本身生产的生产资料的共同占有的基础上，重新建立个人所有制。” 社会主义的任务在于解决资本主义基本矛盾引发的深刻社会问题，克服生产资料私有制与生产社会化之间的根本冲突，以及由此引发的一系列社会矛盾与阶级对抗，建立一个基于生产资料公有制、实行计划生产、最终实现人的自由全面发展的新社会。科学社会主义解决了“社会主义是什么、为何必然到来”的根本性、原理性问题，为后继的实践提供了科学的世界观和方法论指导。

The actual course of twentieth-century world history did not unfold along the path of scientific socialism’s original theoretical conception. Socialism, as the self-negation and sublation of capitalism, did not emerge in the developed heartland of capitalism but appeared in some economically and culturally relatively backward countries and regions, especially the Eastern world represented by China. Lenin pointed out that “the unevenness of economic and political development is an absolute law of capitalism,” and therefore “socialism may first triumph in a few or even in a single capitalist country taken separately.”[n] The actual unfolding of socialism in the twentieth century did not arise and mature within the internal capitalist economic and political system but outside it, especially in the vast imperialist colonies and semi-colonies. It did not first appear in regions with highly developed capitalist productive forces but took root in areas with low levels of economic modernization, weak industrial foundations, and even remnants of pre-capitalist factors. It was no longer centered on the traditional capitalist countries of Western Europe and North America but grew in non-Western countries situated on the periphery of the capitalist system. The socialist revolutions in countries including Russia and China were not class struggles based on the industrial proletariat within developed capitalist countries but “revolutions led by the proletariat, of the broad masses of the people, against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism.”[n] The practical form of twentieth-century scientific socialism profoundly changed the content of socialism, its specific mode of unfolding, and its internal developmental logic. It had to confront and resolve unique difficulties that socialism had never anticipated in its history, such as how a backward country could rapidly achieve modernization, how to establish and consolidate the institutional foundation of socialism, and how to handle relations with the powerful world system of capitalism, thereby causing socialist practice to exhibit a series of new characteristics. In this sense, twentieth-century scientific socialist practice constitutes a marked distinction from nineteenth-century socialist practice such as the Paris Commune, forming a new practical form external to the mature capitalist womb.

20世纪世界历史的实际进程并没有沿着科学社会主义最初的理论构想的路径展开。作为资本主义自我否定和扬弃的社会主义没有在资本主义发达的心脏地带诞生，却出现在一些经济文化相对落后的国家和地区，特别是以中国为代表的东方世界。列宁指出，“经济和政治发展的不平衡是资本主义的绝对规律”，因此，“社会主义可能首先在少数甚至在单独一个资本主义国家内获得胜利” 。社会主义在20世纪的现实展开不是在资本主义经济政治体系的内部产生和成熟的，而是在其外部，尤其是在广大的帝国主义殖民地和半殖民地中出现的。它不是首先出现在资本主义生产力高度发达的区域，而是在那些经济现代化程度较低、工业化基础薄弱甚至残留大量前资本主义因素的地域扎根。它不再是以西欧北美的传统资本主义国家为中心，而是生长于身处资本主义体系边缘的非西方国家。包括俄国、中国在内的国家的社会主义革命，不是发达资本主义国家内基于工业无产阶级的阶级斗争，而是“无产阶级领导的、人民大众的、反对帝国主义、反对封建主义和反对官僚资本主义的革命” 。20世纪的科学社会主义的实践样态，深刻改变了社会主义的内涵、具体的展开方式以及内在的发展逻辑。它必须面对和解决社会主义历史上未曾预料的独特难题，诸如在一个落后国家如何快速实现现代化、如何建立和巩固社会主义制度基础、如何处理与强大资本主义世界体系的关系等，从而使社会主义实践呈现出一系列新的特点。在这个意义上，20世纪的科学社会主义实践与19世纪的社会主义实践如巴黎公社构成了显著的区别，形成了一种外在于发达资本主义母体的新的实践形态。

As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters the New Era, both the global configuration of the twenty-first century and China itself have undergone profound changes. Against the backdrop of the deepening great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, a new form of scientific socialism, more constructive and growth-oriented, inaugurated by Chinese-path modernization, is emerging and becoming increasingly clear. “The great social transformation in contemporary China is not a simple continuation of our historical and cultural template, nor a simple application of the templates envisioned by Marxist classical writers, nor a reprint of the socialist practice of other countries, nor a copy of foreign modernization development.” Its core characteristic lies in being both external to the capitalist system and displaying the consciousness and capacity to actively transcend capitalism and shape its own development path. Although the universal challenges faced by late-developing modernization in developing countries still exist, and some regular difficulties of building socialism in backward countries have not entirely disappeared, with the sustained development of China’s socialist construction—on the basis of continuously rising productive forces, enhanced scientific and technological innovation capacity, significantly strengthened national comprehensive power, and all-round progress in various social fields—China, in the identity of a “socialist modernized country,” is systematically demonstrating in the real world the potential superiority of the socialist system over the capitalist system. This “means that scientific socialism radiates with great vitality in twenty-first-century China and holds high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the world.” Socialism exists not merely as an ideal but can also provide, at the practical level, a social development model with real superiority and a future-oriented character. The new form of twenty-first-century scientific socialism represents a new stage entered by the socialist movement after a long period of exploration, characterized by an emphasis on socialism’s own constructiveness, growth, and its immense potential and capacity to solve the common development problems of humanity.

随着中国特色社会主义进入新时代，21世纪的世界格局与中国自身都发生了深刻变化。在中国特色社会主义伟大实践深入推进的背景下，一种更具建设性和成长性的、由中国式现代化开创的科学社会主义新形态正在显现并日益清晰。“当代中国的伟大社会变革，不是简单延续我国历史文化的母版，不是简单套用马克思主义经典作家设想的模板，不是其他国家社会主义实践的再版，也不是国外现代化发展的翻版。” 它的核心特征在于既外在于资本主义体系，又展现出主动超越资本主义、塑造自身发展道路的自觉性与能力。虽然发展中国家后发现代化面临的普遍挑战依然存在，在落后国家建设社会主义面临的一些规律性难题尚未完全消失，但随着中国社会主义建设的持续发展，在生产力持续提升、科技创新能力增强、国家综合实力显著增强以及社会各领域取得全方位进步的基础上，中国正在以“社会主义现代化国家”的身份，在现实世界中系统地展示社会主义制度相较于资本主义制度的潜在优势。这“意味着科学社会主义在二十一世纪的中国焕发出强大生机活力，在世界上高高举起了中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜” 。社会主义不仅作为一种理想而存在，更能够在实践层面提供一种具有现实优越性、面向未来的社会发展模式。二十一世纪科学社会主义的新形态代表着社会主义运动经过漫长探索后进入的新阶段，其特征是强调社会主义自身的建设性、成长性及其在解决人类共同发展难题方面的巨大潜力和能力。

II. Chinese-Path Modernization Inaugurates a New Form of Scientific Socialism

二、中国式现代化开创科学社会主义的新形态

As the latest major achievement of scientific socialism, Chinese-path modernization has inaugurated a new form of human civilization, namely socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era. Chinese-path modernization has not only successfully created a new form of the scientific socialist path but also successfully created new forms of scientific socialist theory, institutions, and culture. That Chinese-path modernization inaugurates a new form of scientific socialism is not a mere assertion but a judgment with profound practical foundations.

