Experts gathered recently at a seminar to discuss the dialectical relationship between the changing international landscapes over the past century and the modernization of the national governance system and its governance capacity.

Lu Pingyue, a professor from the School of Marxism at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said that China’s national governance system and the international governance system proposed by China are both seeing major successes amid the profoundly evolving international landscape.
Lu added that the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). We must observe the Party’s fundamental purpose of serving the people. A “people-centered” philosophy is far better than a “capital-centered” one, and we must organize the people in order to move history forward. This philosophy necessitates the leadership of a party that stands for the people’s interests. It is by committing to Party leadership and taking a people-centered approach that the country has established the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Hu Wei, president of the Shanghai Society of Public Policy, said that the modernization of all of industry, agriculture, national defense and technology can be counted as the modernization of “material.” In comparison, the modernization of the national governance system marks a big step forward from the material to the institutional level.

Jiang Youfu, editor-inchief of Academic Monthly of the Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations, said that we need to be keenly aware that both the “four matters of confidence” (confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics) and the “13 notable strengths of China’s state and governance systems” show that the country has become even more conscious of the fundamental nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, as well as the system’s historical status and its influences on the world.

Jiang continued to point out that we need to bear in mind that the advantages of China’s governance systems are the fruits of combining the fundamental principles of Marxism with the reality of Chinese revolution, construction, reform and development. The advantages are also the results of committing to the organic unity of Party leadership, the running of the country by the people and law-based governance.

Du Yuhua, a professor from the School of Marxism at Shanghai Jiaotong University, said we must ensure the Party always provides overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all involved, and we must stick to the scientific theories of the Party. Only by doing this can China maintain its strategic focus in the new era and continue to overcome all difficulties and obstacles along the way while marching along the path of Chinese socialism.

Chen Xueming, a professor from the School of Marxism at Fudan University, commented that the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is of strong vitality and huge strength. The country has attained enormous achievements based on this system. This is fully felt by the Chinese people, and it has also begun to be appreciated by other countries.

The system that a country chooses to follow is predetermined by that country’s cultural tradition, history and fundamental realities. Chen Fangliu, a professor from the Party School of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, said that scientific socialism has been widely received by the Chinese people since Marxism was introduced into China. One of the reasons is that its socialist propositions have a lot in common with Chinese fine traditional thought.