On modernization with a huge population.
The 14th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development in People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Outline of Long-term Goals in 2035 put forward the long-term goal of basically realizing socialist modernization in China by 2035, which is bound to be a major event in the history of human civilization. As a big country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, an important feature of our modernization is the modernization with a huge population.
Up to now, the total population of the so-called developed countries in the world, which can be called rich days, adds up to only 1 billion people, and their rich life has been bought after hundreds of years of industrialization and consumption of a lot of non-renewable resources. It took only a few decades for our country to let more than 1.4 billion people live a relatively rich life. In the great practice of continuously promoting socialist modernization, the arduous task of eliminating absolute poverty has been completed, and more than 400 million middle-income people have been cultivated. The people’s quality of life has improved significantly, the society has maintained harmony and stability, the national governance system and governance capacity have reached new heights, and the development achievements have attracted worldwide attention. It should be noted that the modernization of China, the largest developing country in the world, means that more people in China than the combined population of all developed countries will enter the ranks of modernization, which will completely rewrite the modern world map and will surely become an unprecedented feat in human history.
People-centered modernization
Looking back on the course of human modernization, for a long time, when people talk about modernization, they refer more to industrialization or the industrialization and organization of economic activities, because in industrialized countries, people’s lives are mostly at the leading level in the world. So far, industrialized countries are limited to Western Europe, North America and a few newly industrialized countries and regions that emerged after World War II. It should be pointed out that the standard of modernization is not static, and its meaning will be enriched with the progress of the times. The modernization we are talking about today means not only industrialization or economic development, but also civilization and progress in politics, culture, society and ecology. Therefore, a modern country must not only have an advanced and civilized way of production and life, but also have a modern economic system, modern agriculture and rural areas, modern national governance system and governance capacity.
With a large population and a weak economic foundation, China has gone through the industrialization process of developed countries for hundreds of years, becoming a manufacturing power in the world, with the output of more than 200 kinds of industrial products such as steel, cement and automobiles ranking first in the world, and the people’s living standards have stepped onto a big step. The "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period is the first five years after China has built a well-off society in an all-round way and achieved the goal of the first century, and started a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and marched towards the goal of the second century. We are moving towards the goal of modernization as a whole.
What we should see is that the modernization pursued by our country is people-centered modernization. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that "the essence of modernization is human modernization". In fact, China’s modernization journey begins with giving priority to human development and investing heavily in education and health. When New China was founded, the illiterate population accounted for 80%, the enrollment rate of school-age children was only 20%, the status of women was low, epidemics and infectious diseases were rampant, and the average life expectancy was only 35 years. Under the leadership of the party, the state spared no effort to develop education, improve health and improve the status of women. By the time of reform and opening up, the enrollment rate of school-age children had reached 95.5%, and the crude illiteracy rate had dropped to 22.8% in 1982, eliminating epidemics and infectious diseases that greatly endangered people’s health, such as smallpox. Although China was still poor and backward in terms of economic indicators, it has achieved good results in terms of human development. In the early days of reform and opening up, China’s average life expectancy reached 67.8 years, close to the level of moderately developed countries at that time. It can be said that it is a major feature of Chinese modernization to promote economic development by promoting people’s all-round development.
The large population was not an advantage in the new China when it was just founded, but once became a "burden". With the improvement of education level, the improvement of health level, women’s equal participation in social affairs and the continuous growth of income level, China has experienced a transition from high birth, low death and high growth to low birth, low death and low growth in decades. The demographic transition and the continuous improvement of population quality have made the population rapidly change from "burden" to "wealth", and China has also changed from a country with a large population to a country with large human resources. In this process, China has gained a favorable period with a relatively high working-age population, coupled with the institutional dividend brought by reform and opening up, and the economy has taken off rapidly. From 1978 to 2020, the proportion of China’s GDP in the world economy increased from 1.8% to about 17%, and the average annual contribution rate to world economic growth was about 18%. In 2020, the per capita disposable income of residents was 32,189 yuan, which was several times higher than that in 1978. Now, China has become the world’s second largest economy, the largest industrial country, the largest commodity trading country and the largest foreign exchange reserve country, and its per capita GDP has exceeded 10,000 US dollars, and it is moving towards a high-income country.
At present, China is still the largest population in the world, but the population is no longer a burden, and it is constantly becoming a favorable factor for development. China is also moving from a big country with human resources to a strong country with further improvement of innovation ability and continuous enhancement of development potential. At present, the average education period of working-age population in China exceeds 10 years, and the gross enrollment rate of higher education is 54.4%; The average life expectancy is 77 years, which is roughly equivalent to the American level; The skill level of workers has improved rapidly, forming a team of skilled talents with growing scale, increasingly optimized structure and gradually improved quality. There are more than 200 million skilled workers, including more than 50 million highly skilled talents. The number of innovative talents is constantly expanding. Since the total number of R&D personnel surpassed that of the United States in 2013, it has ranked first in the world for several consecutive years, and the number of scientists and engineers is leading the world. All these advantages of human resources have injected lasting impetus into the high-quality development of China’s economy and provided a strong guarantee for accelerating modernization.
