Era Of Knowledge Economy And Socialism With Chinese Characteristics

In the 19th century, Heinrich Heine, the great German poetand thinker,once said that every era had its own probIem of greatsignificance and that the solution to it would carry the humansociety forward. At the turning point of the 20th and 21Ih centuries,a new problem----knowledge economy emerges and becomes apoint at issue. Comrade Jiang Zemin pointed out, "In the modernworld, science and technology have advanced by leaps andbounds, knowledge economy has shown its inkling and strengthcompetition between nations tends to be intense.,' The world ison the way to a new era----an era of knowledge economy. Buthow to understand knowledge economy and the era of knowledgeeconomy? How will it affect the socialist construction withChinese characteristics? What are the development trends of thesocialism with Chinese characteristics? AlI these are theproblems to be studied in the new era. From a macroscopicallypoint of view, and through anaIysing the basic characteristics ofthe era of knowIedge economy, the article mainly probes theeffects that the deveIopment of knowledge economy has on thesocialism with Chinese characteristics. The author also putsforward his own idea on the development trends of the socialismwith Chinese characteristics.The article includes three parts:The first part deals with the basic characteristics of the era ofknowledge economy and a few aspects from which to grasp thesecharacteristics. Since l950s and l960s, knowIedge has begun topIay a more and more important role in the development ofeconomy and society, and this draws people's attention.Futurologists have studied the phenomenon and come to acommon conclusion that human being is on the way to a newknowledge-based era, in which knowledge occupies thefundamental position in the economic development, substitutesfor resources, energy and transportation, takes the place of time,space and distance, and becomes the final substitute fOr alltangible resources. Because of the tremendous radiative effectsof knowledge, the era of knowledge economy, in comparisonwith the era of conventional industry economy, shows its owncharacteristics in such respects as economy, politics, culture,social life, etc. But when it comes to grasping the problemsconcerning with the era of knowledge economy, a comprehensiveand thorough analysis from such aspects as time, space, subject,reality, ideal, etc, is demanded.The second part deals with the effects that the developmentof knowledge economy has on the socialism with Chinesecharacteristics. The development of knowledge economy hasaffected the world greatly and it will inevitably have much effecton the socialism with Chinese characteristics. Theintellectualization, globalization and market-orientation ofknowledge economy calls for breaking conventions and attachinggreat importance to knowledge, qualified personnel,communication and competition. But during a long period oftime, Our socialist construction was primarily under wayfollowing the conventional socialism pattern borrowed from theformer Soviet Union. This pattern is characteristic of highlycentralized planning, closeness and hotbed, which departs fromthe requirements of developing knowledge economy. Therefore,conventional socialism has to be innovated on its systems inorder to keep up with the development of the times. Thesocialism with Chinese characteristics means that we innovateupon the conventional socialism on the basis of learning from our.experience and lessons and studying the world's situation. Atpresent, a series of new policies and measures on the socialistconstruction with Chinese characteristics have made a publicappearance and this is our response to the challenge ofknowledge economy.The third part mainly analyses the development trends of thesocialism with Chinese characteristics. In such a situation wherethe era of knowledge economy is on the way, China ha...