No. 4, 2020

CONTENTS

Institutional Enablers for Completing a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

Guo Guangyin（1）

Completing a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Chinese Modernity

Liu Yonglin & Wang Lisheng（11）

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era：a Continuation and Development of Marxism    Zhu Bingyuan（33）

The Revolution Comes from East： No Alternative without China    Francesco Valerio della Croce & Luca Vanzini（48）

The Abysses of Nihilism: From the Perspective of Karl Marx’s Critique of Max Stirner    Liu Senlin（53）

A Prerequisite for Marx’s Critique of Ideology    Watanabe Norimasa（94）

The Clues to the Historical Generation of Debord’s Critical Theory of Spectacle    Zhang Yibing（103）

Why Populism?    Rogers Brubaker（141）

The United States in the Covid-19 Pandemic： An Interview with American Leftist ScholarsLuo Huimin（149）

Covid-19， Neoliberalism， and the Future of Capitalism    Zhu Andong & Sun Jiemin（155）

The Theoretical Connotation, Innovation， and Value Contribution of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation    Lei Ming & Zou Pei（165）

Responding to the “Questions of the Times” with Localized Institutional Innovation    Gao Fan（172）

MAIN ABSTRACTS

Institutional Enablers for Completing a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

Guo Guangyin

As a great achievement of China’s reform and opening up, socialism with Chinese characteristics has been playing an essential role in navigating, propelling and supporting China in fulfilling its commitment to completing a moderately prosperous. The enormous significance of the system lies in a deeply-rooted logic of institutional reforms where the system always stays ahead of the time and adopts scientific approaches. This logic enables China to treat challenges as objectives, aligns the Party’s interests with those of the people, integrates the Party’s self-targeted revolution into the social revolution, enhances the overarching design and takes more adaptive approaches as well, or metaphorically, “crosses the river by feeling the stones,” takes a global consideration of breakthroughs in key areas and the overall advancement, and balances efficiency and fairness. To materialize the next centennial goal of building China into a modernized socialist power, China should improve and fully establish an institutional structure that will further demonstrate systemic advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Completing a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Chinese Modernity

Liu Yongling & Wang Lisheng

Different from that of the West, the pursuit of Chinese modernization is based on the fine traditional culture of China. From the point of view of the development and evolution of Chinese modernity, only after realizing national independence and taking the road of socialist modernization, did China really begin to construct modernity consciously and give full play to its subjectivity. The concrete practice is the building of a moderately prosperous society since reform and opening up. From 1978 to 2020, we have constructed the modernity of socialism with Chinese characteristics through the building of a moderately prosperous society, and its concrete practice and experience have provided many references and inspirations for the future construction of Chinese modernity in terms of principles, directions, and channels.

Research on the Homogeneous Relationship between Ecological Health and People’s Health from the Perspective of Completing a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

Fang Shinan

The sudden outbreak of Covid-19, which has rapidly ravages the world, and the frequent occurrence of numerous ecological disasters have further highlighted the importance of the interdependence and coordination between ecological health and people’s health in completing a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and demonstrated the great value of promoting the homogeneous relationship between ecological health and people’s health. The political report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) called for “carrying out the Healthy China initiative,” which regards people’s health as an important symbol of national prosperity and strength. As the main content and core value goal of implementing the Healthy China initiative, people’s health must take ecological health, which represents a state of harmonious coexistence, coexistence and coprosperity between man and nature, as an important prerequisite and solid foundation for success. Grasping the homogeneous relationship between ecological health and people’s health from the perspective of a moderately prosperous society in all respects is of great theoretical value and practical significance for ensuring people’s life and health and moving toward a Healthy China, and making greater contributions to the life and health of all humanity.

Building a Moderately Prosperous Society and China’s Experience in Poverty Governance

He Haigen & Sun Daiyao

Alleviating poverty and completing a moderately prosperous society in all respects is a major milestone for China’s national rejuvenation, and represents a new path China has explored for the governance of human poverty. The historical process of poverty alleviation in China includes three progressive and mutually nonexclusive levels: income poverty alleviation measured by economic indicators; comprehensive poverty alleviation covering economic, political, social, cultural and ecological aspects; and the eradication of absolute poverty. In the new era, poverty alleviation has broken through the bottleneck of steady poverty reduction, adhered to targeted poverty alleviation, and implemented a shared development concept, which has distinctive characteristics. China’s poverty alleviation has not only made a great contribution to the world’s poverty reduction, but also contributed China’s experience to global poverty governance.

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era: A Continuation and Development of Marxism

Zhu Bingyuan

As a well-conceived, people-oriented, practical and contemporary theoretical system that reflects general principles, Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is a holistic continuation and systematic development of Marxism and an original contribution to Marxism. This contribution mainly includes: writing a new chapter of Marxist philosophy, political economy, and scientific socialism; consistently adhering to the original aspiration and mission of the Chinese Communists and solving the fundamental problems of “who I am, who I serve, and who I rely on”; modernizing the nation’s governance system and governing capabilities through practice; opening up a new realm of Marxism in contemporary China and Marxism in the 21st century; deepening the people’s understanding of the principles of human development, socialist construction, and the governance of the Communist Party in the new era.