中国式现代化作为科学社会主义的最新重大成果，开创了人类文明新形态即新时代中国特色社会主义。中国式现代化既成功创造了科学社会主义道路新形态，也成功创造了科学社会主义理论新形态、制度新形态和文化新形态。中国式现代化开创科学社会主义新形态并不是一句断言，而是具有深刻现实依据的判断。

1. Chinese-Path Modernization Solves Major Problems of Scientific Socialism

1.中国式现代化破解了科学社会主义的重大难题

Since the establishment of the world’s first socialist state after the October Revolution in Russia, the theory and practice of scientific socialism have faced a series of historic problems: how to position the relationship between socialism and capitalism, how to avoid the drawbacks of Western modernization, and how to consolidate the socialist system. The reason Chinese-path modernization can open up a new form of scientific socialism lies first in its creative solution to several major problems that arose in the course of scientific socialism’s development.

自俄国十月革命后建立世界上第一个社会主义国家开始，科学社会主义的理论与实践就面临着如何定位社会主义与资本主义的关系、如何规避西方现代化的弊端、如何巩固社会主义制度等一系列历史性难题。中国式现代化之所以能够开辟科学社会主义新形态，首先在于它创造性破解了科学社会主义发展进程中产生的若干重大难题。

The first major problem is how to position the relationship between socialism and capitalism in the current global configuration. In the Soviet-style practice of socialism, capitalism and socialism were always regarded as irreconcilable mortal enemies, requiring socialism to break most resolutely with the capitalist world and attempt to eliminate capitalism through direct confrontation. However, this either-or mode of thinking encountered severe practical challenges in the late twentieth century due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe. In contrast, as early as the 1990s, Deng Xiaoping proposed: “If socialism is to win an advantage over capitalism, it must boldly absorb and draw on all the achievements of civilization created by human society, and absorb and draw on all advanced modes of operation and management methods that reflect the laws of modern社会化 production, including those from the capitalist developed countries of the world today.” Entering the New Era, with the major achievements of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics, it can be seen that the new form of scientific socialism has a complex relationship with capitalism—long-term coexistence, mutual competition, mutual utilization, yet fundamentally different from capitalism. On the one hand, China’s socialist system possesses openness and inclusiveness; such socialism includes things that also exist in capitalist societies, such as a market economy, securities trading, and labor-capital relations. On the other hand, socialism with Chinese characteristics emphasizes the importance of adhering to socialist goals. It is a socialism that is exogenous to capitalism, boldly utilizes everything usable from capitalism, and gradually gains a relative advantage over capitalism. With the opening up of the Chinese-path modernization path, “the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics has grown ever broader, increasing the number of people in the world who face up to and believe in Marxism and socialism, and bringing about a major shift in the historical evolution and contest between the two ideologies and two social systems worldwide in favor of Marxism and socialism.”

第一个重大难题是在当今世界格局中，社会主义与资本主义的关系究竟应当如何定位。在苏联式的社会主义实践中，一直将资本主义与社会主义视为势不两立的生死仇敌，要求社会主义必须最坚决地与资本主义世界决裂并以直接对抗的手段尝试消灭资本主义。但是，这种非此即彼的思维模式在20世纪后期由于苏联解体、东欧剧变遭遇了严重的现实挑战。与之不同的是，在20世纪90年代，邓小平就提出：“社会主义要赢得与资本主义相比较的优势，就必须大胆吸收和借鉴人类社会创造的一切文明成果，吸收和借鉴当今世界各国包括资本主义发达国家的一切反映现代社会化生产规律的先进经营方式、管理方法。” 进入新时代，随着中国特色社会主义建设取得了重大的成就，可以看到科学社会主义新形态与资本主义有着复杂的关系——既长期共存、相互竞争、相互利用，但又与资本主义有本质区别。一方面，中国的社会主义制度具有开放性和包容性，这样的社会主义有市场经济、证券交易、劳资关系等资本主义社会同样存在的东西；另一方面，中国特色社会主义突出了坚守社会主义目标的重要性。它是一种外生于资本主义，并且大胆利用资本主义一切可以利用的东西、逐步取得对于资本主义的相对优势的社会主义。随着中国式现代化道路的开辟，“中国特色社会主义道路越走越宽广，使世界上正视和相信马克思主义、社会主义的人多了起来，使世界范围内两种意识形态、两种社会制度的历史演进及其较量发生了有利于马克思主义、社会主义的重大转变” 。

The second major problem is how socialist modernization can effectively avoid the various drawbacks exposed in the process of capitalist modernization. Although capitalist modernization has brought enormous material wealth, it has also been accompanied by chronic ills such as polarization between rich and poor, severe ecological damage, a spiritual crisis of materialism, external expansion and plunder, and serious internal social fragmentation. As achieving socialist modernization inevitably became the goal of building scientific socialism in China, how to avoid the various drawbacks of capitalist modernization became a problem that must be solved on the path of building a new form of scientific socialism. First, Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of a huge population. The huge population size is not only the specific condition faced by Chinese-path modernization but also means that Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of the entire people. Second, Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all the people, ensuring the sharing of development fruits through institutional arrangements, striving to resolve the problem of income distribution gaps, promoting common prosperity for all the people, and resolutely preventing polarization. Third, Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of the coordination of material civilization and cultural-ethical progress, emphasizing cultural-ethical progress and the all-round development of people while continuously developing the economy, transcending capitalist modernization that sees things but not people and values material goods while neglecting the spiritual. Fourth, Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, emphasizing sustainable development and ecological civilization construction, no longer following the old path of “pollute first, treat later,” and abandoning the development model that sacrifices the ecological environment. Fifth, Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of the path of peaceful development, adhering to a foreign policy of win-win cooperation, seeking its own development while steadfastly safeguarding world peace and development, and better safeguarding world peace and development through its own development, fundamentally different from the old path of capitalist modernization that relied on expansion and plunder in history. “These unprecedented pioneering initiatives have solved many problems in the development of human society, abandoned the old Western path of capital-centered modernization, polarized modernization, materialistically inflated modernization, and expansionist-plundering modernization, expanded the ways for developing countries to achieve modernization, and provided a Chinese solution for humanity’s exploration of a better social system.”

第二个重大难题是社会主义现代化如何有效避免资本主义现代化进程中暴露出的种种弊端。资本主义现代化虽然带来了巨大的物质财富，但同时也伴随着贫富两极分化、生态环境严重破坏、物质主义精神危机、对外扩张掠夺以及社会内部严重撕裂等痼疾。随着实现社会主义现代化不可避免地成为在中国建设科学社会主义的目标，如何避免资本主义现代化的种种弊端便成为建设科学社会主义新形态道路上必须解决的难题。其一，中国式现代化是人口规模巨大的现代化。巨大人口规模不仅是中国式现代化面对的具体情况，而且意味着中国式现代化是全体人民的现代化。其二，中国式现代化是全体人民共同富裕的现代化，通过制度安排保障发展成果共享，着力解决收入分配差距问题，着力促进全体人民共同富裕，坚决防止两极分化。其三，中国式现代化是物质文明和精神文明相协调的现代化，在持续发展经济的同时注重精神文明建设和人的全面发展，超越了见物不见人、重物质而轻精神的资本主义现代化。其四，中国式现代化是人与自然和谐共生的现代化，强调可持续发展与生态文明建设，不再走“先污染后治理”的现代化老路，摒弃了以生态环境为代价的发展模式。其五，中国式现代化是走和平发展道路的现代化，坚持合作共赢的对外政策，在坚定维护世界和平与发展中谋求自身发展，又以自身发展更好维护世界和平与发展，根本区别于资本主义历史上依靠扩张掠夺实现现代化的旧路。“这些前无古人的创举，破解了人类社会发展的诸多难题，摒弃了西方以资本为中心的现代化、两极分化的现代化、物质主义膨胀的现代化、对外扩张掠夺的现代化老路，拓展了发展中国家走向现代化的途径，为人类对更好社会制度的探索提供了中国方案。”

