Xi Jinping’s Original Contribution to Marxist Political Economy
“A New Form of Human Civilization” Concept Represents Comrade Xi Jinping’s Original Contribution to Marxist Political Economy
February 2022
Authors: Xie Fusheng, Deputy Director of the National Research Center for the Political Economy of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics at Renmin University of China, and Professor at the School of Economics, Renmin University of China; Kuang Xiaolu, Assistant Professor at the School of Marxism, Tsinghua University.
Taken from the original Article Title: The Conception of “A New Form of Human Civilization” by CPC and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
Abstract: On the centenary of the Communist Party of China’s founding (2021), Comrade Xi Jinping proposed that Socialism with Chinese Characteristics has created a “New Form of Human Civilization,” which defined that Socialism with Chinese Characteristics as a new social formation. The concept of a “New Form of Human Civilization” addresses the historical challenge of enabling economically and culturally backward nations to absorb all the achievements of capitalist civilization while avoiding the catastrophic consequences of capitalist development.
The concept of a “New Form of Human Civilization” represents an original contribution to Marxist political economy. This concept breaks through the traditional single-mono linear evolutionary theory of the “Five Forms of Social Formation,” synthesizes the Communist exploration of socialism, resolves a series of dilemmas in socialist modernization, and serves as a pivotal framework for constructing a 21st-century Marxist economic theory system. “Xi Jinping Economic Thought” marks a new leap in Marxist theory, following Marx’s political economy, Lenin’s Theory of Imperialism, and Mao Zedong’s Theory of New Democracy, representing the economics of 21st-century Marxism.
“A New Form of Human Civilization” Concept Represents Comrade Xi Jinping’s Original Contribution to Marxist Political Economy
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (2012), the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has demonstrated far-sighted vision and comprehensive strategic leadership, creatively proposing a series of new concepts, ideas, and strategies, thereby forming Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economic Development with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
The main contributions of Xi Jinping’s economic thought can be categorized into three types.
First, enriches, develops, and recombines classical Marxist theories. Drawing on new practical experiences and integrating existing research findings, it explores new developmental laws. For example, the new development philosophy of “innovation, coordination, environmental friendliness, openness, and shared growth” represents a development and recombination of classical Marxist political economy theory as well as positive and negative developmental experiences both domestically and internationally. Second, endows classical Marxist theories with new connotations. In the light of new characteristics of our era, classical Marxist theories are imbued with fresh meanings and generate positive impacts. For instance, the idea of a community with a shared future for humanity constitutes a new development of Marx’s theory of community, integrating traditional Chinese notions of “Great Unity” (Datong), China’s diplomatic practices, and the evolving global landscape.
Third, it entirely possesses original contributions. These address major theoretical and practical issues—raised but unanswered by Marx and Engels, attempted but incompletely resolved by communist leaders such as Lenin and Mao Zedong—that must be confronted in the course of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. Such contributions offer new interpretations aligned with contemporary features and practical demands, creating new scientific theoretical systems.
Comrade Xi Jinping’s groundbreaking proposition that socialism with Chinese characteristics has created a “new form of human civilization” is the first to clarify, from the perspective of socio-economic formations, the social nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It resolves the historical question of whether economically and culturally backward countries can absorb all the achievements of capitalist civilization while avoiding its catastrophic consequences. This judgment—never articulated or envisioned by classical Marxist theorists—is an original contribution to Marxist political economy. Breaking free from the constraints of traditional dogma and synthesizing the CPC’s long-term explorations, the concept of a “new form of human civilization” clarifies the social character of underdeveloped socialist countries and addresses a series of theoretical and practical challenges in socialist modernization. It serves as the pivotal cornerstone for constructing a 21st-century Marxist economic theoretical system.
(1) The Theory of a “New Form of Human Civilization” Breaks Through the Dogma of Unilinear Development through Five Socio-Economic Formations
“As man creates circumstances, so circumstances create man.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2009), p. 545.]
A country’s socio-economic formation is a complex system shaped jointly by rational constructivist forces and spontaneous evolutionary dynamics. [Huang Kainan, “A Comparison and Integration of Institutional Rational Constructivism and Spontaneous Institutional Evolution,” Journal of Literature, History & Philosophy, No. 5 (2021).]
