Tackling the principal contradiction is the primary methodology to implement Marxism. Making clear and keeping addressing the principal social contradiction are the essential prerequisites for advancing social progress. In retrospect, we did advance the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics so as to become the second largest economy in the world. Meanwhile, we eliminated absolute poverty, achieved a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and embarked on a new path to modernization with Chinese characteristics. Obviously, the above great achievements come from our correct judgement of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society. Changes in the principal social contradiction bring about corresponding driving force transformations of Chinese modernization which are embodied in the following aspects: from meeting people’s material and cultural needs to meeting people’s needs for a better life, from inputting a large number of factors to taking innovation as the primary driving force, from addressing backward social production to strengthening the supply-side structural reform, from heavily depending on international market to establishing the “dual circulation” development pattern where domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, and from only providing material incentive to attaching equal importance to material and spiritual incentives.

Editor: Zhong Yao、Zheng Yifan

From:Journal of University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.2022.No.4.