Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China has entered a new era of comprehensively building a modern world power. To this end, I have summarized the following three major changes and basic characteristics of China’s basic realization of the long-term goal of socialist modernization by 2035:

First, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society in the new era is that between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. This has been the main determinant in Chinese socialism entering a new stage of development and evolving towards a more balanced, more adequate and more comprehensive development pattern.

Secondly, China is still in the primary stage of socialism. It has been nearly 70 years since the mid-1950s, and great progress has been made in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. From very low-income to low-income, middle-low-income to middle-high-income, and then further transitioning to high-income, China has entered a transition period from the primary stage to a higher development stage. Ultimately, it will take fifteen years to basically achieve the goal of realizing socialist modernization and reach the level of a medium-developed country. It marks that by 2035, China will have been in the transition to the intermediate stage of socialist development. Gradually it will transition and advance from a medium-developed level to a relatively developed level. However, this process will take even more time, and it will be realized in the 100th year of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (2049) and the 100th year of the reform and opening up (2078). And it is accompanied by the whole process of the great rejuvenation of the entire Chinese nation.

Third, China’s status in the world is rising from the largest developing country to the largest emerging economy, and will further rise to the largest medium-developed country by 2035. It will then become the world’s most powerful modern country by 2050. China has entered the center of the world stage and actively promoted the construction of the community with a shared future for mankind. “China will continue its efforts to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, and uphold international order.”Footnote 1

It can be seen from this that from 2020 to 2035, it will not only be a period of strategic opportunity for the development of China’s socialist modernization, but also a golden period of development, during which we have the conditions and abilities to basically achieve the grand goal of socialist modernization. A world power will be built.

According to the “Proposal” of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Party and the report to the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my long-term outlook for China in 2035 is as follows:

First, China’s economic strength will significantly increase, the GDP will double again, and China will become a world power in economy. From 2020 to 2035, China’s economy will maintain sustained, stable and healthy development, with an average annual growth rate of around 5%. China’s GDP (PPP, international dollar in 2017) will account for a greater proportion of the world’s total, reaching more than 1/4, making the largest contribution to world economic growth (more than 1/3). China’s GDP per capita, labor productivity, residents’ per capita disposable income and consumption expenditure will be doubled compared with that of the 2020. China’s GDP per capita (PPP, international dollar in 2017) will reach the level of a medium-developed country, and more than 80% of the population will reach the middle-income level (daily income or expenditure per person is 10–100 international dollars). China will become the world’s largest import and export trade country.

Second, China’s science and technical strength will jump significantly and China will enter the forefront of innovative countries, and become a world power in science and technology. The main scientific and technological indicators will leap to the forefront of the world, and key and core technologies will have major breakthroughs and realize independent control. China will build a grand national strategic scientific and technological force, construct a major global scientific hub, greatly increase the contribution rate to global scientific research and technological innovation, enter the middle and high end of the global value chain, build the world’s largest digital economy and smart society. China will build the world’s largest knowledge-intensive industry, strive to achieve a rate of scientific and technological progress of roughly 70%,Footnote 2 and enter the forefront of the world in terms of international scientific and technological competitiveness, creativity and influence.

Third, China will basically realize new industrialization, informatization (digitization), urbanization, and agricultural modernization. China will strive for becoming the world’s major manufacturing power, build several world-class advanced manufacturing clusters, promote the advanced industrial foundation and the modernization of the industrial chain, enter the mid-to-high end of the global value chain, and boost its strength in manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transportation, cyberspace, and digital development. The population urbanization will reach an even higher level. The modernization of agriculture and rural areas will be basically realized and China will become a world power in agriculture. The modernization of infrastructure will also be realized, a world transportation power will be built, the world largest digital modern logistics system will be constructed, and the world’s largest modern economic system and domestic market system will also be built. The total factor productivity will be significantly improved, and the core competitiveness of international industries will also be significantly enhanced.

Fourth, more tangible progress will be made for the common prosperity of all people. People’s living (including consumption structure) will have reached the level of medium-developed countries, high-quality and full employment will be achieved, the gap between urban and rural residents’ living standards will be significantly narrowed, the long-term and balanced development of the people will be greatly promoted, the aging and low birth rate will be effectively dealt with, the basic public services will be equalized, and social security will have realized a coverage of all the people. Under the leadership of the Party, all the people can jointly build a society of common prosperity (referred to as the “common wealth society”). This not only fully reflects the essence, value and goal of socialism, but also fully safeguards the common interests, fundamental interests and long-term interests of all the 1.4 billion people.