The third major difficulty is how to effectively respond to various risks and challenges on the road forward and resolutely defend the socialist system. The socialist cause cannot proceed smoothly; the consolidation and development of the system face complex tests from both internal and external sources. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century brought the question of how to defend the socialist system to the fore. Ensuring the long-term stability and enduring vitality of socialist China is a fundamental issue concerning the future and destiny of the Party and the state. The key to solving this difficulty lies in adhering to the correct value stance and the methodology of state governance. First, adhering to a people-centered approach is the fundamental stance for building socialism. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: "The country is the people, and the people are the country. As the Communist Party of China leads the people in taking over the country and governing it, what it guards is the people's hearts." [16]16 Xi Jinping, speech at the closing ceremony of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress, March 20, 2018. All institutional designs, policy formulations, and measurements of development outcomes take as their fundamental criterion whether they enhance the people's well-being, protect the people's rights and interests, and promote social fairness and justice, enabling the masses of the people to become the subjects of development, participants in reform, and sharers of its fruits. This is the source from which the socialist system wins the broadest support and gains the deepest strength. Second, upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership is the most fundamental political guarantee for socialism. The Communist Party of China is the leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. "The most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China; the greatest strength of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China." Only by upholding the Party's overall leadership can we ensure that the state always advances along the socialist direction and effectively respond to major challenges, resist major risks, overcome major obstacles, and resolve major contradictions. Third, reform and opening up is the only way to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: "Reform and opening up is a crucial move that determines the fate of contemporary China, and it is also a crucial move that determines the realization of the 'two centenary goals' [17]17 The "two centenary goals" are: first, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the centenary of the CPC (2021); second, building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, and harmonious by the centenary of the People's Republic of China (2049). and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." Only by continuously deepening reform, eliminating institutional and mechanistic drawbacks, unleashing society's creative vitality, and enhancing the system's adaptability and vitality can the superiority of the socialist system be more fully brought into play, and can it be truly guaranteed that socialism does not change its nature or lose its color.

第三个重大难题是在前进道路上如何有效应对各种风险挑战，坚决捍卫社会主义制度。社会主义事业不可能一帆风顺，制度的巩固和发展面临着来自内外部的复杂考验，20世纪下半叶的苏联解体、东欧剧变将如何捍卫社会主义制度这一问题凸显出来，确保社会主义中国长治久安、永葆生机活力，是关系党和国家前途命运的根本性问题。解决这一难题的关键在于坚持正确价值立场和治国理政的方法论。其一，坚持以人民为中心是建设社会主义的根本立场。习近平总书记指出：“江山就是人民，人民就是江山。中国共产党领导人民打江山、守江山，守的是人民的心。” 一切制度设计、政策制定、发展成果的衡量，都以是否增进人民福祉、保障人民权益、促进社会公平正义为根本标准，让人民群众成为发展的主体、改革的参与者和成果的共享者。这是社会主义制度赢得最广泛支持、获得最深厚力量的源泉。其二，坚持和加强党的全面领导是社会主义最根本的政治保证。中国共产党是中国特色社会主义事业的领导核心。“中国特色社会主义最本质的特征是中国共产党领导，中国特色社会主义制度的最大优势是中国共产党领导。” 只有坚持党的全面领导，才能确保国家始终沿着社会主义方向前进，有效应对重大挑战、抵御重大风险、克服重大阻力、解决重大矛盾。其三，改革开放是坚持和发展中国特色社会主义、实现中华民族伟大复兴的必由之路。习近平总书记指出：“改革开放是决定当代中国命运的关键一招，也是决定实现‘两个一百年’奋斗目标、实现中华民族伟大复兴的关键一招。” 只有通过不断深化改革，破除体制机制弊端，释放社会创造活力，增强制度的适应性和生命力，才能使社会主义制度优越性得到更充分的发挥，才能真正保证社会主义不变质、不褪色。

2. Chinese-Path Modernization Responds to the New Epochal Questions of Scientific Socialism

2.中国式现代化回应了科学社会主义的时代新课题

The reason scientific socialism can open up a new form lies more importantly in the fact that it is situated under entirely new historical conditions, such that it can continuously make transformations adapted to the new historical conditions. General Secretary Xi Jinping has precisely summarized the current epochal orientation: "One is the strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the other is the changes unseen in a century in the world; these are the basic starting points for our planning of work." These two overall situations do not exist in isolation but are constantly in a relationship of deep interweaving and mutual agitation. On the one hand, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, as the most crucial "independent variable" affecting world development, profoundly influences the direction and trend of the changes unseen in a century in the world. On the other hand, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation itself is also an important component of the great changes in the world, serving as the main "dependent variable." At the same time, the accelerated evolution of the changes unseen in a century in the world directly and profoundly affects the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, placing the entire world in a state of "uncertainty and instability." This epochal characteristic, defined by the interweaving and agitation of the "two overall situations," constitutes the entirely new historical context for the development of twenty-first-century scientific socialism.

科学社会主义之所以能够开辟新形态，更重要的在于它处于崭新的历史条件下，以至于它能够不断作出适应新的历史条件的转变。习近平总书记精准概括了当前的时代方位：“一个是中华民族伟大复兴的战略全局，一个是世界百年未有之大变局，这是我们谋划工作的基本出发点。” 这两个大局并非孤立地存在，而是时刻处于深度交织、相互激荡的关系之中。一方面，中华民族伟大复兴作为影响世界发展最关键的“自变量”，其进程深刻左右着世界百年未有之大变局的方向和走势；另一方面，中华民族伟大复兴本身也是世界大变局的重要组成部分，是其中的主要“因变量”。同时，世界百年未有之大变局的加速演进，又直接而深刻地影响着中华民族伟大复兴的历史进程，使整个世界处于一种“不确定不稳定”的状态之中。这种由“两个大局”相互交织激荡所定义的时代特征，构成了二十一世纪科学社会主义发展的全新历史语境。

Within this specific historical context, Chinese problems and world problems exhibit an unprecedented close interconnectedness. Chinese problems, due to their enormous scale and unique development path, acquire world significance and become key factors influencing the evolution of the global pattern. At the same time, world problems, such as the predicament of global governance, unbalanced development, and security challenges, also transform into issues that China must face and resolve. It is precisely in this sense of the mutual transformation and interweaving of Chinese problems and world problems that "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the Marxism of contemporary China and the Marxism of the twenty-first century." Under the guidance of "twenty-first-century Marxism," China's socialist construction, especially the opening up of the path of Chinese-path modernization, has created a new form of scientific socialism, embodying Marxism keeping pace with the times and sharing the destiny of humanity.

在这一特定的历史语境下，中国问题与世界问题呈现出前所未有的紧密关联性。中国问题因其巨大的体量和独特的发展道路而具有世界意义，成为影响全球格局演变的关键因素；同时，世界性问题，如全球治理困境、发展不平衡、安全挑战等，也转化为中国必须面对和解决的课题。正是在这种中国问题与世界问题相互转换、相互交织的意义上，“习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想是当代中国马克思主义、二十一世纪马克思主义” 。在“二十一世纪马克思主义”的指引下，中国的社会主义建设，尤其是中国式现代化道路的开辟，创造了科学社会主义的新形态，体现了马克思主义与时代同步伐，与人类共命运。

