Illustration: Xia Qing/ GT

Since the beginning of reform and opening-up, each of the third plenary sessions of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also known as the third plenum, has primarily focused on reform, holding special significance in the Party's historical narrative. The third plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee kicked off on Monday, with a focus on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization. The addition of "advancing Chinese modernization" to the agenda of the third plenum is of great practical and historical significance.

In the last few decades, the Chinese people have persistently pursued modernization. The journey of the CPC leading the people toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is also a continuous exploration of how to achieve modernization. Chinese modernization is a significant achievement obtained through long-term exploration and practice. Practice has proven that Chinese modernization is viable and stable, and it is the only correct path to build a strong country and rejuvenate the nation. As Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized, promoting Chinese modernization must be upheld as the foremost politics.

Advancing Chinese modernization is an unprecedented and exploratory undertaking, a systematic project with many unknown areas and numerous difficulties to overcome. It requires bold exploration in practice, combining crossing the river by feeling the stones with strengthening top-level design and driving the development of undertakings through reform and innovation.

Reform and opening-up are the key moves that determine the success or failure of Chinese modernization. To advance Chinese modernization, we must further deepen reform and opening-up, continually liberating and developing social productive forces and unleashing and enhancing social vitality. For example, we need to actively develop new quality productive forces, significantly improve total factor productivity, promote technological innovation to empower industrial transformation and upgrading, and achieve economic structural optimization and high-quality development. 

Therefore, at this critical period of comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation, considering comprehensive deepening of reform as the fundamental driving force for advancing Chinese modernization and studying Chinese modernization as "the foremost politics" at the third plenum will surely write a new chapter in fully advancing Chinese modernization with high-quality development and further leveraging the unique advantages of Chinese modernization.

Amid the current international political and economic turmoil, major changes unseen in a century are accelerating in all directions and in-depth. Human society is once again standing at the crossroads of history. How to achieve modernization is a must-answer question that lies before political parties and governments in many countries.

In the process of modernization, a country must follow the general pattern, but it also should conform to its own reality and have its own characteristics. Chinese modernization has distinctive characteristics based on its own national conditions. For example, China's huge population is a defining characteristic of Chinese modernization. China always adheres to a people-centric approach and promotes common prosperity, it insists on peaceful development, and it is committed to building a global community of shared future, unlike the West, which engages in unrestrained disputes between political parties and inconsistent domestic policies, while advocating capital-centered expansion and plundering of other countries.

It must be noted that modernization has never been a "single-choice question" and there is always more than one path to modernization. The myth and stereotype that modernization equals Westernization must be broken. As a responsible major country, Chinese modernization draws on the achievements of other civilizations and pursues common prosperity and mutual learning among civilizations. The initial successful practice and remarkable achievements of Chinese modernization clearly demonstrate  the new picture and new characteristics of modernization, while creating a new form of human civilization and providing a Chinese solution for humanity's exploration of better social systems.

For instance, China has aligned its development strategies with other developing countries through platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative, shared governance experiences with each other within the frameworks of the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative, and carried out South-South cooperation. These are an integral part of expanding the development space for Chinese modernization.

Chinese modernization contains a unique world vision, values, history, civilization, democracy and ecology, as well as great practices. With the continuous advancement of Chinese modernization, innovative theories on Chinese modernization will continue to enrich and develop.

The author is the director and associate research fellow at the International Cooperation Division of the Bureau of Foreign Cooperation and Exchange at the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee. [email protected]