Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a crucial meeting that was held at a critical juncture when the CPC, the Chinese nation, and Chinese people of all ethnic groups embark on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects and advance toward the Second Centenary Goal.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, on behalf of the 19th CPC Central Committee, delivered to the Congress a report on October 16 entitled "Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects." Xi stressed on "striving in unity," making concerted efforts to create new historic achievements. It shows the overall political planning of China as a major civilized country, and the remarkable advantage of the national system to concentrate its forces on major affairs. 

Chinese modernization is a wide and long-lasting road. While the past several hundred years have shown that some capitalist Western powers can emerge as great powers, their development can hardly last long, and the Chinese modernization is the answer to achieving long-lasting development. 

Xi said that Chinese modernization is the modernization of a huge population, and of common prosperity for all. Meanwhile, it is the modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature, and of peaceful development. These are indicators of long-lasting development. 

Over the past decade, China has pooled its strength in improving people's living standards and thoroughly implementing the people-centered development philosophy. China has secured a complete victory in the battle against absolute poverty, eliminating overall and extreme poverty for the first time in its history of thousands of years. This has made significant contributions to the cause of global poverty reduction. China has also witnessed a historic leap in the level of education popularization. As for China's basic old-age insurance, a key program to ensure people's well-being after their retirement, the number of people covered by basic old-age insurance increased significantly, Xinhua reported in August. Housing conditions have also been significantly improved in shanty towns and rural areas. 

By promoting the development of ecological civilization, China's ecological and environmental protection has undergone drastic changes. By comprehensively advancing major power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, China calls on all countries to practice genuine multilateralism and oppose any hegemonic behavior and power politics. In the 10 years of the new era, by fully promoting the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and implementing the new development concept, China has realized the millennium dream of becoming a moderately prosperous society.

The CPC has united and led all the Chinese people to walk the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics through hardships, twists and turns and hard work. Therefore, the transcendence of China's socialist path is the wide and long-lasting road of Chinese modernization.

Chinese modernization also represents a new form of human civilization that promotes the common values of humanity.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics is highly compatible with Chinese civilization and tradition, which is the fundamental reason why socialism from Europe has flourished in China but achieved little in Europe. China has profound civilizational soil as well as political and social soil for socialist development, thus having realized the historical process of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The theme of self-confidence, self-reliance, and innovation listed in the report to the 20th CPC National Congress reflects cultural and institutional self-confidence. It comes not only from the confidence that Chinese modernization is rooted in Chinese traditional civilization, but also from a new form of human civilization that features Chinese modernization and socialism with Chinese characteristics. 

The new form of human civilization created by the CPC, with both ancient and modern wisdom, both Chinese and foreign wisdom, has comprehensively and successfully handled relations between tradition and modernity, and ties between China and foreign countries. It upholds the common value of humanity; it also integrates agricultural, industrial, digital and ecological civilization, providing a new civilization vision for the world.

Xie is director of the Research Center of Chinese Civilization and Chinese Path of the China Institute for Innovation & Development Strategy. Mu is a research staff member at the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn