Chinese-style Modernization in the Critique of Modernity

Research Article
Open access

Chinese-style Modernization in the Critique of Modernity

Bao Chen 1* , Xinyu Sun 2
  • 1 Marxism College, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law    
  • 2 Marxism College, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law    
  • *corresponding author cb612@sina.com
Published on 20 November 2023 | https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7080/3/2023021
AHR Vol.3
ISSN (Print): 2753-7099
ISSN (Online): 2753-7080

Abstract

From a theoretical point of view, modernisation is a holistic social change involving all aspects and a long-term dynamic process of social development, which is a common characteristic of modernisation. Therefore, the cause of modernisation needs a strong leading core to integrate all forces, otherwise all fields of society may face an undesirable situation of mutual fragmentation and respective dominance in the process of social development, which will cause a fault in the strategy of social modernisation and trigger social conflicts. Western modernisation is a capital-led modernisation, a modernisation governed by modern rationality and the logic of capital, and its development is bound to be accompanied by a corresponding crisis of modernity. On the basis of the common features of modernisation, China has explored a modernisation framework different from that of the West in terms of the positioning of modernisation, leadership authority, value goals, development dynamics and paradigm of world interaction, so as to pull developing countries out of the swamp of "one-dimensional modernisation", and to eliminate the "myths" created by developing countries about Western modernisation. It has taken developing countries out of the swamp of "one-dimensional modernisation", broken the superstitions of developing countries about the "myth " created by Western modernisation, and enriched the development paths taken by developing countries in the world with the theoretical and practical paradigms of diversified modernisation based on their own national conditions, thus creating a new form of human civilisation and a brand-new choice for the modernisation of the human society.

Keywords:

crisis of Western modernity, Chinese-style modernisation, new modernity

Chen,B.;Sun,X. (2023). Chinese-style Modernization in the Critique of Modernity. Advances in Humanities Research,3,47-57.
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1. Addressing the Issue: Highlighting the Crisis of Western Modernity

In the world, nowadays, "modernity" has become an inescapable and established fact of life, and as the American scholar Marshall Berman points out, "one can be a modernist even if one has never heard of the word modernity in one's life."[1] Theoretically, "modernity" is closely related to the concept of "modernisation", and modernity is the result of theoretical reflection on the historical process of modernisation, the logical expression of the historical process of modernisation, and a historical category. Contemporary British sociologist Giddens once summarised "modernity" in this way, he defined it from the sense of time as a "mode of social life or organisation" that "appeared in Europe around the seventeenth century"[2]. Specifically, "modernity" and "modernisation" are both derivatives of "modernity", which expresses modernity expresses a new historical consciousness relative to the past, modernisation is the historical process of forming the modern world along with the trend of world history, and modernity is the objectified historical characteristic on this basis, which is the logical expression of the historical process of modernisation. The spiritual core of Western modernity originates from the core of the Enlightenment Dialectic of discursive philosophy, that is, modern rationality and the logic of capital, manifesting the subject-centred rationality, striving for the conquest and transcendence of nature by human power, and realizing the freedom of subjectivity, i.e., the creation of an ideal rational social and political order [3]. However, with the continuous development of industry, the industrial civilization centered on the logic of capital extends the power of people's lives while the excessive modern rationality is dissolving the base of human labour autonomy and freedom, and the overall disorder of the social order shows the tendency of social "de-synchronization", which leads to the financial crisis (the subprime crisis of the United States in 2008), the crisis of democracy (the new "Berlin Wall"), and the crisis of the "democracy" (the new "Berlin Wall"). This has led to financial crises (the 2008 sub-prime crisis in the United States), democratic crises (the new "Berlin Wall" crisis), ecological crises (the imbalance of ecosystems caused by the degradation of the Amazon rainforest), etc. At the social and cultural level, the high degree of scientific and technological development, as well as the disordered nature of the market economy, has brought about a new alienation of the people, and has destroyed the value and significance of human existence. In order to explore the multidimensional transcendence of the "new modernity" of Chinese modernisation in the context of the crisis of Western modernity, it is necessary to explore the origins and manifestations of the crisis of Western modernity in the context of world history, which is a manifestation of problematic consciousness.

1.1. The Excessive Rationality of Modernity Gives Rise to a Crisis of Human Survival

Since the creation of the original system of Western modern philosophy by Descartes on the basis of geometry, the spirit behind this system has been excavated and further researched by Spinoza, which has pushed the transformation of this spirit from a concept into a practical force, generating the core spirit on which modern man depends, i.e., the spirit of rationality of "the birth of a new period."[4] It is relatively epochal in significance. Relatively epoch-making significance, it has been internalised as a spiritual force compatible with the modern world, and plays its due role: on the cognitive level, this force reveals the subjective consciousness of the human being as a real human being in the veil of religious theology, and the relationship between human beings and the things in the world around them can be adjusted and reconstructed; on the value level, modern society based on rationality characterises a kind of rationality and subjectivity principle of the modern spirit, and empowers people to realise self-reflection and self-criticism, and to realize the principle of self-criticism. On the value level, modern society based on rationality characterises a modern spirit of rational subjectivity principle, which gives people the freedom of subjectivity to realise self-thinking and self-practice. However, rationality, along with the development of modern industrial civilisation, has given rise to certain problems of modernity: on the one hand, instrumental rationality expands the scope of control and strives to dominate the society in the modern society, and alienates human beings into an alien existence; on the other hand, modern rationality accompanies and submits itself to the logic of capital in the modern world, and transforms the ethical community of the established society into a force of alienation through the spirit of egotism. forces.

1.2. Trends of "Desynchronization" in Society Lead to a Crisis in the System of Social Structure

Western modernity is characterised by a de-socialisation of the developmental structure, which manifests itself in a shift from a holistic structure to a fragmentation of the whole of social life, and a significant weakening of the stability of society as a whole, which jeopardises the productive and reproduction capacity of the self and society. According to Rosa's theory of social systems, generally speaking, such a society will show "de-synchronisation", and this tendency covers three main levels:

First, the "desynchronisation" of the general ecosystem. Bacon's "knowledge is power" gave humans rationality and legitimacy to dominate nature in order to highlight the value of science for the benefit of humankind. However, the "anthropocentrism" created by modern rationality advocates absolute domination of nature, and "human beings are superior to nature", which provides rationality for human beings to dominate nature's practical activities, which, once exceeding the carrying capacity of nature, will definitely make the natural co-existence of human beings become more and more difficult. The purpose of human development to the human survival of the antagonistic force side, become "extreme and uncontrollable monster" [5], to uncontrollable and unpredictable counterattacks on human beings. The high rate of economic development created by modern science and technology brings convenience to people's lives, but also brings the corresponding crisis of human living space, that is, the social system and the overall ecosystem "de-synchronisation" of the characteristics of the social system and the overall ecosystem, which is manifested in the high speed of social development beyond the natural spatial and temporal carrying capacity.

Secondly, the "desynchronisation" of the rate of development of social fundamentals. From the point of view of the contemporary Western capitalist society, in the modern socio-economic level, financial crisis and social democratic crisis occur frequently, which shows the problem of "desynchronisation" of democratic decision-making for economic development at the level of the market economy, and due to the high speed of development of the modern economy driven by science and technology, the modern democratic politics in the West has not been synchronised with the high speed of economic and technological development. Due to the rapid development of modern economy driven by science and technology, modern democratic politics in the West has not been synchronised with the high speed of economic and technological development, and has relatively shown a tendency of stagnation or even regression. The public has gradually lost its sense of political participation, which has been replaced by a deepening distrust of government.

Thirdly, there is the "desynchronisation" of the psychology of the members of society. People live in the modern society created by Western modernity, based on the dual role of modern rationality and the logic of capital, technology has become the main element of world domination, denying the real connection with the mechanism of human life, and human beings have been reduced to the subordination under the capitalist system of production, which, in the opinion of Lukács, is "purely quantitative interrelationships" [6].

2. Reflection on Issues: The Existence of Certain One-sidedness in the Narrative Logic of Western Modernity

In response to the above-mentioned problems of Western modernity, some learned people have begun to make corresponding systematic reflections, which has led to the emergence of the social trend of criticism of Western modernity. However, their diagnosis and treatment of the modernity of the western society has a fundamental limitation: they did not use the historical method and practical viewpoint and position to examine the capitalist production relations in depth, and could not really show the historical characteristics of the western modernity, thus failing to find a way out of the modernity of the western society from the fundamental point of view.

2.1. Reflecting on Content: The Narrative Logic of Western Modernity

In terms of the overall course of world history, the sphere of Western capitalist modernity is primarily the implementation of its unique logic of governance. The logic of governance of Western capitalist societies is integrated into the entire social system, which together serve the purpose of world domination of Western societies. Such a logic of governance has the following three aspects:

First, the logic of "dynamic equilibrium" of social structure. Under the established theoretical framework, the core idea of the Western modernity critique is that capitalist society is in a state of "dynamic stability". This state needs to be maintained by a social system that keeps accelerating as a whole, so as to ensure sustainable economic development and political stability, and to realise the continuous operation of the reproduction of the social structure. When we return to the micro social individuals, people can only survive by joining the high-speed social competition system. In this state, the whole social environment is like being on a slope, and the pressure brought by the high-speed operation of society is like a downward traction. In order to maintain the existing position, people have to maintain a high degree of tension in the social competition and try their best to move up the slope so as not to be eliminated by the society.

Secondly, the cultural logic of "possession and control". Because the objective "dynamic stability" quality of modern Western society determines that it can only maintain stability in dynamics, so it is necessary to form a controlling state to control all aspects of the elements, so that it maintains the stability of purposefulness, which specifically manifests itself in the structure and system to control the space that can be reached at the moment, which makes the "In the cultural sensibility ...... increasingly transformed from an expectation into a coercion" [7]. In such a social atmosphere, people in the process of falling into this competitive purpose objectively also satisfy the purpose of modern society's possession and control. People try their best to realise the world in the four dimensions of "cognizable", "reachable", "controllable" and "usable". The world is a spiritual and a material world.

Thirdly, the colonial logic of the "subordination of the East to the West". Starting from the history of capitalist development, Marx clarified the established historical status of the East and the West: "Just as it subordinates the countryside to the city, it subordinates the uncivilised and semi-civilised countries to the civilised countries, the peasant nation to the bourgeois nation, and the East to the West." [8] Behind this colonial logic lies the "domination-subordination" relationship. This colonial logic implies a relationship of "domination-subordination", which is expressed in the fact that modern society, in order to satisfy its desire for world domination, has dragged the whole of world history into modern capitalist civilisation.

2.2. Tools for Reflection: The Inherent Tensions of Critical Theories of Western Modernity

The critical theory of Western modernity reveals the crisis of Western modernity, which is basically in line with the Marxist thesis on the critique of modernity, further confirms the scientific nature of Marx's theory of the critique of modernity, and also enriches the study of the theory of modernity. However, the critical theory of Western modernity fails to reveal the social roots of the crisis of Western modernity, and also fails to address this crisis from the standpoint and viewpoint of materialist history, which makes the Western academic community fail to break through the logical paradigm of the crisis of Western modernity in this regard, and fail to see the nature of capitalist private ownership in the established modern society from the perspective of the scientific discipline of political economy, and thus the critical theoretical perspective is still confined to the capitalist form of social life and is unable to fundamentally address the crisis of Western modernity.

3. The Solution Path: Chinese Modernisation to Construct a New Modernity Beyond the Crisis of Western Modernity

Chinese-style modernisation, as China's wisdom in the context of modernisation, shows the characteristics of a new modernity that is fundamentally different from Western modernity, and these characteristics are based on the logical construction of abandoning and transcending the crisis of Western modernity. In the report of the 20th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that our task in the new era and the new journey is to "comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by means of Chinese-style modernisation". From the unity of theory and practice, we find that, on the one hand, from the aspect of commonality, "there are common features of modernisation in all countries", characterising the general trend of the transformation of history from tradition to modernity under the impetus of the Industrial Revolution; on the other hand, from the aspect of individuality, "there are Chinese characteristics based on our own national conditions", manifested in the form of "Chinese-style modernisation", and "Chinese-style modernisation", as well as "Chinese-style modernisation". On the other hand, in terms of individuality, it "has Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions", which is expressed as "modernisation belonging to the Chinese people". Our country is a socialist country under the people's democratic dictatorship, which determines that our modernisation must be a socialist modernisation, which is essentially different from that of the West, and the construction of its modernity is the historical result of a systematic reflection on the crisis of Western modernity.

3.1. Grasping the Law of Modernisation in the Use of Capital for the Development of Productive Forces

The criteria for modernisation are industrialisation, modernisation of agriculture, urbanisation and the promotion of overall social change through scientific and technological change, which all boils down to the liberation and development of the productive forces. The use of capital to promote the development of the productive forces is an important law of modernisation. In his dialectical analysis of capital, Marx acknowledged that capital "favours the development of the productive forces, the development of social relations, and the creation of higher and new forms of the various elements." [9] Capital pushes society forward by promoting the development of the productive forces. In terms of the advancement of the form of production relations determined by the productive forces, the modern industrial economic form brought about by capital is more capable of promoting the change and development of the productive forces of society than the feudal small-farmer economic form, which determines that the capitalist society, with capital at its core, is a new and relatively advanced form of society in comparison with the feudal authoritarian system. Marx's original conception of communist society was formed on the social basis of the advanced stage of development of capitalist society with highly developed productive forces driven by capital. At the same time, the bourgeoisie, driven by the logic of capital, created world history, and made capital form the necessary conditions for worldwide mobility, which led to closer interaction among the countries of the world, and promoted the formation and development of the world market, and in this historical context, world history is the "world expression" of the logic of capital. In addition, Marx did not limit capital to the scope of capitalism, but pointed out that "the production and circulation of commodities is a phenomenon that is common to very different modes of production"[10], capital and commodities are not a historical phenomenon unique to capitalism. In particular, the socialist society should be born out of the capitalist society with highly developed level of productive forces, and it is inevitable that the historical traces of the old capitalist society still remain, which inevitably includes the principle of exchange of capital and commodities.

On the other hand, in the capitalist system it created, capital is fundamentally expressed as a relationship between exploitation and the exploited, a "dirty thing dripping with blood". [10] capital in bringing a large amount of wealth accumulation at the same time, its disorderly expansion of nature also caused serious social problems, its own profit-seeking and expansion of its own if not properly controlled, will affect the overall efficiency and fairness of society, which led to the social crisis of trust, the financial crisis, the monopoly of the market and the destruction of environmental resources and other global social problems, will lead to the relationship between man and man, man and society, The relationship between man and man, man and society, and man and nature is out of balance. The capitalist system, formally because of its failure to regulate the speed of development of capital and clarify the boundaries of its development, mistakenly identifies the object of capital's service as the disorderly expansion of capital triggered by capitalism itself, which inevitably and historically triggers cyclical and global economic crises. It can be seen that although the use of capital to develop productive forces is a common way to build modernisation, if we want to give full play to the civilised side of capital and avoid the risks brought about by the disorderly expansion of capital, the key lies in how to make use of and regulate capital to make it serve the people's well-being and the country's development. The nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics determines that Chinese-style modernisation must and must take capital as a tool to achieve modernisation rather than the purpose of modernisation, and serve capital to make up for the unbalanced and insufficient development in order to satisfy the people's aspiration and pursuit of a better life, and to realise the "capital-people" principle. The theoretical exchange and practical operation of the "capital-people" swap has achieved the transcendence of the western modernisation model of "capital supremacy", and circumvented the global crisis of western modernity triggered by the disorderly expansion of capital. By correctly understanding the nature and development law of capital, Chinese modernisation releases the vitality of capital and promotes the healthy, stable and sustainable development of society and economy with the civilisation of capital.

3.2. Utilising the Positive Role of Capital in the Service of Socialist Modernisation

In the 38th collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasised the importance of giving full play to the positive role of capital as an important factor of production from the dimension of unity of economic and political issues, and of unity of theory and practice. Capital itself, with its profit-seeking and circulating nature, is able to effectively lead to the rational distribution of resources such as land, talents and technology, and to improve the effectiveness of resource allocation and to adjust the irrational by improving the effectiveness of resource allocation and adjusting the unreasonable economic structure, it can reduce the energy consumption required for production, thus leading to the continuous improvement of the overall productivity. Healthy capital circulation and expansion can reflect changes in market supply and demand in a timely manner, and is a reasonable form of incentivising producers to carry out production, which can effectively change the dynamics of China's enterprise development. After correctly analysing the stage of China's socialist development and clearly positioning itself historically, the CPC has correctly viewed the two sides of capital outside the context of the conflict between the Chinese and Western social systems, and creatively designed a top-level modernisation model in which the developing countries catch up with the developed countries in terms of their historical level. Parallel modernisation is characterised by highly compressed development time, highly overlapping development space, and extremely heavy development tasks, and it is necessary to achieve leapfrog development with more modernisation results and greater historical achievements in a shorter period of time than in the West, and at the same time avoid the contradictory dilemmas of modernisation triggered by irrational social governance and the impact of domestic and foreign economic and political risks, so it is necessary to adhere to the socialist market economy system and give proper play to capital and the market. We must always adhere to the socialist market economy system, correctly exert the modernising power of capital and market, fully activate the civilised side of capital, make it concentrate all the positive factors of social development to serve the advancement of socialist modernisation and the immediate interests of the people, and balance the relationship between economic development and social stability. The process of exploring the path of Chinese-style modernisation is also a process of deepening the CPC's understanding of the role of capital and of combining socialism and the market economy in depth.

In terms of the economic system, China has gone from adhering to the socialist planned economic system and a single publicly owned economy to gradually introducing market mechanisms and establishing a socialist commodity economic system, allowing the development of the individual and private economy while adhering to the predominance of the publicly owned economy, and then to perfecting the socialist market economic system, reforming the state-owned enterprises and promoting the vigorous development of the private economy, and realising the modernisation of the national governance system and governance capacity by deepening the reforms of the relationship between the government and enterprises on a comprehensive scale. modernisation of the country's governance system and capacity. In terms of the relationship between the government and the market, China has gone from an economic system dominated by state planning and supplemented by small markets, to the gradual introduction of the market mechanism and the combination of the market's fundamental role in resource allocation and the state's macro-control, and then to the market's decisive role in resource allocation and the better construction of a service-oriented government. In the course of Chinese-style modernisation, the CPC has dispelled many myths about capital, and has been able to correctly and dialectically look at the relationship between capital and socialist modernisation; the positive role of capital has been continuously valued, and capital has promoted the development of productive forces to the maximum extent possible. China's modernisation has also been driven by capital to achieve industrial optimisation and upgrading, push forward supply-side structural reform, form a new pattern of comprehensive opening up, promote trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, and move people's incomes towards the middle- to high-income level. China's original mechanism of dialectical unity between socialism and commodity capital market has created a miracle of development, and has provided a good answer to the question of what kind of economic system should be chosen by backward countries in the East to develop their productive forces and achieve a leap in productivity after they have crossed the "Kafting Canyon" in terms of production relations to reach a socialist system, and at the same time, ensure that the extent of the leap matches the actual national conditions of the country. At the same time, they should ensure that the extent of the leap is commensurate with the actual situation of their own countries, so as to avoid the danger of falling into the "Kaftin Canyon" again when they take too big a step in their development as they did in the late Soviet Union.

