The Zunyi Meeting convened by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in January 1935 during the Long March stands as a pivotal meeting that brings about a major turn with farreaching significance in the history of the party. It has evolved into a distinct historical symbol throughout the Partys centurylong struggle. At the critical historical junctures marked by twists and turns in the Partys historical development and revolutionary cause, this meeting, in actual fact, established Mao Zedong as the leader of the Red Army and the CPC Central Committee. It also began the establishment of the correct Marxist line, represented by Mao Zedong, in the CPC Central Committee, and began the formation of CPCs first generation of collective leadership, with Mao Zedong at the core. The Zunyi Meeting inaugurated a new phase in which the Party independently and autonomously addressed the practical realities of the Chinese revolution, rescuing the Party, the Red Army, and the Chinese revolutionary cause at their most perilous juncture. This pivotal meeting subsequently enabled the Party to overcome Zhang Guotaos splittism, successfully concludcd the Long March, and ushered in a transformative new paradigm for Chinas revolutionary struggle. The profound revelations of the Zunyi Meeting lie in the following: it is necessary to forge a robust and mature collective leadership, to persist in charting an independent and autonomous path, to implement the organic integration of Marxisms fundamental tenets with Chinas concrete realities, and to steadfastly safeguard the correct political line and strategic policy framework. On the new journey, the effective application of the Zunyi Meetings precious historical legacy and the perpetual radiance of its revolutionary spirit constitute the most dynamic embodiment of the Meetings enduring historical stature and continuing contemporary relevance.

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposes that the integrated development of urban and rural areas is an inevitable requirement for realizing the Chinese path to modernization. To advance the integrated development of urban and rural areas, efforts must be grounded in the goal of pursuing the Chinese path to modernization. Currently, urbanrural development faces multidimensional challenges in modernization, including the population scale, common prosperity, ecological civilization, cultural heritage, and food security, highlighting contradictions between the market economy system and the urbanrural dual system, between regional spatial structures and holistic development needs, and between shortterm development orientations and longterm objectives. To achieve the Chinese path to modernization, we must move beyond mere improvements in urbanrural relations and instead pursue deep integration across three dimensions: institutional frameworks, structural alignment, and functional objectives. It is thus necessary to accelerate marketoriented reforms in urbanrural factor allocation, foster coordinated and compact spatial planning, and strategically leverage the comparative advantages of urban and rural areas.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed cultural construction in a prominent position in governing the country, planned and promoted the reform of the cultural management system as an important part of comprehensively deepening reform, made a series of major decisions and arrangements on how to further promote highquality development of cultural construction, and had a series of major theoretical and practical achievements. The historic achievements and shifts in the cause of the Party and the country were made possible fundamentally because General Secretary Xi Jinping, as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party, has steered a steady course at the helm, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era has provided scientific guidance. To further promote cultural construction on the new journey, we must fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, inherit and develop Chinas excellent traditional culture, promote the localization of foreign cultures, and constantly cultivate and create socialist culture with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

To consolidate the modern vitality of Chinese civilization, it is necessary to address the dynamic tensions between tradition and modernity, and between China and the West. Historical materialism, examining modern Western civilization from à la hauteur des principes, revealing the historical and antagonistic nature of its social relations. To ensure its interpretive and guiding role in shaping the modern vitality of Chinese civilization, it is imperative to avoid abstract and dogmatic applications of historical materialism. Instead, a concrete analysis should be conducted regarding the developmental status of social productive forces and the actual forms of social production and livelihood. The concretization of historical materialism constitutes both the philosophical revolution achieved by Marx and a trajectory deeply embedded in the historical context of the Communist Party of China (CPC)s leadership in harnessing the modern vitality of Chinese civilization. As a practical task and cultural mission entrusted to both the Party and the people, consolidating the modern vitality of Chinese civilization must remain grounded in the methodological principles of the concretization of historical materialism. The “Two Integrations” serve as the theoretical basis for the modern vitality of Chinese civilization, represent the practical path consciously pursued by the CPC in the concretization of historical materialism, and highlight the theoretical connotations of the modern vitality of Chinese civilization. The à la hauteur des principes of the modern vitality of Chinese civilization are reflected in three dimensions: its contemporary contexts, developmental principles, and future trajectory.

The relationship between Marx and Rousseau serves as a critical axis for understanding the evolution of Marxs thought. While Rousseau offers the most profound articulation of war and peace within the framework of social contract theory, Marxs sustained engagement with Rousseau becomes pivotal in forging the paradigm of historical materialism. Transcending and rejecting Rousseaus “statecentric theory” across philosophical foundations, root causes of conflict, pathways to peace, and value systems, Marx achieves a groundbreaking advance in the history of political philosophy. Confronting unprecedented global, epochal, and historical transformations, delving deeper into Marxs politicalphilosophical framework on war and peace not only deepens our understanding of his intellectual legacy but also illuminates contemporary challenges and addresses the demands of our time. 

The narrative of national rejuvenation in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC) refers to the fact that when recording and interpreting historical facts, researchers of the Party history guide the whole Party to establish a correct view of the Party history by highlighting the historical theme of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, as well as the events and figures closely related to that theme. By examining the history of the CPC during the period of the New Democratic Revolution to study the historical narrative of national rejuvenation in the Party history, first, we can grasp the connection between key historical events of this period and the overarching theme of national rejuvenation, thereby deepening the research on major historical incidents in the history of the Party through analyzing the relationship between ethnic conflicts and class contradictions; second, we can understand the principal contradictions and central tasks in different phases of the democratic revolution, analyze how the narrative of national rejuvenation informs historical periodization, and enhance the research on CPC historical periodization by exploring the interaction between principal contradictions and core missions; third, we can comprehend the historical inevitability of China adopting regional ethnic autonomy within a unified framework, and advance the research on the history of the Partys ethnic policies by tracing the evolution of the Partys understanding of forms of state structure.