A country’s socio-economic formation varies according to each nation’s objective historical-cultural background and socio-economic conditions. While the “five socio-economic formations” theory originally summarized and predicted transformations specific to Western Europe—progressing sequentially from primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, to communism—“five socio-economic formations” theory later ossified into a rigid formula asserting that all human societies must follow this single linear path. This overlooks the “unilinear and multilinear” nature of socio-economic evolution. The model of socio-economic transformation discovered by Marx and Engels reflected the concrete historical conditions of Western Europe; it was not intended as a universal “historical-philosophical theory of general development,” nor did it imply that “all nations, regardless of their historical circumstances, are destined to tread this same path.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2009), p. 466.]
Unlike Western Europe’s “five-stage” trajectory, China has experienced four socio-economic formations: primitive society, slave society, feudal society, and semi-colonial, semi-feudal society. Today, under the leadership of the CPC, China is building a socialist socio-economic formation with Chinese characteristics—an underdeveloped socialist society—advancing toward a future communist socio-economic formation. In contrast, developed capitalist countries would transit simultaneously to socialism, constituting a developed socialist society or the initial stage of communism, eventually progressing to the higher phase of communism. As a representative of ancient Eastern civilization, Chinese civilization historically led the world during traditional times. However, after the West entered modern capitalist socio-economic formations through the Industrial Revolution, China’s relative backwardness rendered it vulnerable to imperialist aggression, resulting in what President Xi Jinping described as “national humiliation, people’s suffering, and civilizational decline.” [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China,” Qiushi, No. 14 (2021).]
Communist Party of China fundamentally transformed China’s semi-colonial, semi-feudal social character through revolutionary means. At different historical junctures, guided by analyses of China’s basic national conditions and principal contradictions, the Party proactively restructured the superstructure and reshaped production conditions from the top down. Starting from scratch, Communist Party of China established an independent industrial system, innovatively proposed a socialist market economy, laid the material and institutional foundations for modern production, successfully forged a new path of Chinese-style modernization, and constructed a distinct socialist socio-economic formation with Chinese characteristics. Nevertheless, as Comrade Xi Jinping noted, “While economically backward countries may leap over the ‘Caudine Forks’ in terms of social institutions, this does not mean they can necessarily bypass the ‘Caudine Forks’ of commodity economy in economic development.” [Xi Jinping, “Re-examining the Development of Socialist Market Economy,” Southeast Academic Research, No. 4 (2001).]
According to general laws of human societal development, socialism with Chinese characteristics remains a nationally specific phenomenon occurring within a single country and still resides within a society based on “dependence on things.” Thus, it must fully leverage the market to transcend fundamental limitations rooted in “personal dependence,” using commodity exchange as a medium to establish universal social relations among individuals.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics represents a dialectical transcendence of capitalism, demonstrating that economically and culturally backward countries can absorb the achievements of capitalist civilization while avoiding its disastrous consequences. As Trotsky observed, “A backward country certainly absorbs the material and spiritual achievements of advanced countries, but this does not mean blindly imitating or replicating all prior developmental stages of the latter. Instead, by absorbing ready-made civilizational achievements, it can skip a series of transitional phases, leading to a unique overlapping of historical stages—resulting in a trajectory that is overall disordered, complex, and hybrid.” [Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2004), pp. 15–16.]
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has positively absorbed Western capitalist civilizational achievements, dramatically compressing the temporal-spatial trajectory from traditional to modern society—a compression of developmental stages characteristic of advanced capitalist countries. Yet, as it remains within a society of “dependence on things,” various forms of capital inevitably emerge in economic development, bringing attendant problems inherent to capital and its mode of production. This necessitates a correct understanding of capital’s characteristics and behavioral patterns, exploring how to harness capital’s positive roles under socialist market economy conditions while effectively curbing its negative effects. More broadly, the construction of this new socio-economic formation transcends Eurocentric limitations, offering a novel option for other nations and peoples who aspire to accelerate development while preserving their independence.
The Theory of a “New Form of Human Civilization” Synthesizes Explorations of Socialism by Marxists
Marx once remarked, “The anatomy of man is a key to the anatomy of the ape,” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 2 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), p. 705.] noting that “reflection on human life-forms—and thus their scientific analysis—always proceeds along a path opposite to actual development. Such reflection begins retrospectively, i.e., from the completed result of the developmental process.” [Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2004), p. 93.]
This is because “simpler categories, though historically preceding more concrete ones, achieve their full depth and breadth only within a complex social form, whereas more concrete categories may have developed more fully in less developed social forms.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 8 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2009), p. 27.]
As Comrade Xi Jinping stated, “As a long historical process, socialist society cannot possibly establish a perfect system of production relations immediately upon founding its basic institutions; it requires continuous maturation and refinement.” [Xi Jinping, “On the Contemporary Significance of the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy,” Fujian Forum (Social and Economic Edition), No. 1 (1997).]
The concept of a “new form of human civilization” emerges precisely through this retroactive examination—from the present to the past, from mature and fully developed forms back to immature and incomplete ones. “New form of human civilization” concept integrates communists’ century-long exploration of “what socialism is and how to build it,” summarizes the developmental practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, systematizes existing theoretical innovations in its construction, and abstracts the general determinants of its economic base.
Upholding the CPC’s Centralized and Unified Leadership over Economic Work
The leadership of the CPC is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Only by steadfastly strengthening the Party’s centralized and unified leadership over economic work can we ensure that China’s socialist economy advances in the correct direction—neither reverting to the old, closed, and ossified path nor veering onto the erroneous road of “changing our red banners and red flags”. Since human society remains in a developmental stage grounded in “dependence on things,” and capitalist forces retain considerable global strength, China’s deep integration into the world economy constantly exposes it to the threat that “any expansion of intercourse will eliminate local communism.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), p. 166.]
Only unwavering adherence to the Party’s centralized and unified leadership can safeguard the dominant position of public ownership and the leading role of the state-owned economy, preventing a slide into capitalist restoration.
Domestically, despite historic economic achievements, China’s productive forces remain limited. Developing a market economy is necessary to establish universal social relations among people and create conditions for their free and comprehensive development. However, this must occur under the overarching framework of CPC leadership and the socialist system, avoiding the “old, closed, and ossified path,” while upholding the superiority of China’s socialist system and effectively guarding against the drawbacks of capitalist market economies. As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, economic work faces new changes and challenges. We must continuously improve the Party’s institutional mechanisms for leading economic work, ensuring the Party’s core leadership role in overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all parties.
Navigating China’s economic ship through turbulent global waters requires the Party to courageously carry out self-revolution and constantly enhance its capacity to lead economic work. Social revolution and the Party’s self-revolution are dialectically unified: the arduous tasks and profound transformations of social revolution demand the Party maintain the consciousness and courage for self-revolution, which in turn leads and propels social revolution. Paramount is ideological Party-building: comprehensively implementing the Party’s organizational line for the new era, advancing full and rigorous self-governance, and continuously improving the Party’s governance capacity and leadership level. This ensures the entire Party maintains unified will, unified action, and consistent progress forward, providing a firm guarantee for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and realizing the “Two Centenary Goals.” (2021, 2049)
Upholding a People-Centered Development Philosophy
The CPC has always adhered to the materialist conception of history, which holds that the people are the true driving force of history, and upheld its fundamental tenet of serving the people wholeheartedly, practicing a people-centered development philosophy. Since the 18th Party Congress, based on summarizing domestic and international developmental experiences (both positive and negative) and scientifically assessing China’s economic situation, Comrade Xi Jinping has put forward the new development philosophy of innovation, coordination, environmental friendliness, openness, and shared growth—centered on the people. This philosophy is not exclusive to the new development stage but embodies lessons from global developmental experiences and concretely manifests the people-centered development philosophy, permeating the entire period of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
First, innovation is the primary driver of development. Innovation involves “transforming the technical and social conditions of the labor process, thereby transforming the mode of production itself.” On the one hand, it “continuously drives forward the development of labor productivity… so that… society as a whole can appropriate and maintain general wealth with less labor time,” enabling “people to cease performing labor that objects could perform for them.” [Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2004), p. 366; Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Complete Works, Vol. 30 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 286.]
On the other hand, through “discovering, creating, and satisfying new needs generated by society itself,” it “cultivates all human attributes and produces individuals endowed with the richest possible attributes, relations, and consequently, the broadest possible needs.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Complete Works, Vol. 30 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 389.]
Second, coordination is an intrinsic feature of economic development. At its core, coordinated development entails coordination in the material production process. Marx emphasized social production coordination, noting that “some enterprises withdraw labor and means of production over extended periods without yielding any useful product,” while others operate differently; thus, “the scale of the former must be determined so as not to impair the latter.” [Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 2 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2004), pp. 396–397.] Concretely, spatial divisions of labor manifest as coordinated urban-rural and regional development, while interactions between economic base and superstructure appear as coordinated development of material and spiritual civilizations, and integrated development of economic and national defense construction.
Third, environmental/ecological friendliness is the universal mode of economic development. While the capitalist mode of production transforms nature to serve human needs, overcoming “local human development and worship of nature,” it neglects humanity’s organic bond with nature. [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Complete Works, Vol. 30 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 390.] Green development requires producers to “rationally regulate their material interchange with nature” and conduct this interchange “with minimal expenditure of energy, under conditions most worthy of and suited to their human nature,” thereby creating a favorable ecological environment for the people and ensuring humanity’s sustainable survival. [Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2004), pp. 928–929.]