At present, the epochal questions faced by scientific socialism inevitably possess both a distinct Chinese dimension and a broad world dimension. From the Chinese dimension, since entering the New Era, the Party Central Committee has scientifically assessed the historical orientation and development situation, clearly pointing out that it must answer the three major questions of China's inquiry: "What kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics to uphold and develop in the New Era and how to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, what kind of great modern socialist country to build and how to build a great modern socialist country, and what kind of long-term governing Marxist party to build and how to build a long-term governing Marxist party." [18]18 These three major questions were formally articulated at the 19th National Congress of the CPC (2017) and further elaborated in subsequent Party documents. These three major questions deeply focus on the fundamental issues of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the construction of a great modern socialist country, and the construction of a Marxist governing party, reflecting the two-way interaction between the general principles of scientific socialism and the process of China's socialist modernization. At the same time, it is necessary to better answer the people's inquiry. The socialist movement is essentially a cause for the liberation of all humanity. The new form of scientific socialism pioneered by Chinese-path modernization consistently adheres to a people-centered development philosophy, taking the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life as the starting point and落脚点 [19]19 The Chinese term 落脚点 (luòjiǎo diǎn) literally means "foothold" or "point of landing," but in this political context it is conventionally rendered as "ultimate goal" or "end point." of modernization construction. A series of pioneering theories and practices systematically answer the fundamental question of development for whom, development relying on whom, and development achievements shared by whom, and at the practical level truly implement the requirement that "the country is the people, and the people are the country," demonstrating the powerful truth-force of scientific socialism in the twenty-first century. From the world dimension, scientific socialism must also pay attention to and answer global questions concerning the future of humanity, namely the world's inquiry of "what is wrong with the world and what should we do about it." On this point, Chinese-path modernization deeply grasps the epochal trend of the interweaving and interaction of the "two overall situations," systematically responding to the changes in the world, the changes in the times, and the changes in history. In the historical process of the long-term coexistence of socialism and capitalism, Chinese-path modernization demonstrates the institutional superiority of socialism with Chinese characteristics through practical results, profoundly revealing the internal contradictions and historical limitations of the capitalist system, "breaking the myth that 'modernization equals Westernization' and presenting another picture of modernization." In a word, Chinese-path modernization is consistently committed to responding to and answering these major epochal questions concerning China's future and destiny and the future development of humanity; this is precisely the reason it has opened up a new form of scientific socialism.

在当下，科学社会主义所面对的时代课题，必然兼具鲜明的中国维度与广阔的世界维度。从中国维度看，进入新时代，党中央科学研判历史方位和发展形势，明确指出必须回答好中国之问的三大课题：“新时代坚持和发展什么样的中国特色社会主义、怎样坚持和发展中国特色社会主义，建设什么样的社会主义现代化强国、怎样建设社会主义现代化强国，建设什么样的长期执政的马克思主义政党、怎样建设长期执政的马克思主义政党” 。这三大课题深刻聚焦中国特色社会主义事业、社会主义现代化强国建设以及马克思主义执政党建设的根本性问题，体现了科学社会主义一般与中国社会主义现代化进程的双向互动。同时，要更好地回答人民之问。社会主义运动本质是为全人类谋解放的事业。中国式现代化开创的科学社会主义新形态始终坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，将实现人民对美好生活的向往作为现代化建设的出发点和落脚点。一系列开创性的理论与实践，系统性地回答了关于发展为了谁、发展依靠谁、发展成果由谁共享这一根本性问题，并且在实践层面真正践行了“江山就是人民，人民就是江山”的要求，彰显了科学社会主义在21世纪的强大真理力量。从世界维度看，科学社会主义还必须关注和解答关乎人类未来的全球性课题，即“世界怎么了、我们怎么办” 的世界之问。在这一点上，中国式现代化深刻把握“两个大局”交织互动的时代大势，系统回应了世界之变、时代之变、历史之变。在社会主义与资本主义长期并存的历史进程中，中国式现代化以实践成效彰显了中国特色社会主义的制度优势，深刻揭示了资本主义体系的内在矛盾与历史局限，“打破了‘现代化=西方化’的迷思，展现了现代化的另一幅图景” 。一句话，中国式现代化始终致力于回应和解答这些关乎中国前途命运和人类未来发展的重大时代课题，这正是其开辟了科学社会主义新形态的原因所在。

3. Chinese-Path Modernization Endows Scientific Socialism with New Characteristics

3.中国式现代化赋予科学社会主义以新特征

Chinese-path modernization not only solves major difficulties and responds to epochal questions but also, in practical exploration, injects a series of identifying new qualities into scientific socialism. At the level of path innovation, Chinese-path modernization unprecedentedly integrates upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China, realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics into an indivisible whole. The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the fundamental political guarantee for the great cause of national rejuvenation; realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the greatest dream of the Chinese nation since modern times and the goal of Chinese-path modernization; upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics is the only correct path to realize national rejuvenation. These three are interconnected and mutually reinforcing, forming an internally unified logical whole. "The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the broad avenue for contemporary China to catch up with the times and lead the times in development." The successful practice of this path proves that, under the strong leadership of the Party, the socialist cause and the great cause of national rejuvenation can achieve a historic unity, injecting strong confidence into the world socialist movement.

中国式现代化不仅破解了重大难题、回应了时代课题，更在实践探索中为科学社会主义注入了一系列具有标识性的新特质。在道路创新层面，中国式现代化前所未有地将坚持中国共产党领导、实现中华民族伟大复兴、坚持和发展中国特色社会主义三者有机统一为一个不可分割的整体。中国共产党领导是中国特色社会主义最本质的特征，是民族复兴伟业的根本政治保证；实现中华民族伟大复兴是近代以来中华民族最伟大的梦想，是中国式现代化的奋斗目标；坚持和发展中国特色社会主义是实现民族复兴的唯一正确道路。三者相互贯通、相互促进，构成了一个内在统一的逻辑整体。“中国特色社会主义道路是当代中国大踏步赶上时代、引领时代发展的康庄大道” 。这条道路的成功实践，证明了在党的坚强领导下，社会主义事业与民族复兴伟业能够实现历史性统一，为世界社会主义运动注入了强大的信心。

At the level of theoretical innovation, Chinese-path modernization has achieved an unprecedented deep integration of the fundamental principles of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the finest traditional Chinese culture. This integration is not a simple physical superposition but a profound chemical reaction, endowing the Party’s innovative theory with a distinct Chinese style and contemporary character. The “First Integration” [n20] emphasizes that Marxism must be rooted in China’s national conditions and concrete practice, so that the truth-force of Marxism is verified in the concrete practice of solving China’s problems, ensuring that the socialist cause always advances in the correct direction. The “Second Integration” [n21] breaks through the traditional horizon, incorporating the wisdom essence of Chinese civilization into the Marxist theoretical system. It not only provides rich historical and cultural nourishment for the Party’s innovative theory, giving it a distinct Chinese style and Chinese manner, but also activates the modern vitality of the finest traditional Chinese culture. The two are organically unified, jointly constructing the cultural form and theoretical foundation of Chinese-path modernization, manifesting the high cultural consciousness and confidence in the theory of the Communist Party of China. The “Two Integrations” [n22] enable the truth-force of scientific socialism to gain new nourishment and forms of expression in the deep soil of Chinese civilization, greatly deepening our understanding of the laws governing the Communist Party’s governance, the laws of socialist construction, and the laws of human social development, injecting new contemporary connotations and strong vitality into scientific socialism.

在理论创新层面，中国式现代化前所未有地实现了将马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际、同中华优秀传统文化的深度结合。这一结合不是简单的物理叠加，而是深刻的化学反应，赋予党的创新理论以鲜明的中国风格和时代特色。“第一个结合”强调马克思主义必须立足于中国国情与具体实践，使马克思主义的真理力量在解决中国问题的具体实践中得到验证，确保了社会主义事业始终沿着正确方向前进。“第二个结合”则突破了传统视域，将中华文明的智慧精华融入马克思主义理论体系，不仅为党的创新理论提供了丰厚的历史文化滋养，使其具有鲜明的中国风格与中国气派，更激活了中华优秀传统文化的现代生命力。两者有机统一，共同构筑了中国式现代化的文化形态与理论根基，彰显了中国共产党高度的文化自觉与理论自信。“两个结合”使科学社会主义的真理力量在中华文明的深厚土壤中获得了新的滋养和表达形式，极大地深化了我们对共产党执政规律、社会主义建设规律、人类社会发展规律的认识，为科学社会主义注入了新的时代内涵和强大生机活力。

At the level of institutional innovation, Chinese-path modernization has successfully constructed a uniquely distinctive and effective socialist system. In the economic sphere, it transcends the traditional binary opposition between “free market” and “state planning,” creatively establishing a socialist market economy system. The core of this system lies in upholding the dominance of public ownership and the common development of multiple forms of ownership, upholding the dominance of distribution according to work and the coexistence of multiple modes of distribution, giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation while better playing the role of the government, effectively overcoming market failures, preventing the disorderly expansion of capital, and guiding the market to serve the national development strategy and the people’s well-being. In the political sphere, it upholds the organic unity of Party leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and law-based governance, develops whole-process people’s democracy, and constructs a set of political institutional arrangements that can ensure long-term national stability, concentrate resources to accomplish major tasks, and effectively safeguard the fundamental interests of the people. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics “provides a strong guarantee for liberating and developing the social productive forces, liberating and enhancing social vitality, and forever maintaining the vitality of the Party and the state; provides a strong guarantee for maintaining overall social stability, ensuring the people’s peaceful life, and ensuring national security; and continuously establishes dynamic institutional mechanisms to let all factors of labor, knowledge, technology, management, capital, etc., compete to unleash their vitality, and let all sources of social wealth flow fully,” [n23] realizing a major institutional innovation of scientific socialism.

在制度创新层面，中国式现代化成功构建了一套独具特色、富有成效的社会主义制度体系。在经济领域，它超越了传统“自由市场”和“国家计划”的二元对立，创造性地建立了社会主义市场经济体制。这一体制的核心在于坚持公有制为主体、多种所有制经济共同发展，坚持按劳分配为主体、多种分配方式并存，充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用，同时更好发挥政府作用，有效克服了市场失灵，防止了资本无序扩张，引导市场为国家发展战略和人民福祉服务。在政治领域，它坚持党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国有机统一，发展全过程人民民主，构建了一套能够保证国家长期稳定、集中力量办大事、有效维护人民根本利益的政治制度安排。中国特色社会主义制度“为解放和发展社会生产力、解放和增强社会活力、永葆党和国家生机活力提供了有力保证，为保持社会大局稳定、保证人民安居乐业、保障国家安全提供了有力保证，为放手让一切劳动、知识、技术、管理、资本等要素的活力竞相迸发，让一切创造社会财富的源泉充分涌流不断建立了充满活力的体制机制” ，实现了科学社会主义的重大制度创新。

At the level of cultural innovation, Chinese-path modernization, through the “Second Integration,” has created a “new cultural life entity.” The “Second Integration” activates the excellent genes of Chinese civilization, endows them with new contemporary vitality, consolidates cultural subjectivity, and provides a solid cultural foundation and spiritual support for Chinese-path modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out, “The result of ‘integration’ is mutual achievement,” “creating an organic and unified new cultural life entity.” [n24] The new cultural life entity both adheres to the soul of Marxism and the root of the finest traditional Chinese culture, and actively absorbs and draws on all beneficial achievements of human civilization, exhibiting the distinctive characteristics of openness, inclusiveness, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. It is the concentrated manifestation in the cultural sphere of the new form of human civilization created by Chinese-path modernization, providing cultural solutions and value concepts imbued with Chinese wisdom for solving common problems faced by humanity, greatly enhancing the influence and appeal of Chinese civilization on the international stage, and profoundly embodying the cultural characteristics of the new form of scientific socialism.

在文化创新层面，中国式现代化以“第二个结合”创造了“新的文化生命体”。“第二个结合”激活了中华文明的优秀基因，赋予其新的时代生命力，巩固了文化主体性，为中国式现代化提供了坚实的文化根基和精神支撑。习近平总书记指出，“‘结合’的结果是互相成就”，“造就了一个有机统一的新的文化生命体” 。新的文化生命体，既坚守马克思主义的魂脉和中华优秀传统文化的根脉，又积极吸收借鉴人类文明一切有益成果，展现出开放包容、守正创新的鲜明特质，是中国式现代化所创造的人类文明新形态在文化领域的集中体现，为解决人类面临的共同问题提供了蕴含中国智慧的文化方案和价值理念，极大增强了中华文明在国际舞台上的影响力和感召力，深刻体现了科学社会主义新形态的文化特征。

III. Constructing an Independent Knowledge System of Twenty-First-Century Scientific Socialism

三、建构二十一世纪科学社会主义自主知识体系

General Secretary Xi Jinping points out, “We must accelerate the construction of a Chinese discourse and Chinese narrative system, explain Chinese practice with Chinese theory, and elevate Chinese practice into Chinese theory.” [n25] “According to the principles of general narratology and contemporary narratology, as long as it possesses the two elements of discourse expression (narration) and events, a narrative can be constituted.” [n26] From the perspective of disciplinary development, narratology is a recent discipline, but because of scientific socialism’s self-definition of intervening in reality, reflection on narrative runs through the development of scientific socialism. For this very reason, the narrative characteristics of scientific socialism coincide with the new achievements of narratology. Narratology holds that the significance of narrative lies not only in the form of storytelling, but also in the value identification brought by narrative, which can consolidate dispersed individual forces and form an “inconceivable force” that influences social development. [n27] The “narrative” of scientific socialism refers to a kind of intellectual practice that organizes experience, interprets reality, and constructs meaning through a specific discourse system. By setting core themes, logical frameworks, and value orientations, it enables theory not only to possess the cognitive function of explaining the world, but also to possess the normative function of mobilizing practice and shaping identity. In this sense, the narrative of scientific socialism has dual meanings: factuality and normativity. From the factual perspective, through the analysis of the capitalist social form, scientific socialism clarifies the inevitability of the outbreak of capitalist crises: “The modern bourgeois society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.” [n28] From the normative perspective, scientific socialism does not understand history as a subjectless natural process, but profoundly elaborates the possibility of the proletariat as a revolutionary subject opening the next historical stage. It advocates that the Communist Party should “form the proletariat into a class, overthrow the bourgeois supremacy, and conquer political power by the proletariat,” [n29] and ultimately establish a “union of free individuals.” [n30]

习近平总书记指出，“要加快构建中国话语和中国叙事体系，用中国理论阐释中国实践，用中国实践升华中国理论” 。“按照一般叙事学（Narratology）和当代叙事学的原则，凡是具备话语表达（叙述）和事件两个要素，就可以构成叙事（Narrative）。” 从学科发展上来说，叙事学是一个晚近的学科，但由于科学社会主义介入现实的自我设定，对叙事的思考贯穿于科学社会主义的发展之中，也正因如此，科学社会主义叙事特征与叙事学的新成果不谋而合。叙事学认为，叙事的意义不仅仅在于讲述的形式，更在于叙事带来的价值认同能凝聚起分散的个人力量，形成影响社会发展的“不可思议之力” 。而科学社会主义之“叙事”是指一种通过特定话语体系组织经验、阐释现实并建构意义的思想实践。它通过设定核心主题、逻辑框架与价值导向，使理论不仅具备解释世界的认知功能，更具备动员实践、塑造认同的规范功能。在这个意义上，科学社会主义的叙事具有事实性与规范性双重意义。从事实性角度来说，科学社会主义通过对资本主义社会形式的分析，明确了资本主义危机爆发的必然性，“这个曾经仿佛用法术创造了如此庞大的生产资料和交换手段的现代资产阶级社会，现在像一个魔法师一样不能再支配自己用法术呼唤出来的魔鬼了” 。从规范性角度来说，科学社会主义没有将历史理解为一种无主体的自然过程，而是深刻阐发了无产阶级作为革命主体开辟下一个历史阶段的可能。主张共产党应当“使无产阶级形成为阶级，推翻资产阶级的统治，由无产阶级夺取政权” ，并最终建立一个“自由人的联合体”。

The era is the mother of thought. The new form of scientific socialism calls for a corresponding new narrative. The “factual-normative” narrative framework of scientific socialism constitutes the basic framework for the elaboration of its new narrative. However, “our position in discussing socialism today is not simply to return to Marx’s original context and conditions to reaffirm socialism, but to use the socialist standpoint to inquire into how the epochal changes in existing social existence can become conditions for social self-transformation.” [n31] As discussed above, Chinese-path modernization has already brought fundamental impacts on the world situation and the development of scientific socialism. Chinese-path modernization has become the most important “independent variable” in the changes unseen in a century; the new form of scientific socialism opened up by Chinese-path modernization has become the latest main trunk in the development process of scientific socialism. Therefore, the narrative development of scientific socialism needs to achieve a historical integration with the self-narrative of Chinese-path modernization. The new narrative of scientific socialism needs to be concretized into the construction of an independent knowledge system of Chinese scientific socialism. In this sense, it is necessary to reflect on many issues in promoting the construction of an independent knowledge system of Chinese scientific socialism, especially to conduct in-depth research on the specific context, specific methods, and main focal points of constructing the knowledge system of scientific socialism, thereby providing a better theoretical premise for constructing an independent knowledge system of Chinese scientific socialism.

时代是思想之母。科学社会主义的全新形态呼唤着与之相对应的新叙事。科学社会主义“事实性—规范性”的叙事框架构成了其新叙事阐发的基本框架。但是，“我们今天讨论社会主义的立场，不是要简单地回到马克思当初的语境和条件中去重申社会主义，而是要以社会主义的立场去追问现有社会存在的哪些时代变化如何能够成为社会自我变革的条件” 。如前文所述，中国式现代化已经对世界局势和科学社会主义发展带来根本性影响，中国式现代化成为世界百年未有之大变局中最主要的“自变量”、中国式现代化所开辟的科学社会主义新形态成为科学社会主义发展历程中的最新主干。因此，科学社会主义的叙事发展需要与中国式现代化的自身叙事实现历史性交融，科学社会主义的新叙事需要具体化为中国科学社会主义自主知识体系的建构。在这个意义上，有必要思考推进中国科学社会主义自主知识体系建构的诸多问题，尤其要在建构科学社会主义知识体系的具体语境、具体方法和主要着力点等方面作出深入研究，从而为建构中国自主的科学社会主义知识体系提供更好的理论前提。

1. The Context for Constructing an Independent Knowledge System of Chinese Scientific Socialism

1.建构中国科学社会主义自主知识体系的语境

Constructing an independent knowledge system of Chinese scientific socialism carries profound historical inevitability and practical urgency in the twenty-first century. First, its necessity derives from the overall strategic requirement of building a disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse system for philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “To accelerate the construction of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics is, in the final analysis, to construct China’s independent knowledge system.” [32]32 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences,” April 2022. As the core component of the Marxist theoretical system, scientific socialism’s construction of an independent knowledge system is the foundational link and key support for this grand project. Without an independent knowledge system for the discipline of scientific socialism, the edifice of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics cannot be firmly established. Second, the internal laws of disciplinary development also impose an urgent demand. In recent years, important disciplines in the domestic field of philosophy and social sciences, such as first-level disciplines like economics, political science, law, and sociology, have all taken the lead in exploring and constructing their own independent knowledge systems. This momentum of advancing from individual points to the whole and pushing forward comprehensively makes the research and construction of an independent knowledge system for the discipline of scientific socialism, an important pillar of Marxist theory, particularly necessary and urgent. Only by establishing a system of concepts, categories, theories, and discourse rooted in Chinese practice and possessing originality can we more effectively interpret the Chinese path, explain Chinese practice, and disseminate Chinese experience, thereby shedding excessive dependence on Western academic paradigms and firmly grasping the power of discourse and leadership in the ideological domain.

建构中国科学社会主义自主知识体系，在21世纪具有深刻的历史必然性和现实紧迫性。首先，其必要性源于建构中国特色哲学社会科学学科体系、学术体系、话语体系的整体战略要求。习近平总书记指出：“加快构建中国特色哲学社会科学，归根结底是建构中国自主的知识体系。” 科学社会主义作为马克思主义理论体系的核心组成部分，其自主知识体系的建设是这一宏大工程的基础性环节和关键支撑点。没有科学社会主义学科的自主知识体系，中国特色哲学社会科学的大厦就难以稳固。其次，学科发展的内在规律也对其提出了迫切要求。近年来，国内哲学社会科学领域的重要学科，如经济学、政治学、法学、社会学等一级学科，都已率先展开对本学科自主知识体系的探索与建构。这种由点到面、整体推进的态势，使得作为马克思主义理论重要支柱的科学社会主义学科，其自主知识体系的研究与建构显得尤为必要和紧迫。只有建立起植根中国实践、具有原创性的科学社会主义概念、范畴、理论和话语体系，才能更有效地阐释中国道路、解读中国实践、传播中国经验，摆脱对西方学术范式的过度依赖，牢牢掌握意识形态领域的话语权和主导权。

Constructing an independent knowledge system of Chinese scientific socialism is not only necessary but also possesses an unprecedented solid foundation and mature conditions in contemporary China. On the one hand, the development of scientific socialism over more than 170 years since its founding has undergone exploration from theory to practice and from one country to many countries, accumulating extremely valuable theoretical achievements and practical experience, providing profound scholarly resources for knowledge innovation. On the other hand, and more fundamentally, it is the entirely new situation created by the entry of socialism with Chinese characteristics into the New Era. The great achievements of the New Era have convincingly demonstrated the significant advantages of the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. China has successfully blazed a new path to modernization different from the Western model. The most grand and unique practical innovation in human history that China is currently undergoing provides an inexhaustible source and powerful driving force for theoretical creation. It can be said that a new form of scientific socialism that has successfully taken root in Chinese soil and demonstrated strong vitality has already taken shape and is increasingly maturing. This vibrant and successful socialist practice provides the most solid and richest practical basis and theoretical growth points for constructing an independent knowledge system of scientific socialism with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese manner. This gives us full confidence and capability to fulfill the theoretical construction mission entrusted to us by the times.

建构中国科学社会主义自主知识体系不仅必要，而且在当代中国具备了前所未有的坚实基础和成熟条件。一方面，科学社会主义自创立至今170多年的发展历程，经历了从理论到实践、从一国到多国的探索，积累了极为宝贵的理论成果和实践经验，为知识创新提供了深厚的学理资源。另一方面，也是更为根本的，是中国特色社会主义进入新时代所开创的崭新局面。新时代的伟大成就雄辩地证明了中国特色社会主义道路、理论、制度、文化的显著优势。中国成功走出了一条不同于西方模式的现代化新路，中国正在经历的这场人类历史上最为宏大而独特的实践创新，为理论创造提供了不竭的源泉和强大的动力。可以说，一种成功扎根于中国大地、展现出强大生命力的新型科学社会主义形态已经形成并日益成熟。这一鲜活的、成功的社会主义实践，为我们建构具有中国特色、中国风格、中国气派的科学社会主义自主知识体系，提供了最为坚实、最为丰富的现实依据和理论生长点。这使我们完全有信心、有能力完成这一时代赋予的理论建构使命。

2. Basic Methods for Constructing an Independent Knowledge System of Chinese Scientific Socialism

2.建构中国科学社会主义自主知识体系的基本方法

Constructing an independent knowledge system of Chinese scientific socialism must adhere to and apply scientific methodological principles. This construction process is not a simple theoretical transplantation or discourse transformation; rather, it requires following the basic methods of unifying critique and construction, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, and subjectivity and openness. These methods embody the stance, viewpoint, and method of Marxism and are important guidelines for promoting theoretical innovation.

