Illustration: Xia Qing/ GT

The Communist Party of China (CPC) will convene the third plenary session of its 20th central committee on Monday in Beijing. The four-day plenum will primarily examine issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization. The focus of the third plenary session on "advancing Chinese modernization" reflects the current mission to comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization. It also highlights the profound goal of developing China into a great modern socialist country by the middle of the 21st century.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, pointed out that to understand China, the key lies in understanding Chinese modernization. By embarking on a Chinese path to modernization, China has made a historic transition from being dragged into Western modernization to leading the new wave of global modernization. 

Since the reform and opening-up policy was implemented, the CPC has been gradually and consistently working toward the goal of building a great modern socialist country. This goal has been continuously enriched and improved as the reform and opening-up process progresses. The relationship between advancing Chinese modernization and comprehensively deepening reforms is mutually reinforcing and mutually beneficial. On one hand, vigorously advancing Chinese modernization is not only the purpose of comprehensively deepening reforms, but also creates conditions and a solid foundation for further reforms.

On the other hand, advancing Chinese modernization is inseparable from comprehensively deepening reforms. By persisting in deepening reform and opening-up, further promoting reform and innovation, and unswervingly expanding opening-up, deep-seated institutional obstacles can be broken down. This highlights the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and enhances the power and vitality of Chinese modernization. This transformation of China's systematic advantages into national governance effectiveness is crucial for the country's development.

Everything has three major mechanisms: power, balance and adjustment. In the process of modernization and development, when momentum is insufficient and development is unbalanced, the ability of national governance and social governance is crucial. In the process of development, Chinese modernization focuses on giving full play to its advantages, making up for its shortcomings and laying solid foundations. This is fundamentally consistent with promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities. Therefore, from a dynamic perspective, Chinese modernization also follows the law of the unity of power, balance and governance.

There are essential differences between Chinese modernization and Western modernization. First, from the perspective of reality and national conditions, China's population is huge, which is even larger than the total population of Western developed countries. Second, Western modernization causes polarization, while Chinese modernization aims to achieve common prosperity. Third, Western modernization often seeks material development at the expense of spiritual civilization to a certain extent, while Chinese modernization is a modernization that harmonizes material civilization and spiritual civilization. Fourth, Western modernization often comes at the cost of destroying nature and endless depletion of nature,while Chinese modernization emphasizes the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature to achieve sustainable development. Finally, Western modernization is often achieved through war, plunder, colonial expansion and other brutal means, which are full of blood and evil, and bring severe suffering to the people of developing countries. However, Chinese modernization holds high the banner of peaceful development and win-win cooperation, pursuing its own development while insisting on safeguarding world peace and development. It better safeguards world peace and development through its own development.

Overall, Chinese modernization provides Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions for developing countries to realize modernization in terms of path, civilization, governance, values, value orientation and philosophical concepts. Specifically, Chinese modernization breaks the myth that modernization is equivalent to Westernization and provides new options for developing countries toward modernization.

At the cognitive level, developing countries should first clearly recognize their own specific conditions in the process of modernization, including culture and traditions, development stages, major social contradictions, fundamental problems and so forth, and find the development path that suits their actual conditions. At the ideological level, developing countries should abandon the self-centeredness in Western modernization thought, advocate the common values of all mankind in the process of modernization, and advocate the spirit of inclusiveness. As Chinese modernization emphasizes, human beings are the main subjects of promoting the development of modernization and enjoying the fruits of modernization. It is a win-win result. At the path level, developing countries need to improve their national and social governance capabilities.

Through these three levels, Chinese modernization provides developing countries with Chinese experience and contributes Chinese wisdom and strength to the global modernization process. The third plenary session of the 20th CPC central committee will open a new chapter in promoting Chinese modernization by comprehensively deepening reforms, injecting new impetus into Chinese modernization, and providing new impetus for mankind to achieve modernization.

The author is a professor at the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn