China's development blends Marxism with national reality, tradition: scholars

The effective integration of Marxism with China's national conditions and traditional culture provides a framework for the country's unique development path, according to Chinese and Russian scholars.

Over a century and a half ago, Karl Marx envisioned a development path through his theory of historical materialism that countries like China would follow. Although Marx never visited China, his vision has profoundly influenced China's social evolution and still closely aligned with the country's reality today. Xin Xiangyang, president and Party deputy secretary of the Academy of Marxism of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), highlighted the foresight of the great philosopher concerning China's future path. He also emphasized the adaptation of Marx's theories to China's socio-political context and the process of its localization, which has played a crucial role in shaping the country's social development.

"Marx envisioned the development of Chinese society and its continuous progress. After Marxism was introduced to China, we did not reject it as some other regions did. In 1939, Mao Zedong stated that our national condition was a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. We Chinese have spent a hundred years to understand this statement with the help of Marxism. The Communist Party of China has integrated the fundamental principles of Marxism with China's actual conditions and traditional culture, achieving the socialist future that Marx predicted for China's social development," said Xin.

A.V. Lomanov, a professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that China has successfully integrated Marxism with its traditional culture, something the Soviet Union failed to achieve. "The Soviet Union and China both implemented the 'first combination' by adapting the basic principles of Marxism with the specific conditions of their countries. However, China has pioneered the 'second combination' (by integrating the basic principles of Marxism with its traditional culture). One weakness of the Soviet Union was the absence of this 'second combination'," said the Russian scholar.

In Xin's view, both Marxism and traditional Chinese ideals share common values, emphasizing collective well-being, social equality, and the goal of a harmonious society.

"We Chinese have the ideals of 'Great Harmony' and 'the world is for all'. For thousands of years, the Chinese have striven for 'Great Harmony', which does has a lot in common with the communism envisaged by Marx," said Xin.

China's development blends Marxism with national reality, tradition: scholars

China's development blends Marxism with national reality, tradition: scholars

China's development blends Marxism with national reality, tradition: scholars

China's development blends Marxism with national reality, tradition: scholars

A new batch of historical records unveiling the atrocities committed by the invading Japanese army in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre was released at a ceremony held on Friday in a museum in east China's Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province.

The massacre following the Japanese troops' capture of Nanjing, the then Chinese capital, on Dec 13, 1937, left more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers dead.

Friday's ceremony in the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders was just held days before the 88th anniversary of the one of the most barbaric episodes of World War II.

The released historical records include letters of Japanese soldiers, photos taken after the occupation of Nanjing by the invading Japanese army, archival records of military medics who died in the defense of Nanjing, and the English and French periodicals.

Analysts say the newly released historical records provide irrefutable evidence for restoring the truth of history and constitute a powerful rebuttal to the claims of the Japanese right-wing forces.

China releases new findings on Nanjing Massacre