建构中国科学社会主义自主知识体系，必须坚持和运用科学的方法论原则。这一建构过程不是简单的理论移植或话语转换，而是需要遵循批判与建构相统一、守正与创新相统一、主体性与开放性相统一的基本方法。这些方法体现了马克思主义的立场观点方法，是推动理论创新的重要遵循。

Adhering to the unity of critique and construction means properly handling the relationship between breaking down and building up. On the one hand, we must uphold the Marxist spirit of critique, deeply analyze the deep-seated contradictions and structural crises of contemporary capitalism, clearly recognize the theoretical drawbacks and practical harms of neoliberalism, and effectively identify and dismantle the ideological traps and narrative hegemony hidden within Western discourse systems. On the other hand, we must more firmly prioritize building up, focusing our efforts on constructive work. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes, “We must be adept at refining identifying concepts and creating new concepts, new categories, and new expressions that are easily understood and accepted by the international community.” [33]33 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences,” May 2016. The independent knowledge system of scientific socialism must strive to construct a systematic and scholarly discourse system capable of clearly explaining the Chinese path, Chinese theory, Chinese system, and Chinese culture, using Chinese theory to interpret Chinese practice and Chinese discourse to tell Chinese stories.

坚持批判与建构相统一，就是要处理好破与立的关系。一方面，我们要坚持马克思主义批判精神，深刻剖析当代资本主义的深层矛盾和结构性危机，清醒认识新自由主义的理论弊端和实践危害，有效辨识和破除西方话语体系中隐藏的意识形态陷阱和叙事霸权。另一方面，我们更要坚持以立为主，把重点放在建设性工作上。习近平总书记强调，“要善于提炼标识性概念，打造易于为国际社会所理解和接受的新概念、新范畴、新表述” 。科学社会主义自主知识体系要着力建构起能够清晰阐释中国道路、中国理论、中国制度、中国文化的系统性、学理性话语体系，用中国理论解读中国实践，用中国话语讲述中国故事。

Adhering to the unity of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground means properly handling the relationship between inheritance and development. Upholding fundamental principles means steadfastly adhering to the basic principles of scientific socialism without wavering, upholding the Party’s overall leadership without ambiguity, and adhering to the fundamental socialist system without change. This is the fundamental prerequisite and political direction for constructing the independent knowledge system of scientific socialism. Breaking new ground means keeping pace with the times and courageously advancing theoretical and practical innovation. We must focus on innovation in concepts, categories, paradigms, and modes of expression, continuously enriching and developing the theoretical connotation and forms of expression of scientific socialism. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out, “Adhere to emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, and better unify upholding Marxism with developing Marxism.” [34]34 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China,” July 2021. We must maintain the correct direction while upholding fundamental principles and achieve theoretical breakthroughs through innovation, so that the knowledge system of scientific socialism retains the theoretical essence of Marxism while being full of the spirit of the times and innovative vitality.

坚持守正与创新相统一，就是要处理好继承与发展的关系。守正就是要坚守科学社会主义的基本原则不动摇，坚持党的全面领导不含糊，坚持社会主义根本制度不改变。这是建构科学社会主义自主知识体系的根本前提和政治方向。创新就是要与时俱进，勇于推进理论创新和实践创新。我们要聚焦概念创新、范畴创新、范式创新和表达方式创新，不断丰富和发展科学社会主义的理论内涵和表现形式。习近平总书记指出，“坚持解放思想、实事求是、守正创新，更好把坚持马克思主义和发展马克思主义统一起来” 。我们要在守正中保持正确方向，在创新中实现理论突破，使科学社会主义知识体系既保持马克思主义的理论本色，又充满时代气息和创新活力。

Adhering to the unity of subjectivity and openness means properly handling the relationship between Chinese characteristics and a global vision. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes, “Focusing on the major issues facing China’s and the world’s development, strive to put forward concepts, propositions, and solutions that embody China’s stance, China’s wisdom, and China’s values.” [35]35 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences,” May 2016. Constructing the independent knowledge system of scientific socialism must adhere to a subjective stance, base itself on China’s actual conditions, focus on China’s problems, summarize China’s experience, and form theoretical achievements with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese manner. At the same time, we must also possess an open and inclusive mindset, actively participate in international academic dialogue, proactively set agendas, and be adept at making China’s voice heard and contributing China’s wisdom in discussions on global issues. Particularly in the process of promoting and implementing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, [36]36 These four initiatives were proposed by Xi Jinping between 2021 and 2023, covering development, security, civilization, and global governance, as part of China’s foreign policy framework. we must strengthen theoretical research and discourse construction from the perspective of scientific socialism, enhancing the persuasiveness and influence of China’s narrative through exchange and mutual learning.

坚持主体性与开放性相统一，就是要处理好中国特色与世界眼光的关系。习近平总书记强调，“要围绕我国和世界发展面临的重大问题，着力提出能够体现中国立场、中国智慧、中国价值的理念、主张、方案” 。建构科学社会主义自主知识体系必须坚持主体性立场，立足中国实际，聚焦中国问题，总结中国经验，形成具有中国特色、中国风格、中国气派的理论成果。同时，我们也要具备开放包容的胸怀，积极参与国际学术对话，主动设置议题，善于在全球议题讨论中发出中国声音，贡献中国智慧。特别是在推动落实全球发展倡议、全球安全倡议、全球文明倡议、全球治理倡议的过程中，要加强科学社会主义视角的理论研究和话语构建，在交流互鉴中提升中国叙事的说服力和影响力。

3. Focal Points for Constructing an Independent Knowledge System of Chinese Scientific Socialism

3.建构中国科学社会主义自主知识体系的着力点

Constructing an independent knowledge system of Chinese scientific socialism must closely focus on key areas and frontier issues affecting the development of contemporary socialism, conducting in-depth research. Its focal points should be concentrated on three aspects.

建构中国科学社会主义自主知识体系，必须紧紧围绕影响当代社会主义发展的关键领域和前沿问题展开深入研究，其着力点应聚焦在三个方面。

First, it is necessary to focus on the new spaces and new possibilities opened up for the development of scientific socialism by the great practice of Chinese-path modernization. “Since the founding of the People’s Republic, and especially since reform and opening up, China has undergone profound changes. The Chinese people, who are in the midst of this historic transformation, are more qualified and more capable of revealing the historical experience and laws of development contained therein, and of making China’s original contributions to the development of Marxism.” [37]37 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Symposium on the Work of Philosophy and the Social Sciences” (17 May 2016). The successful advancement of Chinese-path modernization is one of the largest-scale and most unique social practices in human history. The historic achievements it has made, the valuable experience it has accumulated, the institutional advantages it has demonstrated, and the new concepts concerning the path of modernization that it contains have all injected robust vitality and dynamism into the development of scientific socialism in the twenty-first century. “Chinese-path modernization is deeply rooted in fine traditional Chinese culture, embodies the advanced essence of scientific socialism, draws upon and absorbs all outstanding achievements of human civilization, represents the direction of progress of human civilization, and presents a new picture different from the Western model of modernization.” [38]38 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Opening Ceremony of a Seminar on the Study and Implementation of the Spirit of the 20th National Congress of the CPC” (7 February 2023). To construct an independent knowledge system of scientific socialism, it is necessary to systematically explain how Chinese-path modernization, through its unique practical logic, answers the historic question of how socialism can achieve modernization in a large developing country, how it overcomes the inherent defects of capitalist modernization, and how it successfully opens up a new realm for socialist development under conditions of relative economic and cultural backwardness. The new breakthroughs, new experiences, and new concepts that Chinese-path modernization has brought to scientific socialism in both theory and practice constitute the most direct, richest, and most convincing practical source for constructing an independent knowledge system. In-depth research into these new possibilities is of decisive significance for enriching and developing the theory of scientific socialism and enhancing its explanatory power and guiding force.