The positive role of capital must continue to be given full play in modernisation. First, the socialist market economy must be maintained. Although the planned economy is regarded as the "purest" economic system of socialism in the traditional socialist conception, the planned economy cannot adequately and timely reflect the complex supply and demand relations, and is prone to cause irrationality in the economic structure and ineffectiveness in the allocation of resources, and cannot give the Eastern countries, which have already crossed the "Kaftin Gorge" in terms of the production relations, a healthy and healthy opportunity to rapidly realise the leapfrog development of the productivity level. However, the planned economy cannot adequately and timely reflect the complex supply and demand relations, and tends to cause irrational economic structure and ineffective allocation of resources, and cannot give the Eastern countries which have already crossed the "Kaftan Canyon" in terms of production relations a healthy and sustainable economic impetus to rapidly achieve the leapfrog development of the level of productive forces. Therefore, it is necessary to adhere to the socialist economic system at the primary stage of socialism, where the level of productive forces is not yet sufficiently developed, in order to activate and maintain the endogenous impetus of modernisation and to mobilise the enthusiasm of the main bodies of the parties. Secondly, we must give full play to the socialist system's advantage of "concentrating power to do big things", and provide sufficient financial support for new science and technology industries and infrastructure improvement. The organic combination of the market mechanism and the national mechanism on the basis of promoting productive forces can find out the correct direction of capital operation in the country. On the one hand, the market economy has a high degree of foresight on economic development, which makes the operation direction of capital aiming at the world's advanced level of productivity development, transforming scientific and technological growth to other non-creative factors of production, so that China's modernisation level is constantly moving closer to the world's advanced level; on the other hand, the mechanism of raising the nation can select the suitable productivity growth point for China according to the actual productivity situation of the country, and use capital to promote the configuration and development of other factors of production in the productive forces system, promote the transformation of China's overall productive forces to the advanced, and form a systematic and complete industrial system, national defence system, and modern national education system. Thirdly, we should insist on the socialist attributes of capital in the relations of production, clarify the boundaries of the market's functioning, and establish effective governmental governance, so that capital is always subordinate to and serves the interests of the state and the people. Adhering to the attributes of capital's socialist relations of production actually means giving full play to the civilised side of capital in the service of socialist relations of production, with the requirement of capital's class attributes. The modern market and commodity economy have intricate and complex internal relations, and capital under this economic system, besides having the positive side of promoting the development of the social productive forces, may also expand in an uncontrolled manner into other important areas of the state and society. This requires the state and the government to make use of the country's governance capacity, to use economic, political and legal means to restrict capital to the field of serving the socialist market economy, to set the legal and moral boundaries of capital activities, and to promote the new rational mechanism formed by the organic combination of the commodity economy and the socialist system of public ownership, so that the modern development mechanism of socialism with Chinese characteristics will be constructed together.

3.3. Use of State Power to Regulate and Manage Capital in Accordance with the Law

As mentioned earlier, the need to adhere to the attributes of the socialist relations of production of capital requires an understanding of the ways and significance of managing capital in terms of the nature of capital. There is no capital without profit, and the profit-seeking and expanding nature of capital itself is the inherent law of capital operation, which is not subject to human will. While giving full play to the productivity attributes of capital, how to effectively avoid the side-effects of capital has become an urgent task for Chinese-style modernisation. Under the capitalist system, the disorderly expansion of capital, which carries the capitalist relations of production, has led to the relationship between people being overshadowed by the relationship of materialistic desires, and the society being filled with consumerism, with the real interests and needs of people being neglected. In society, the oligopoly of the market seriously affects social justice, the basic survival needs of ordinary democracy cannot be guaranteed, and periodic economic crises are formed within society. In the world, the uncontrolled expansion and circulation of capital in the world has constructed the "expression of capital" in world history, forming a world pattern of "centre-periphery" relations, with the Western capitalist powers occupying the centre of the world pattern and other backward countries occupying the centre. The Western capitalist powers occupy the centre of the world pattern, and other backward countries can only be in a subordinate position in the established economic and political pattern due to the oppression and suppression of these powers, and it is difficult for them to obtain independent and real development. The essence of all these modernisation problems is the worldwide manifestation of the basic contradictions of capitalist society, in which the capital of capitalism regulates the productive forces without regard to the real needs of society. In such a world economic pattern and system, socialist society cannot and should not give up the dividends of capital's promotion of the development of productive forces. However, if we want to overcome the crisis brought about by capital, bypass the suppression of the Western world and achieve independence and self-improvement, it is necessary to give full play to the socialist market economy's function of regulating the productive forces of socialism in accordance with the real needs of society, to enhance the ability to regulate and control capital, and to improve the macro-regulation system. system of macro-control. Therefore, it is necessary to use the power of the state to regulate and control capital in accordance with the law, to insist on the socialist nature of the relations of production of capital, and to rectify the objects of capital's services, so as to avoid the historical consequences of the uncontrolled expansion of capital, as was the case in the late Soviet period, which turned the socialist system against the country.

