Cultivation and Promotion of Socialist core value

Main points of the speech at the 13th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee which Xi Jinping presided over on February 24, 2014. Contained in the book The Governance of China by Xi Jinping published by Foreign Languages Press.

The speech pointed out: “Core values, a fundamental factor for the texture and orientation of a culture, are the soul of cultural soft power and a key to building a nation’s cultural soft power.” In essence, cultural soft power depends on the vitality, cohesion and appeal of the core values of a nation. Cultivating and disseminating the core values and effectively integrating the people’s consciousness and mindset is an important means of ensuring that for social systems to function properly and for social order to be effectively maintained, and is also an important aspect of a country's governance system and ability to govern. History and reality have shown that building core values with a strong appeal is related to social harmony and stability, and favorable to the long-term stability of the country.

Facts prove that to successfully build a set of core values with strong appeal is connected with a country’s social harmony and stability, as well as its long-term peace and order. To cultivate and disseminate the Socialist core value we must take traditional Chinese culture as the base. All concrete core values are deeply rooted. So, to renounce such values is tantamount to severing our cultural lifeline. The extensive, profound and outstanding traditional Chinese culture is the foundation for us to stand firm upon in the global mingling and to resist against clashing of cultures. The long-developed Chinese culture embraces our deepest intellectual pursuits. It is an icon of the unique Chinese nation, and has ensured the lineage, development and growth of the Chinese nation. Traditional Chinese virtues are the essence of Chinese culture and they embody rich ethical and moral resources.

Only by etching these values in our minds can we forge ahead, and only by carrying forward what our ancestors have left us can we learn to be more creative. With regard to values, perceptions and ethics handed down for generations, we should make the past serve the present, discard the dross and keep the essential, eliminate the false and retain the true, and put forth new ideas. That is to say, we should treat and inherit them with a critical approach and cultivate and educate the people with the Chinese cultural legacy.

We should work hard to absorb the philosophical and moral essence of excellent traditional Chinese culture, and vigorously foster and carry forward the national sprit with patriotism at the core and and the spirit of the times with reform and innovation at its core, and deeply explore and expound the contemporary values of excellent Chinese traditional culture that preach benevolence and love, emphasize people's principles, abide by honesty and integrity, uphold justice, promote harmony and seek common ground, so that excellent Chinese traditional culture can become an important source of nurturing Socialist core value.

We should properly handle the relationship between inheritance and innovation, with the focus on transforming and developing the fine traditional Chinese culture in a creative way. The “Speech” pointed out that Socialist core value should be effectively penetrated into all aspects of social life.

We should make the core values the people’s pursuit and conscious actions through education, publicity, cultural edification, habitual development and institutional guarantee. What we advocate must be in line with what the people need in their daily life in a manner as detailed and practical as possible. Efforts should be made to integrate the requirements of the Socialist core value into various activities concerning intellectual and cultural progress, so as to attract more people to participate in such activities, upgrade their moral outlook and foster civic virtues in society for family happiness, extending care to others and contributing more to society. We should make use of every opportunity to make this happen, anytime and anywhere.

We should give full play to the role of policy guidance in the spheres of economy, politics, culture and society so as to better serve the cultivation of the Socialist core value, also laws should be used to promote the construction of core values. All kinds of social management should take the responsibility of advocating Socialist core value, pay attention to embodying value orientation in daily management, so that behaviors conforming to the core values are encouraged and behaviors and conducts which violate the core values are restrained.