Li Xiguang: on alternatives to Western Modernity

The speech of Li Xiguang (China), professor of Tsinghua University, director of Tsinghua University International Center for Communication Studies, during the Global Conference on Multipolarity (29.04.2023).

Multi-modernity and Chinese-style modernization

Professor of School of Journalism

Tsinghua University

After the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held, "Chinese modernity”, “new form of human civilization", "diversity of civilizations", "coexistence of civilizations surpassing the superiority of civilizations" were written into the congress report or the newly revised party constitution. This is a brand-new way of thinking of intellectuals since European modernity was copied in the beginning of last century.

In an era when Western ideology and capitalism are fully infiltrating our lives, Chinese modernity and the new form of civilization are an important step in the production of knowledge of a new modernity.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and the West have been talking that only when China fully accepts Western ideological paradigms can China be qualified to become a member of modern society.

Especially in recent years, the Western media and politicians have joined hands in using racist media language to enhance a totally negative narrative of China. ”By manipulating the agenda of the international  community, the West is stepping up its speed in internalizing their ideology in non-Western societies. Any country that deviates from the Western value system, and takes an independent system from the West, it will be labeled as a "rogue nation" or "pariah".

Over the past centuiry, the Communist Party of China has fulfilled its mission, uniting the Chinese people to draw a magnificent picture in the human development on the vast land of China, and made people who have been slaved both physically and mentally by the Western colonialists for more than 100 years stand up with a brand new modernity.

Chinese modernity is defined by maintaining close ties with the people and practicing a people-centered development philosophy.For example, the common prosperity that China has emphasized is in its definition of Chinese modernity. But this key message is not in the mind of the people who hold the banner of Western modernity since European enlightenment.

After more than 40 years of reform and opening up, when we talk about Chinese-style modernization, it is no longer just the four modernizations of industry, agriculture, national defense and science and technology initiated by Premier Zhou Enlai in the 10th National Congress of CPC in 1974 At the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Chairman Xi on the basis of summarizing experience and in-depth analysis of the Chinese actual situation, he has formulated a plan for the overall promotion of the new modernization from the five aspects of civilization which include economy, politics, culture, society, and ecology.

The strategic goal of the "five in one" blueprint is a new version of modernity.

China was forced to start its westernization since 1840 But the Chinese modernity proposed by the 20th Party Congress was not only defined in terms of economy and society, but politics, culture, and even ecology. And the standards of the new modernity are localized in China.

Chairman Xi in his report at the 20th Party congress proposed a brand new definition of the socialism with Chinese characterisitc which is a combination of China’s actual national conditions with China's thousands of years of tradition and balue system.

The West inheriting the their colonialist tradition, continue using their colonial mentality to enslave the  developing countries economically but also ideologically by "Orientalizing" and "demonizing" southern countries.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo warned China that to keep China in its proper place. He sounds like a slave owner talking to his slaves.

In the 18th century,Europeans were deeply impressed by the wealth and style of governance of China. In the meantime, the ideas of the British classical economists like Adam Smith were woven into the story of the rise of the West: the concept of capitalist industry is " Progress” while Asia is “backward” and “authoritarian”.

German sociologist Max Weber proposed at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that India and China lacks the cultural values necessary for capitalism. Even so, they can be "modernized," but only through a painful process of cultural transformation, removing their cultural "barriers" to capitalist development.

In the eyes of some historians, Europe has some unrivaled characteristics that make it the first to modernize. Europe thus obtained the morality and power to spread "modernity" to the whole world, while places outside Europe could not produce "modernity" independently due to cultural, political or economic "obstacles".

Many people think that these concepts, especially market capitalism and democracy, can only come from Western civilization.Because of their "perfection",the European civilization is universal, not only for the West, but for everyone.

This way of looking at the rise of the modern world is based on an imagined cultural superiority of the West. Eurocentric thinking represents the soft power of the US and the West, and believes that all advanced and excellent new ideas and practices can only come from the West.

By 2020, the last 6 million poor people in China were lifted out of poverty, and China, the most populous country in the world, have become a society out of poverty.

However, the West never regards poverty alleviation as the goal of human rights, but uses human rights as a political weapon to maintain its ideological and political  hegemony in the world, and demonizes countries whose interests may run counter to those of the West.

By wielding the big stick of "human rights", the United States is trying to maintain the political and military alliances of the West, and at the same time engage in large-scale Westernization of ideology and values around the world. But the Western modernity and neoliberalism are no longer growing. We are witnessing an expansion of Chinese spiritual power. This is a Chinese modernity and a new form of human civilization.

マルチモダンと中国的近代化

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