Fifth, a country with strong culture, education, talent, sports and health will be built. China is rich in its cultural traditions and cultural resources, and has sustained and strong creativity and vitality. Culture, tourism and sports have become important pillars of emerging industries in China. The total proportion of cultural tourism and sports industry to GDP will increase from 9.50% in 2020 to about 15% by 2035. They have become one of the most important emerging pillar industries in China and are industries with high growth flexibility. By 2035, China will build the world’s largest cultural market, tourism market, and sports market, becoming a country with a strong culture. Chinese culture will be more attractive, and its philosophy and social sciences will move to the forefront of the world. The country’s cultural soft power will be significantly enhanced. China will realize the modernization of education as a whole, and its main educational indicators will reach the level of medium-developed countries, becoming a country with strong educational resources. China will become the world’s largest “lifelong learning” society and a country with strong human resources, and the total amount of different kinds of talents increases from 220 million in 2020 to more than 320 million—this will all support China to build a leading country in talent. China’s comprehensive competitive sports strength and international influence will remain at the forefront of the world and China will become a country strong in sports. The modernization of health will also be functionally realized, and health indicators such as population life expectancy will reach the world’s advanced levelFootnote 3 (Han Zheng 2020), with the goal of a healthy China being achieved.

Sixth, the ecological environment will be fundamentally improved, and the goal of building a beautiful China will be basically achieved. In China, the eco-friendly working and living style will be widely formed. A clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system and an economic system with eco-friendly, low-carbon and cyclical development will be basically established. The quality of the ecological environment will be fundamentally improved, and a system of ecological security barrier will be basically established. The total carbon emissions will be stabilized and then decline after reaching a peak before 2030, and China will play a more important role in addressing global climate changeFootnote 4. China will build itself into a global green energy powerhouse and marine powerhouse.

Seventh, China will make new and greater contributions to human development.Footnote 5 China will make contributions to world peace. China has become a modern power in the world and firmly supports the United Nations in maintaining world peace. It will contribute to world security, actively respond to traditional and non-traditional security threats, and adhere to a new approach of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. China will make contributions to world development, such as accelerating economic growth, trade growth, scientific and technological innovation. China will contribute to world civilization and culture, promote exchanges, dialogue and mutual learning among civilizations; make eco-friendly contributions to the world’s response to climate change and the world’s protection of the earth’s homeland; and it will build a community with a shared future for mankind together with all countries in the world.

All in all, China is still in an important period of strategic development opportunities, no matter the specifics of the development stage, development conditions, development capabilities, and development strategies — China is ripe for development and enjoys favorable international and domestic environment as well as popular support to basically realize socialist modernization by 2035. The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. China has entered the center of the world stage and is in a new round of global technological and industrial revolution. China is innovating and leading this unprecedented revolution, and there are profound changes in the international power dynamics. China has become the largest dependent and independent variable worldwide, and peace and development remain the principal themes of the times. China is not only a proponent and defender of world and regional peace, but also the biggest engine of the world development. China is closer than ever to the goal of becoming a powerful modern socialist country, and is in a better position to coordinate the overall strategy of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the global major changes unseen in a century.

At the same time, China will also encounter various foreseeable, unforeseeable, domestic and international development challenges, including the “gray rhino” and the “black swan” events, major risks and external shocks. An example of this is the global public health, especially the COVID-19 pandemic. The normalization period of the COVID-19 pandemic (about 2–3 years), the medium period of it (about 5 years), and even the long-term period of it (about 10 years) will directly impact world economic growth, international trade, international investment, international finance, global value chain and supply chain, and the international tourism and exchanges. The United States, as a world dominant power, has always been China’s biggest international challenger. The United States has launched trade wars, technology wars, information wars, and public opinion wars in a comprehensive manner, and openly supports “Taiwan independence”, “Hong Kong independence”, “Tibet independence” and “Xinjiang independence”—directly challenging the bottom line of China’s core national interests. The United States also imposes economic sanctions and economic blockade on China, carries out military provocation, military intervention, cyber-attacks and space threats against China, creating a new cold war, and even launching regional “hot wars” to contain China. This has been done with the intention of interrupting the process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In view of this, China must speed up its development process and become stronger. It can do this especially through coordinating modernization development and national security strategies, strengthening national defense construction, increasing the national defense spending, vigorously improving economic strength, scientific and technological strength, trade strength, national defense strength, overall national strength and international influence. China will proactively respond to predictable and unpredictable major challenges, realize the overall goal of building socialist modernization in all aspects by 2035 as scheduled, and lay a higher development foundation for China’s building a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist country by 2050.