Fourth, openness is the inevitable path of economic development. “With the realization of free trade and the establishment of the world market, along with the convergence of industrial production and corresponding living conditions, national divisions and antagonisms among peoples increasingly vanish.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), p. 419.] Facing opportunities and challenges brought by economic globalization, we must seize every opportunity, cooperate to address all challenges, and steer globalization in a positive direction.
Fifth, shared growth is the ultimate goal of economic development. Marx envisioned that in communist society, “with the abolition of class distinctions, all social and political inequalities arising from these distinctions will disappear of themselves.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), p. 371.] Achieving this goal, however, requires a protracted historical process. Under the objective conditions of the primary stage of socialism, shared development manifests as gradual common prosperity, ensuring that “accumulated labor becomes a means to expand, enrich, and elevate workers’ lives” and that the fruits of development benefit all people more equitably. [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), p. 415.]
Upholding the Basic Economic System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
Classical Marxist political economy traditionally analyzes production, distribution, exchange, and consumption as interconnected moments. Applying dialectics, Marx further argued that these constitute an organic whole of social production and reproduction. In different socio-economic formations, specific modes of production—and their corresponding relations of production and exchange—determine the unique interrelations among production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. Economic relations within the base influence specific institutional forms in the superstructure: relations of production correspond to property relations or ownership systems; distribution relations correspond to distribution systems; and exchange relations correspond to economic operational systems. Together, they form a “tripartite” basic economic system.
During the socialist revolution and construction period, China’s basic economic system took the form of “public ownership + distribution according to work + planned economy,” which accelerated heavy industrial development and established an industrial system but gradually hindered sustained economic growth. Since reform and opening-up, China’s basic national conditions—the primary stage of socialism—have required leveraging market mechanisms for resource allocation under the prerequisites of Party leadership and socialist public ownership, deepening labor division, and establishing universal social relations. As productive forces develop, the Party has continuously refined the three components of the basic economic system.
The New Definition of China’s basic economic system (October 2019)
After forty years of evolution, the Fourth Plenum of the 19th CPC Central Committee endowed the basic economic system with new content: public ownership as the mainstay alongside diverse forms of ownership; distribution according to work as the principal method alongside multiple distribution approaches; and the socialist market economy system. This system aligns with China’s level of productive forces and reflects the inevitable requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the historical stage of “dependence on things.” It is a great creation of the Party and the people, effectively driving China’s economic growth in three ways: First, the coexistence of public ownership as the mainstay and diverse ownership forms fosters a competitive yet cooperative enterprise structure conducive to growth, promoting common development across ownership types. Second, the distribution system—with distribution according to work as the mainstay alongside multiple approaches—- which “enables all members (persons) of society to develop, maintain, and exercise their abilities as fully as possible” and “most effectively promotes production,” mobilizing the initiative of all economic actors and achieving an organic unity of efficiency and equity. [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), p. 581.]
Third, the dynamic socialist market economy provides an institutional foundation for growth. Integrating socialism and market mechanisms, China combines an effective market with a capable government, leveraging market allocation while effectively guarding against the pitfalls of capitalist market economies. The 2021 Central Economic Work Conference emphasized that various forms of capital inevitably exist in a socialist market economy, requiring the government to guide capital toward healthy, regulated development and prevent its unchecked expansion.
Upholding the Promotion of a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity
The idea of building a community with a shared future for humanity represents a new development of Marx’s theory of community and offers a novel theoretical framework for China’s relationship with the global capitalist economic system. Marx held that “everything people struggle for is connected with their interests.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Complete Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 187.] According to the laws of socio-economic formation development, interest-based communities evolve sequentially: natural communities characterized by “personal dependence,” class-based interest communities grounded in “dependence on things,” and a human community defined by “individual comprehensive development and free personality.” However, the capitalist mode of production can only produce a bourgeois interest community, with bourgeois states representing this community in the “illusory form of a general community,” essentially functioning as “a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), pp. 164, 402.]