Valuable experience worth summing up
In China, a country with a huge economy and population, it is not easy for all people to join hands in modernization. China’s great achievements so far are inseparable from the strong leadership of the Party and the correct decision of the CPC Central Committee, and even more inseparable from the concerted efforts of Qi Xin, the people of the whole country. The following experiences are particularly worth cherishing.
First, adhere to the people’s interests first and people-centered development ideas. From the day of its establishment, the Communist Party of China (CPC) insisted on seeking happiness for the people of China and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation as its initial mission, and always took the realization, maintenance and development of the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people as the starting point and the end result of all work. Since the founding of New China, we have given priority to health and education. After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we accelerated the improvement of social security systems such as old-age care and medical care, quickly woven the world’s largest social security safety net, and people’s livelihood and well-being continued to improve. This development idea is different from the western development logic of maximizing short-term interests, which values the long-term interests of the people and does not care about short-term gains and losses. One of the most cherished experiences of China’s decades of development is to always adhere to the people’s interests first and people-centered development ideas. The people-centered development thought is the concise and sublimation of our party’s long-term great practice of governing the country, and our future development will gain more benefits from it.
Second, give full play to the superiority of the socialist system. Eliminating poverty, improving people’s livelihood and gradually realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism and the important mission of our party. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has put the fight against poverty in a prominent position in governing the country and organized a massive fight against poverty. At present, the battle against poverty has achieved a comprehensive victory. Under the current standards, 98.99 million rural poor people have all been lifted out of poverty, 832 poverty-stricken counties have all taken off their hats, and 128,000 poverty-stricken villages have all been listed. The overall poverty in the region has been solved, creating a miracle in history. China’s socialist system has the political advantage of being able to concentrate on doing great things. This advantage ensures that China can coordinate and handle the relations in all aspects and fields of modernization in an all-round way, enabling us to achieve breakthroughs in key areas such as important industries, infrastructure, strategic resources and major science and technology. In the face of major risks and challenges, this system can also protect people’s lives and property to the maximum extent. The major strategic achievements in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic are another example.
Third, establish a complete modern industrial system. China’s economic achievements today are not only reflected in the rapid growth, but also in the gradual establishment of a complete industrial system. To meet the needs of 1.4 billion people, we must have a complete industrial system instead of pinning our hopes entirely on the outside world. Agriculture is related to the survival of ordinary people. "China people’s rice bowls should be firmly in their own hands." At present, China is the largest producer of grain, meat and fruit in the world, which provides an important guarantee and support for China people to fill their rice bowls with high-quality China grain. Industry is the pillar of the national economy, the foundation of a strong country and related to national security. We have established the most complete industrial system in the world mainly by our own strength, which is an amazing achievement and has established a solid industrial foundation for promoting the modernization process.
Lead the new process of human civilization.
China has entered a new stage of development, and the huge population is the basic national condition of our country, which is also an important feature of Chinese modernization. We must see that a huge population size means a huge market and huge demand. At present, China’s population exceeds 1.4 billion, and the total GDP exceeds 100 trillion yuan, which has formed an ultra-large-scale market. Moreover, with the growth of income level, the market potential and influence will continue to expand, injecting inexhaustible power sources for the promotion of modernization.
In market economy, demand is the original driving force to promote economic growth. The super-large-scale market based on the population of 1.4 billion breeds diversified demand and hierarchical consumption, which is an important support for high-quality economic development. Super-large-scale market has strong toughness and elasticity, large room for maneuver and maneuver, and strong ability to resist external risks. Just like a ship sailing in the ocean, the greater the tonnage, the more stable it will be, and even the wind and waves can’t change its course. At the same time, the market is also the soil for innovation. The larger the scale, the stronger the ability to breed innovation. The population of Britain was less than 9 million in the first industrial revolution, and that of the United States was less than 80 million in the second industrial revolution, which cannot be compared with the market scale formed by China’s population of 1.4 billion today. Now, a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is booming, and China is changing from a chaser and follower in the past to a leader. The huge market can not only dilute the cost of innovation, but also improve the income of innovation, which also provides important support for China to become an important source of global innovation activities in the future.
In short, looking back at history, the Chinese nation has created world-famous scientific and technological achievements in the process of civilization development that has lasted for more than 5,000 years. Looking forward to the future, China’s modernization process will create new glories of human civilization. In 2013, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader put forward a major initiative to jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The "One Belt, One Road" initiative is becoming a Chinese plan for China to participate in global open cooperation, improve the global economic governance system, promote global common development and prosperity, and promote the building of a community of human destiny. In the future, China will step into modernization as a whole, advocate building the "Belt and Road" and build a new type of international relations and a community of human destiny, which will surely make the development achievements of China benefit all mankind again and lead the new process of human civilization.