The use of state power to regulate and manage capital in accordance with the law requires the establishment of a synergistic mechanism of "strong political party, effective market and active government", which is a key to China's development miracle. Firstly, adhering to the strong leadership of the Party is a prerequisite for the functioning of the government. Currently China's economic modernisation and development is facing a complex and changing situation, especially since 2020, the impact of the new crown epidemic, making China's economy is facing unprecedented challenges, need to put more emphasis on the overall economic work and coordination, strong leadership can correctly understand the new situation of the economic work of the law, can grasp the degree of macroeconomic regulation and control and to strengthen the synergies of policies. By giving full play to the Party's role in grasping the overall picture of economic development and forming an effective centre of economic governance, it is possible to seek a dynamic balance among multiple economic development goals. Second, formulate and improve an interactive mechanism in which a competent government and an effective market complement each other. Practice has proved that giving full play to the market's decisive role in resources is the right way to follow the laws of economic operation and promote the modernisation and development of productive forces, but "decisive role" is not the same as "total role", and if the market is allowed to regulate all resources, it will result in the uncontrolled expansion of capital, which in turn will lead to the formation of a new economic system. If the market is allowed to regulate all resources, it will lead to the disorderly expansion of capital, and then form economic bubbles, resulting in capital speculation, thus triggering financial crises affecting the overall situation, when these hidden financial risks become apparent, it will affect social justice. Therefore, it is necessary to set up a "traffic light" for the passage of capital, improve the market access mechanism and competition mechanism, investigate and deal with monopoly and unfair competition in accordance with the law, so as to form a fair and honest market and prevent financial risks. At the same time, we must insist on the external development of the market, give domestic and foreign capital the conditions for interoperability, and control and utilise capital within an effective range, so as to prevent the development of the country from being controlled by foreign capital, weakening the country's long-accumulated capacity, thus creating the potential for social unrest from the outside and from the inside and jeopardising the long-term peace and stability of the society. Third, adhere to the people-centred development concept, adhere to the public ownership-based economic system and the distribution system based on work, so as to deal with the relationship between economic development and social equity, so that capital in the organic combination of government governance and market allocation to adjust the market's supply system, to meet the people's diversified and individualised consumer demand, to enhance the market's consumption potential, to revitalise the national economy, and to promote common prosperity. Promote common prosperity.

4. Conclusion

Modernisation and development have a long way to go, and it has become an established fact that Western modernity has brought unprecedented crisis to the development of all mankind in the contemporary world. The most important feature of the critical theory of Western modernity is that it has constructed the philosophical paradigm of practical criticism centred on the traditional humanist value stance, but this is also where its limitation lies, deviating from the scientific and revolutionary critical stance of the Marxist conception of materialist history and political economy, in contrast to Marx who always adhered to the revolutionary and critical practical stance of the conception of materialist history and instilled revolutionary practical significance into his theories, to form a unity and solid practical synergy, so as to demonstrate the true new modernity.

On the basis of the common features of modernisation, China has explored different modernisation frameworks from those of the West in terms of the positioning of modernisation paths, leadership authority, value goals, development impetus and paradigm of world interaction, so as to pull developing countries out of the swamp of "one-dimensional modernisation", dispel their superstitious belief in the "myths" created by the West, enrich the development paths taken by developing countries with the theoretical and practical paradigms of diversified modernisation based on their own national conditions, and create a new form of human civilisation for the modernisation of human society. It has taken developing countries out of the swamp of "one-dimensional modernisation", broken their superstitions about the "myths" created by Western modernisation, and enriched the development paths taken by developing countries in the world with the theoretical and practical paradigms of diversified modernisation based on their own national conditions, thus creating a new form of human civilisation and providing a brand-new choice for the modernisation of the human society.


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Cite this article

Chen,B.;Sun,X. (2023). Chinese-style Modernization in the Critique of Modernity. Advances in Humanities Research,3,47-57.

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Journal:Advances in Humanities Research

Volume number: Vol.3
ISSN:2753-7080(Print) / 2753-7099(Online)

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