Before and after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) approached the issue of socialist transition by applying a comprehensive criterion that integrated relations of production with productive forces. It set the goal of transitioning to socialism as the establishment of a socialist society and planned to accomplish this transition over a considerable period of time. After the 8th CPC National Congress announced that the socialist system was basically established, Mao Zedong and other Party leaders believed that the transition period had not yet ended, and took the continued completion of the general tasks of the transition period as the starting point to understand and guide socialist construction. Amid complex domestic and international dynamics, the CPC increasingly prioritized issues of production relations during socialist construction. This manifested in the phased replacement of the “transition to socialism” with the “transition to communism”, as the notion of a distinct “socialist transition period” gradually faded from official discourse. The Partys exploration of the socialist transition period provides valuable historical insights for understanding the stages of societal development.

The discourse dimension constitutes an endogenous issue within ideological and political education. Constructing a robust discourse system has served as the central focus of the Communist Party of Chinas centurylong praxis in ideological and political education and the development of the discipline of ideological and political education over the past four decades. From the perspective of the theme of the times, the discourse system of ideological and political education in the new era focuses on the theme of rejuvenation around achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the theme of educating people around enhancing ideological and political guidance and clearing doubts, the theme of debate around competing for discourse power in international communication, and the theme of digital intelligence around adapting to the new round of information technology revolution. In terms of intrinsic qualities, the discourse system of ideological and political education presents the generative qualities of realism, subjectivity and knowledge, the elemental qualities of political discourse, academic discourse and life discourse, and the transformative qualities of rationalization, popularization and increased engagement. From the perspective of construction focuses, it is necessary to strengthen the value orientation of the discourse system in adhering to the mainstream ideology, consolidate the theoretical foundation of the discourse system in building an independent knowledge system, strengthen the substantive foundation of the discourse system through globallyacclaimed achievements, and draw cultural nourishment for the discourse system from the preservation of Chinese civilization.

Consumerism is the inevitable product of capital growth, which is mainly manifested in consumption alienation. Digital consumerism is a new manifestation and novel form of traditional consumerism in the digital age. In essence, it is a value concept and ideology that fully reflects the digital capitalist mode of production. Under the coercion of digital consumerism, the logic of capital expands infinitely from the field of material life to the field of spiritual life, resulting in the spiritual alienation of human beings, which is mainly manifested in the tendency of materialization of value rationality, the concealment and dissolution of human subjectivity, and the deviation of the meaning system. Therefore, only by breaking through the spiritual discipline of digital consumerism on people, abandoning instrumental rationality, and getting rid of code worship can we transcend digital consumerism and reconstruct the spiritual world of man.

When examining the dissemination of democracy across diverse historical contexts, its connotations and characteristics inevitably undergo corresponding transformations. In essence, this represents a process of “reconceptualizing” democracy. Toward such reconceptualization, we must adopt a dialectical and constructive perspective: it requires not only revisiting its original historical context but also conducting a comparative and systematic examination of its evolution within new frameworks. Democracy is constantly “reconceptualized”, which shows that its connotation and characteristics are constantly adjusted and enriched with the development of the times so that it can better adapt to the requirements of the times, rather than forming a rigid Western model that becomes the only experience and standard for the development of world democracy. The concept of “wholeprocess peoples democracy” emerging from Chinas historical context represents a modern adaptation and innovative development of democratic theory. Its formation stems from both the combination of endogenous and exogenous factors, as well as a process of continuous accumulation and spirallike evolution and innovation. The concept of “wholeprocess peoples democracy” is proposed based on the “depths of history” and “real life”, which is a full understanding and scientific definition of the concept of “democracy”. It is more in line with the laws and actual conditions of the evolution of democracy itself, reflecting not only the program and wisdom of Chinas democratic development, but also the richness and diversity of the worlds democratic development.

There are different forms of global governance; in addition to the rulebased model of governance, there is also a principlebased model of governance. This paper proposes a research agenda for “principled governance” focusing on the oftenoverlooked dimension of principlebased governance in global governance. Principles are defined as a series of consensuses formed by actors regarding appropriate conduct and developed through the exploration of established practices or patterns. These consensuses, grounded in considerations of common interests and the pursuit of normative values, encompass elements such as customs, conventions, knowledge, values, and interests. In contrast, principled governance primarily adheres to the logic of appropriateness, integrating three theoretical perspectives: international practices, knowledge creation, and power dynamics. This approach facilitates the connection between major social science paradigms like rationalism and constructivism. As an emerging theoretical issue in global governance research, studies of principled governance still require substantial development, particularly in the following areas: establishing a framework of global governance principles, investigating the mechanisms behind principle formation and evolution, advancing theories of changes in global governance mechanisms, and exploring the development of principles and global governance.

Amidst the rapid development and refinement of digital technology systems, capitalist communication practices, centered around information production, transmission, reception, and interpretation, have undergone profound transformations. The communication system notably demonstrates extensive economic attributes that transcend mere information exchange and ideological realms, increasingly assuming a more critical economic function within contemporary capitalist modes of production. From a politicaleconomic perspective, the capitalist digital communication system fulfills its economic roles within the structure of capital accumulation through five distinct mechanisms: material production, immaterial production, capital circulation acceleration, the intensification of exploitation and inequality, and the reproduction of mainstream ideologies. The Western digital communication system remains incapable of overcoming, and will continue to exacerbate, the inherent contradictions and crisis tendencies embedded within the modes of capitalist production.