其一，需要重点研究中国式现代化伟大实践为科学社会主义发展开辟的新空间与新可能。“新中国成立以来特别是改革开放以来，中国发生了深刻变革，置身这一历史巨变之中的中国人更有资格、更有能力揭示其中所蕴含的历史经验和发展规律，为发展马克思主义作出中国的原创性贡献。” 中国式现代化的成功推进，是人类历史上规模最大、最为独特的社会实践之一。它所取得的历史性成就、积累的宝贵经验、展现的制度优势，以及蕴含的关于现代化路径的新理念，都为科学社会主义在21世纪的发展注入了强大生机与活力。“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” 。建构科学社会主义自主知识体系，必须系统阐释中国式现代化如何以其独特的实践逻辑，回答社会主义在发展中大国如何实现现代化的历史性课题，如何克服资本主义现代化固有的弊端，如何在经济文化相对落后的条件下成功开辟社会主义发展新境界。中国式现代化为科学社会主义在理论和实践上带来的新突破、新经验、新理念，是建构自主知识体系最直接、最丰富、最具说服力的现实源泉。深入研究这些新可能，对于丰富和发展科学社会主义理论，增强其解释力、引领力具有决定性意义。

Second, it is necessary to focus on the profound changes brought about by the revolution in science and technology and their social impact. The new round of technological revolution, represented by digital productive forces, artificial intelligence, and the like, is comprehensively reshaping labor methods, relations of production, social structure, models of state governance, and the ideological sphere. Faced with these profound changes, the construction of an independent knowledge system of scientific socialism must answer a core question: under the socialist system, how can the development of science and technology be effectively guided to serve the all-round development of the people and social progress? The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC [39]39 The 20th National Congress of the CPC was held in October 2022. clearly requires “upholding the core position of innovation in the overall picture of China’s modernization.” [40]40 Xi Jinping, “Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects – Report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC” (16 October 2022). The independent knowledge system of scientific socialism should deeply explore how, while developing science and technology, to effectively avoid the negative effects that technology may bring—for example, bridging the “digital divide” between different groups, preventing technologies such as algorithmic recommendation from forming new forms of social control and power monopoly, ensuring that the fruits of technological progress benefit all the people, putting into practice the socialist value orientation of serving the people through science and technology, and ensuring that the achievements of scientific and technological innovation are ultimately used to meet the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.

其二，需要重点关注科学技术革命带来的深刻变革及其社会影响。以数字生产力、人工智能等为代表的新一轮科技革命，正在全方位重塑劳动方式、生产关系、社会结构、国家治理模式和意识形态领域。面对这些深刻变化，科学社会主义自主知识体系的建构必须回答一个核心问题：在社会主义制度下，如何有效引导科技发展服务于人的全面发展和社会进步？党的二十大报告明确要求，“坚持创新在我国现代化建设全局中的核心地位” 。科学社会主义自主知识体系应当深入探索如何在发展科技的同时有效规避技术可能带来的负面效应，例如弥合不同群体间的“数字鸿沟”，防止算法推荐等技术形成新的社会控制和权力垄断，确保技术进步的成果惠及全体人民，将科技为人民服务这一社会主义价值导向落到实处，确保科技创新成果最终用于满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要。

Third, it is necessary to continuously and deeply analyze the new changes and new characteristics occurring in contemporary capitalism. “The world pattern is in a historical process of accelerated evolution, generating a large number of profound and complex practical problems and raising a large number of theoretical issues that urgently need to be answered. This requires us to strengthen our research on contemporary capitalism, analyze and grasp the various changes that have occurred and their essence, and deepen our understanding of the laws governing the profound and complex changes in capitalism and international political and economic relations.” [41]41 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Symposium on the Work of Philosophy and the Social Sciences” (17 May 2016). At present, capitalism exhibits the characteristic of “financialization,” in which financial capital is excessively inflated and the virtual economy is seriously disconnected from the real economy; the process of economic globalization, while deepening, also encounters “reversal” forces such as protectionism and unilateralism; the unfair distribution of social wealth continues to intensify, social contradictions sharpen, and populist trends of thought rise; the effectiveness of traditional governance models declines, state capacity weakens, and institutional crises occur frequently. The construction of an independent knowledge system of scientific socialism must profoundly reveal what these new changes mean for the capitalist system and for the world socialist movement. At the same time, it is necessary to scientifically analyze the powerlessness of the capitalist system in responding to common challenges such as global climate change and economic and financial crises, as well as the hypocrisy of its policy propositions, thereby providing a powerful critical basis for a “new narrative” of scientific socialism and highlighting the contemporary value of socialism in its commitment to peaceful development for humanity and the promotion of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

其三，需要持续深入分析当代资本主义发生的新变化与新特征。“世界格局正处在加快演变的历史进程之中，产生了大量深刻复杂的现实问题，提出了大量亟待回答的理论课题。这就需要我们加强对当代资本主义的研究，分析把握其出现的各种变化及其本质，深化对资本主义和国际政治经济关系深刻复杂变化的规律性认识。” 当前，资本主义呈现出金融资本过度膨胀、虚拟经济与实体经济严重脱节的“金融化”特征；经济全球化进程在深化发展的同时也遭遇保护主义、单边主义等“逆转”力量；社会财富分配不公持续加剧，社会矛盾激化，民粹主义思潮兴起；传统治理模式效能衰减，国家能力下降，制度性危机频发。科学社会主义自主知识体系的建构有必要深刻揭示这些新变化对资本主义体系、对世界社会主义运动意味着什么。同时，要科学分析资本主义体系在应对诸如全球气候变化、经济金融危机等共同挑战时的无力感以及其政策主张的虚伪性，为科学社会主义的“新叙事”提供有力的批判性依据，彰显社会主义致力于人类和平发展、推动构建人类命运共同体的时代价值。

Conclusion

结语

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes: “The success of scientific socialism in China is of great significance to Marxism, to scientific socialism, and to world socialism.” [42]42 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China” (1 July 2021). Over the past hundred-odd years, Chinese Communists, through generation after generation of pioneering and enterprising efforts, have achieved the most extensive and profound social transformation in the history of the Chinese nation, formed the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and inaugurated a new form of scientific socialism. This new form not only provides a new version of modern human civilization but also represents a major revolution in the science of human history. This requires us to profoundly grasp the spatiotemporal orientation of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era, fully recognize the historic significance of comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization, and, in actively responding to the questions of China, the world, the people, and the times, forge a “Chinese sample” of scientific socialism oriented toward the twenty-first century, making it a mainstay of human liberation and civilizational progress.

习近平总书记强调：“科学社会主义在中国的成功，对马克思主义、科学社会主义的意义，对世界社会主义的意义，是十分重大的。” 百余年来，中国共产党人在一代代的开拓进取中实现了中华民族有史以来最为广泛而深刻的社会变革，形成了中国特色社会主义道路、理论、制度和文化，开创了科学社会主义的新形态。这一新形态既提供了一种人类现代文明的新版本，也代表着一场人类历史科学的重大革命。这要求我们深刻把握住新时代中国特色社会主义的时空方位，充分认识到以中国式现代化全面推进强国建设、民族复兴伟业的历史意义，在积极回应中国之问、世界之问、人民之问、时代之问中，打造面向21世纪的科学社会主义“中国样本”，使之成为人类解放和文明进步的中流砥柱。