Lenin and Stalin proposed eliminating the bourgeois community through proletarian community-building, formulating imperialism theory based on ideological blocs to guide socialist foreign relations. In practice, the CPC recognized the mutual dependence and universal interconnectedness of nations, developing Marx’s idea of interest communities beyond imperialism theory. Mao Zedong first introduced the concepts of “intermediate zones” and “three worlds,” breaking the binary bloc paradigm and proposing that nations with different social systems could form interest communities. After the 1970s, Deng Xiaoping advanced the thesis of “peace and development,” arguing that China’s economic interest community with the capitalist world would neither undermine socialism nor hinder its strengthening, initiating the historic practice of opening-up and innovatively resolving how to build socialism within a capitalist world. Since 2012, Comrade Xi Jinping, viewing China’s relationship with global capitalism from the perspective of humanity’s shared destiny, systematically synthesized the CPC’s foreign policy thought and drew on the Chinese ideal of “Great Unity,” proposing the idea of a community with a shared future for humanity. Transcending class-based interest communities, it emphasizes shared interests and humanity’s conscious capacity to collectively transform the world toward a genuine human community. This reflects the CPC’s lofty values and answers critical historical questions: what kind of open economy should China develop, and how can humanity better build a shared world?
Upholding the Methodology of “Stability Together with Progress”
Adhering to the methodology of “stability with progress” is an inevitable requirement of objective developmental laws and a development and application of Marxist contradiction analysis. Marxist philosophy—dialectical and historical materialism—finds its essence in contradiction analysis, as contradictions exist in all developmental processes and “determine the life of all things and drive their development.” [Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1991), p. 305.] Every economic category embodies unity of opposites; abstract economic theory studies the transformation of categories into their opposites, which alters the nature of things and signifies progressive direction. Such transformations require prolonged historical periods, indicating the long-term coexistence of contradictory aspects.
The methodology of “stability with progress” grasps contradictions by “discerning opposition within unity.” Here, “stability” refers to the relatively balanced coexistence of contradictory aspects, while “progress” acknowledges their potential to transform in different directions—recognizing both their “mutual transformation under certain conditions” and their “coexistence within a unity under certain conditions.” [Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1991), p. 330.] By discerning opposition within unity, this approach continuously advances development. “Stability with progress” is a crucial principle of the CPC’s governance and a methodological guide for economic work, ensuring stability while pursuing proactive advancement and avoiding impetuousness. Since reform and opening-up, the CPC has drawn lessons from the “Great Leap Forward” and “People’s Commune Movement” of the 1950s, correcting the utopian notion that socialism’s primary stage could be bypassed without massive productive forces development.
It deeply recognizes that “achieving communism is a historical process realized through successive phased goals.” [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 200th Anniversary of Marx’s Birth,” People’s Daily, May 5, 2018.] In concrete economic work, contradictory aspects coexist and evolve dynamically: “stability” contains trends of “progress,” creating a complex landscape. Economic development “is always constrained by historical conditions, natural environment, geographical factors, etc.; there are no shortcuts, no overnight transformations—only gradual, quantitative-to-qualitative, drip-by-drip changes.” [Xi Jinping, Breaking Poverty (Fuzhou: Fujian People’s Publishing House, 1992), p. 44.] The Party must adhere to a dialectical mindset of “stability with progress” and problem orientation, calibrate macroeconomic control, uphold bottom-line thinking, and promote sustained, healthy economic growth.
VI. Conclusion
The proposition of a “new form of human civilization” by the CPC signifies the preliminary explanation of socialism with Chinese characteristics as a socio-economic formation. By abstracting its general determinants, it resolves the question of “what socialism is”; strategic policies formulated on this basis further answer “how to build socialism,” thereby addressing major theoretical challenges facing the Party and the state in socialist modernization. This concept greatly advances the CPC’s understanding of socialism with Chinese characteristics’ historical positioning, deepens comprehension of socialist and human societal development laws, and marks a cognitive leap from developmental stages to a new socio-economic formation.
First, Mao Zedong’s concept of an “underdeveloped socialism” stage constitutes the “primary stage” of socialist socio-economic formation. Just as Lenin designated communism’s first initial phase as socialist socio-economic formation, the underdeveloped socialist stage can itself constitute a new socio-economic formation. China’s socialist practice belongs to this underdeveloped stage, forming socialism with Chinese characteristics as a distinct socio-economic formation.
Second, this formation will include different developmental stages. Deng Xiaoping’s “primary stage of socialism” refers to the nearly century-long period “from the basic completion of socialist transformation of private ownership of means of production in the 1950s to the basic realization of socialist modernization,” constituting the primary stage of socialism with Chinese characteristics. [Party Literature Research Office of CPC Central Committee, Important Documents on 30 Years of Reform and Opening-Up (Vol. 1) (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2008), p. 476.]
