Page 16 - Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects

treating it as a rigid dogma. We must continue to free our minds, seek truth

from facts, move with the times, and take a realistic and pragmatic approach.
We must base everything we do on actual conditions and focus on solving
real problems arising in our reform, opening up, and socialist modernization
endeavors in the new era. We must keep responding to the questions posed
by China, by the world, by the people, and by the times; in doing so, we
should find the right answers suited to the realities of China and the needs of
our day, reach conclusions that are compatible with objective laws, and
develop new theories that are in step with the times, so as to provide better
guidance for China’s practice.

To uphold and develop Marxism, we must integrate it with China’s fine
traditional culture. Only by taking root in the rich historical and cultural soil
of the country and the nation can the truth of Marxism flourish here. With a
history stretching back to antiquity, China’s fine traditional culture is

extensive and profound; it is the crystallization of the wisdom of Chinese
civilization. Our traditional culture espouses many important principles and
concepts, including pursuing common good for all; regarding the people as
the foundation of the state; governing by virtue; discarding the outdated in
favor of the new; selecting officials on the basis of merit; promoting harmony
between humanity and nature; ceaselessly pursuing self-improvement;
embracing the world with virtue; acting in good faith and being friendly to
others; and fostering neighborliness. These maxims, which have taken shape
over centuries of work and life, reflect the Chinese people’s way of viewing

the universe, the world, society, and morality and are highly consistent with
the values and propositions of scientific socialism.
We must stay confident in our history and culture, make the past serve
the present, and develop the new from the old. We must integrate the essence

of Marxism with the best of fine traditional Chinese culture and with the
common values that our people intuitively apply in their everyday lives. We
should keep endowing Marxist theory with distinctive Chinese features and
consolidating the historical basis and public support for adapting Marxism to
the Chinese context and the needs of our times. With this, we will ensure that
Marxism puts down deep roots in China.

Just as there are no bounds to practice, there is no end to theoretical
innovation. It is the solemn historical responsibility of today’s Chinese
Communists to continue opening new chapters in adapting Marxism to the
Chinese context and the needs of the times. To keep advancing theoretical
innovation on the basis of practical experience, we must, first of all, gain a
good command of the worldview and methodology of the Thought on
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and adhere to and make

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