Laying the Ideological Foundation of the  “Governance of China”

Wang Yonggui & Liao Penghui

Upholding the guiding position of Marxism in ideology is the theoretical principle and practice that the CPC has established in its great practice over the past century or so, and it must never be shaken. At the Fourth Plenary Session of its 19th Central Committee, the Party institutionalized the guiding position of Marxism in ideology, which reflects the Party’s high level of theoretical awareness and its conscious action in the new era and is a major institutional initiative to ensure the advancement of socialism with Chinese characteristics and cultural development. In a new historical context, we must profoundly understand the strategic positioning of adhering to the fundamental system of ideological development in our country, understand the wholistic and overall leading function of this fundamental system throughout the whole process of national governance with Chinese characteristics. We must figure out overall layout, comprehensive thinking, and well-designed planning. We must explore the focus of implementing this fundamental system in our practical work, promote the strengthening of ideological work in the new era, and advance the prosperity of socialist culture building on past achievements and making future innovations. This should help us gain a strong momentum in realizing national rejuvenation and lay a cultural and ideological foundation of the “Governance of China.”

The Revolution Comes from East: No Alternative without China

Francesco Valerio della Croce & Luca Vanzini

We locate the People’s Republic of China in the history of the communist movement, and we discuss its approach to the question of power and elaborate on its role in a multipolar world. We then exhort progressives in the West to look at the Chinese experience and engage with it, as recently done by the Italian Communist Party in the occasion of the new memorandum between Italy and China. This political project can be described under two fundamental themes, which are here discussed as a contribute to the methodological and practical activity of progressive forces throughout the globe: continuity and innovation. A new Weltgeist emerges: multilateralism and the peaceful rise of China dawn upon the world, showing an alternative path to real global inclusion, development and cooperation. Through its People’s Republic, China emerged from a century of humiliations and subjugation, to rejuvenate itself and achieve prosperity, and realized what other countries, not lead by Marxism-Leninism, couldn’t: independence and liberation for the whole country and its working class. As the world’s great powers must come to terms with China as one of their own, so progressive theoreticians must face the socialist achievements of the People’s Republic.

The Abysses of Nihilism: From the Perspective of Karl Marx’s Critique of Max Stirner

Liu Senlin

Based on Marx’s critique of Stirner, this paper explores different dimensions of Nihilism while engaging with Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky. There are three abysses of Nihilism in Stirner’s philosophy: First of all, “The Ego” (Der Einzige) that takes the place of God and is identified with it in the same way they empty creativity and imaginativeness, remains an illusory figure, a phantom, or a specter without realistic commitments. Second, Stirner’s egoism does not rely so much on social achievements, and nor does it seek an integrated unity on a wider scale. Consequentially, it might lead to a radical enlightenment that merely gives prominence to an empty ego, falling back into the mediocrity and the decadence of selfhood it used to negate. Finally, similar to Nietzsche’s assumption that culture innovates at the expense of the fundamental value in monetary economy, the void, which represents the ultimate creativity, reaches no bottom line and could possibly give rise to what Marx points out as “all the old filthy business would necessarily be reproduced,” causing the similar filthy circumstances in the writings of Dostoyevsky. The critical reflection on Stirner’s philosophy from the perspective of historical materialism reveals a deep nihilistic concern of bringing the ultimate value to nothing, and more importantly, a deeper concern of bringing even the fundamental value to nothing.

The United States in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Today and Tomorrow:An Interview with American Leftist Scholars

Luo Huimin

Once the first Covid-19 case in the United States was confirmed on January 21, the cumulative number of the country’s confirmed cases has exceeded 1.8 million and the number of deaths has exceeded 100,000 over four months. How the US government responds to the rapidly spreading Covid-19 pandemic has revealed many contradictions in the global system. In May 2020, three famous American leftist scholars—Professor David Kotz from the Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Professor Robert Pollin from the Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Professor Noam Chomsky from the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology—were interviewed by the author on those problems exposed in US society in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Theoretical Connotation, Innovation, and Value Contribution of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Lei Ming & Zou Pei

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee, with Xi Jinping at its core, has made poverty alleviation through development the most challenging task in achieving the first of the Two Centenary Goals. The CPC has taken on the daunting task of leading the Chinese people in a joint effort to combat poverty and created a “spider web” type of poverty alleviation pattern with Chinese characteristics, making attractive achievements. This demonstrates China’s powerful ability and extraordinary wisdom in governing the country, and sets a good example for the world’s poverty alleviation. With a focus on the general strategy of poverty alleviation in the new era—targeted poverty alleviation, this article expounds on seven aspects of its theoretical connotation: “being accurate,” “being targeted,” “being sustainable,” “delegating more powers,” “poverty alleviation for all,” “achieving shared growth through consultation and collaboration,” and “anti-poverty community of shared future.” The article summarizes the specific innovations made through targeted innovation in practice, theory, and institution. It also answers the question of why Marxism, the CPC, and socialism work and reveals the value contribution of targeted poverty alleviation.

Responding to the “Questions of the Times” with Localized Institutional Innovation

Gao Fan

Against the backdrop of socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era, China is facing the four questions of the times: How has the modernization of China developed since the founding of the People’s Republic? How should China respond to the changes in the internal and external economic and social patterns? How can China achieve higher strategic goals from a new starting point of development? What is the connotation of the system in the Chinese discourse of confidence in the system? At the Fourth Plenary Session of its 19th Central Committee, the CPC responded to these questions from the perspective of institution building and institutional guarantee. China’s institutional arrangements for responding to these questions have four distinct characteristics: local, systematic, operational and dynamic, and reflect the development process from institutional exploration to institutional finalization and maturity, and the cognitive process from practical exploration to empirical summarization and refinement. In view of the important role of the economic system in economic development and the importance of economic development for modernization, at the Fourth Plenary Session, the Party made four major innovations in the economic system: defining the basic economic system encompassing ownership, the distribution system and the economic operation mechanism; understanding the basic economic system in the overall framework of the fundamental system; coordinating the basic economic system with important institutional arrangements for the operational systems such as the scientific and technological innovation system and the new open economic system; and making new specific additions to the basic economic system and important economic system.