Comrade Xi Jinping further deepened this understanding, noting it is “not a static, unchanging, or stagnant phase, nor a spontaneous, passive stage that can be crossed effortlessly. Instead, it is a dynamic, proactive, vibrant process—a stair-step progression of continuous advancement and accumulating quantitative changes approaching qualitative leaps.” [Xi Jinping, “Grasping the New Development Stage, Implementing the New Development Philosophy, and Building a New Development Paradigm,” Qiushi, No. 9 (2021).]
Xi Jinping introduced the “new development stage”—spanning from 2035 (basic socialist modernization) to 2050 (a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful modern socialist country)—expanding the connotation and extension of Deng’s “primary stage.” Xi Jinping also noted that building a modern socialist country is “a requirement for China’s socialism to advance from the primary to a higher stage,” implying that post-mid-century, socialism with Chinese characteristics will enter a higher phase.
Third, the basic systems stipulated by the Fourth Plenum of the 19th CPC Central Committee (2018) constitute the pillars of this socio-economic formation and must be upheld long-term, changing only if the formation’s fundamental nature transforms. The “new form of human civilization” represents a “terminological revolution” in scientific socialism, bridging the gap between classical Marxist socialist theory and the concrete practice of building socialism in a single country. According to Marx and Engels, fully realized communism requires two conditions: material abundance and international support. Neither the Soviet Union nor China theoretically met these conditions; in practice, Soviet socialism ultimately abandoned public ownership for privatization and liberalization, posing a theoretical dilemma: Can China’s socialist practice succeed? Can future communist society be built? For decades, the Party partially answered this through the theory of the primary stage of socialism, positioning China’s practice as a preliminary phase toward communism—but it left unresolved when and under what conditions this stage might be transcended.
The new term “new form of human civilization” systematically addresses this question, by advancing scientific socialism theory: First, backward countries can build socialism as a new socio-economic formation—which can be a society based on “dependence on things”—absorbing capitalism’s all achievements while overcoming its flaws/disasters and while they can uphold fundamentals of socialism.
Second, this formation inherently contains contradictions between partial ownership of means of production and socialized production, defining its fundamental nature. Insisting solely on public ownership assumes communism can be entered without massive productive development—a utopian view representing the “old, closed, ossified path.” Insisting solely on private ownership and market economy assumes socialism requires full capitalist development—a mechanistic view representing the “erroneous path of changing banners.” Either path alters the formation’s nature. Third, building socialism in a single country constitutes a crucial phase toward global communism—an underdeveloped socialism. However, no matter how developed its productive forces become, this formation’s fundamental nature cannot change through our unilateral efforts alone; only when several developed countries transit to socialism can the developed socialism be realized thus ultimately communism can be realized.
The Theory of a “New Form of Human Civilization” Is the Pivot for Constructing 21st-Century Marxist Economics
“The true content of every epoch-making system arises from the needs of the era that produced it.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Complete Works, Vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1960), p. 544.] Building socialism in backward countries is a grand social practice requiring corresponding scientific theory. As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, facing new opportunities and challenges, theoretical demands grow urgent. Comrade Xi Jinping stated, “We must base ourselves on China’s national conditions and developmental practice, deeply study new situations and problems in the world and Chinese economies, reveal new characteristics and laws, refine and summarize regularities in China’s economic development, and elevate practical experience into systematic economic theory.” [Xi Jinping, “Continuously Expanding the New Frontiers of Marxist Political Economy in Contemporary China,” Qiushi, No. 16 (2020).] “As the era is the mother of thought, practice is the source of theory.” [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 95th Anniversary of the CPC’s Founding,” Qiushi, No. 8 (2021).]
Scientific theories emerge from evolving practice. Less than a century after the First Industrial Revolution, Marx noted that “no period of modern society has been as favorable for studying capitalist accumulation as the last twenty years… England, occupying the foremost position in the world market and where the capitalist mode of production is most fully developed, serves as the typical case.” [Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2004), pp. 746–747; Vol. 3, p. 195.] Taking Britain as his model, he theoretically assumed “the laws of the capitalist mode of production unfold in pure form,” analyzing capitalism’s birth, development, and demise, identifying it as a specific historical socio-economic formation, introducing the new category of labor’s dual character, transforming classical Marxist political economy, and founding Marxist political economy. Today, after over a century of socialist practice, China stands as socialism’s exemplary nation. “The breadth and depth of today’s changes and China’s development far exceed what classical Marxist theorists estimated.” [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 95th Anniversary of the CPC’s Founding,” Qiushi, No. 8 (2021).]
