Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)
No. 5, 2025
Chinese Modernization Transcends Modernity
(Abstract)
Li Baogeng
Modernity refers to the set of values established by Western countries during their modernization processes and embodies the spirit inherent in each stage of modernization. Because Western capitalist countries were the first to undergo intellectual enlightenment and industrial revolution, they gained a privileged position in defining both modernization and modernity. As a new framework for constructing modernity, Chinese modernization avoids the binary of “dependence versus decoupling.” It selectively draws from modernity’s values—such as science and innovation, democracy, freedom, equality, and openness—while critically discarding its negative aspects, including Westerncentrism, institutional and value biases, and ecological injustice. In doing so, it charts an independent course for late-developing countries to achieve catch-up modernization. As a new form of modernization rooted in socialism with Chinese characteristics, Chinese modernization redefines modernization across multiple dimensions: theoretical logic, value orientation, institutional design, and ecological civilization. It deconstructs and transcends Western modernity, breaking the singular narrative that equates modernization with Westernization, and presents an alternative model with its own distinct trajectory.