Comrade Xi Jinping’s “new form of human civilization” clarifies the nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics as a new socio-economic formation—guided by scientific socialism, coexisting alongside capitalism, and possessing a unique historical structure that generates specific economic laws. This new category elevates the practical experience of backward countries building socialism into theoretical abstraction, serving as the pivot for constructing 21st-century Marxist economics. Lenin stated, “The entire spirit and system of Marxism requires that every principle be examined (α) historically, (β) in relation to other principles, and (γ) in connection with concrete historical experience.” [Lenin, Selected Works, Vol. 2 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2012), p. 785.]
Since the 18th Party Congress, facing profound domestic and international changes, General Secretary Xi Jinping has scientifically grasped global trends and China’s developmental characteristics, making a series of important statements on socialist economic construction. Centered on “new form of human civilization,” “grasping the new development stage,” and “building a new development paradigm,” these form an academic theoretical system of “general–specific–concrete”: general theory manifests in specific developmental stages and further develops through solving real problems, embodying organic unity of theoretical, historical, and practical logic—a product of integrating Marxist fundamentals with Chinese reality.
First, “new form of human civilization” constitutes the general theoretical level of 21st-century Marxist economics. This level abstracts the general determinants of socialism with Chinese characteristics’ economic base, analyzes its pure economic form, takes material production as its object, and elucidates interrelations among economic categories to reveal its operational laws. Enterprises, as market entities, are “main participants in China’s economic activities, primary providers of employment, and chief drivers of technological progress” serving as basic units organizing material production. [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Entrepreneurs’ Forum,” People’s Daily, July 22, 2020.] Through cycles of purchasing, producing, and selling, they form extensive social relations—labor relations, inter-firm relations, urban-rural/regional relations, enterprise-ecology relations, enterprise-government relations, and international relations—manifesting statistically as wages, profits, taxes, imports/exports, etc. The dominant mode of production in a given period determines these social relations and economic categories, together forming a techno-economic system.
Amid contradictions between social production and needs, enterprises innovate technologically and organizationally to meet social demands, driving mode-of-production transformation, altering underlying social relations, reshaping category interrelations, and forming new techno-economic systems—creating a virtuous cycle where “investment yields returns enterprises earn profits, employees receive income, and governments collect taxes” propelling economic growth. [Xi Jinping, The Governance of China, Vol. 3 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2020), pp. 238–239.]
Second, “grasping the new development stage” constitutes the developmental stage level. Every socio-economic formation undergoes natural progression, divided into stages by evolving principal contradictions. This level studies how typical, dominant techno-economic systems operate at different stages, resolving contradictions while simultaneously generating new ones. Third, “building a new development paradigm” constitutes the real-problem level. “The source of any theory is rich, vivid real life; its driving force is the practical need to resolve social contradictions and problems.” [Xi Jinping, “Arming the Whole Party with Marxism and Its Sinicized Innovative Theories,” Qiushi, No. 22 (2021).] The ultimate purpose of theory-building is solving real problems. This level studies the principal contradiction of the current stage—the new development stage—and proposes policy recommendations to transform outdated techno-economic systems and construct a new development paradigm.
Conclusion
Since its founding, the CPC has steadfastly upheld communist ideals and socialist beliefs, uniting and leading all ethnic groups through new-democratic revolution, socialist revolution and construction, reform and opening-up, and socialist modernization, ushering socialism with Chinese characteristics into a new era and creating a new socio-economic formation guided by scientific socialism—socialism with Chinese characteristics. “Scientific socialism is by no means a rigid dogma.” Socialism with Chinese characteristics “is neither a simple continuation of China’s historical-cultural template, nor a mechanical application of classical Marxist blueprints, nor a replica of other countries’ socialist practices, nor a copy of foreign modernization models.” [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 200th Anniversary of Marx’s Birth,” People’s Daily, May 5, 2018.] It is a new form of human civilization. Determining a society’s socio-economic nature is a prerequisite for Marxists to uncover social movement laws and a fundamental condition for communists to undertake socialist construction.
Marx and Engels, focusing on capitalist economic relations, studied capitalism’s operational laws, founded Marxist political economy, revealed capitalism’s historical trajectory of emergence, development, and demise, and theoretically transformed socialism from utopia to science, clarifying general determinants of future society. Unlike capitalism—whose socio-economic formation preceded its conceptual and theoretical articulation—the construction of a new socialist formation unfolded under Marxist theoretical guidance. “Marxism is a practical theory… not a dogma but a guide to action, which must develop with practice.” [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 200th Anniversary of Marx’s Birth,” People’s Daily, May 5, 2018.] Socialist practice, in turn, innovates Marxist theory. [Wei Xinghua, “Conscious, Planned Development Is an Objective Requirement and Key Feature of Socialism,” Economic Review, No. 10 (2017)]
Lenin analyzed capitalism’s socio-economic nature in its monopolistic stage, discovered the law of uneven development in the world system, founded imperialism theory, proposed the possibility of socialist revolution in capitalism’s weakest link, and put it into practice, establishing the world’s first socialist state. Mao Zedong correctly analyzed modern China’s semi-colonial, semi-feudal nature, clarified the revolution’s targets, driving forces, character, and dual tasks, founded new-democratic theory, ended China’s semi-colonial, semi-feudal history, established socialist basic systems through revolution and construction, and achieved the great leap of a poor, populous Eastern country into socialist society. Comrade Xi Jinping, synthesizing communists’ wisdom, accurately grasping laws of human and socialist societal development, and correctly analyzing the socio-economic nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics’ has proposed the novel judgment of a “new form of human civilization,” clarifying socialism with Chinese characteristics as such.
Together with “grasping the new development stage” and “building a new development paradigm,” it forms a scientific academic theoretical system—comprising “China’s path, China’s governance, and China’s reasoning”—elevating communists’ explorations of socialist socio-economic formation into systematic economic theory, pioneering 21st-century Marxist economics, and marking a new peak in Marxist development following Marx’s political economy, Lenin’s imperialism theory, and Mao’s new-democratic theory. “As a nation wishes to stand at the pinnacle of science, it cannot do without theoretical thinking for a single moment.” “Every major leap in human society and every significant advancement in human civilization owes itself to transformative knowledge and intellectual leadership in philosophy and social sciences.” [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 9 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2009), p. 437; Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences,” People’s Daily, May 19, 2016.]
The fundamental task of accelerating China’s philosophy and social sciences lies in constructing an independent Chinese knowledge system, whose “autonomy” precisely stems from the “new form of human civilization.” First, specific socio-economic formations are the foundational subjects of knowledge-system construction. “There is no pure philosophy or social science in the world. Great achievements in these fields arise from answering and solving major human and societal problems.” [Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences,” People’s Daily, May 19, 2016.] The dominant global knowledge system emerged after capitalism’s rise, constructed around Western discourse to serve industrial capitalism’s needs. [Yang Dong and Xu Xinyu, “Outline for Constructing an Independent Chinese Knowledge System,” Journal of Renmin University of China, No. 3 (2022).] Accordingly, China’s independent knowledge system must center on the “new form of human civilization,” taking China and the era as its reference points to serve socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Second, the “new form of human civilization” embodies distinct national characteristics, resonating with Marxist philosophy and serving as the fundamental guideline for constructing China’s independent knowledge system. Unlike Western philosophy’s focus on linear cause-effect relationships, Chinese philosophy emphasizes dynamic interrelations among nature, society, and change. [Zhang Dongsun, Knowledge and Culture (Beijing: Commercial Press, 1946), p. 99.] Traditional Chinese thought—“being and non-being give birth to each other; difficult and easy complete each other; long and short define each other; high and low incline toward each other; sound and voice harmonize with each other; front and back follow each other”—aligns with Marxism’s principle of universal interconnection. Comrade Xi Jinping profoundly stated, “Things in the world are always interconnected in various ways; we cannot view development in isolation or stasis, lest we fall into the trap of blind men touching an elephant or partiality.” [Xi Jinping, “Upholding Historical Materialism to Continuously Open New Horizons for Contemporary Chinese Marxism,” Qiushi, No. 2 (2020).] This is the fundamental method for constructing China’s independent knowledge system.
Third, the “new form of human civilization” dialectically transcends capitalist socio-economic formations, just as China’s independent knowledge system reflects upon, develops, and breaks through the Eurocentric knowledge system. The CPC’s century-long practice in building a “new form of human civilization” contributes Chinese wisdom and solutions to global progress. China’s independent knowledge system must revolve around this concept, “grounded in China’s reality, solving China’s problems, continuously promoting creative transformation and innovative development of China’s fine traditional culture, and advancing knowledge, theory, and methodological innovation, so that China’s philosophy and social sciences truly stand tall in the global academic community,” answering China’s, the world’s, the people’s, and the era’s questions. [Xi Jinping, “Uphold Party Leadership, Inherit Our Red Genes, Root Ourselves in China, and Forge a New Path for World-Class Universities with Chinese Characteristics,” People’s Daily, April 26, 2022.]