Evolution And Innovation Of China’s National Security Concept (1982-2022)

As enshrined in the 20 th CPC National Congress Report,“National security is the bedrock of national rejuvenation,and social stability is a prerequisite for building a strong and prosperous China”.With the progress of China’s modernization,our theory and practice of safeguarding national security has been enriched profoundly,our philosophical reflection on national security has been greatly systematized and deepened.Reform-and-opening-up has not only started a new era of China’s endeavor to modernization,but also served as a vital turning point of China’s national security concept,since then,the development-oriented national security concept has become the theoretical base of China’s post-reform-and-opening-up national security concept.Therefore,the timeline of this research stretches from 1982 to 2022,choosing“China’s national security concept” as the research object,the 12 th to 20 th CPC National Congress Reports as research material and narrative clue,textual and historical analyses as research methods,this study aims to summarize the process of evolution and experience of innovation of China’s national security concept,and explore the narrative of China’s modernization from the angle of “national security”.As the systematic cognition of safeguarding national security,national security concept is not only a complex conceptual system,but also the ideological basis guiding the practice of safeguarding national security.This study claims that the evolution of national security concept is driven by three main factors: external,internal and force majeure.The four-dimensional framework of "prospect-environment-interest-strategy" is established to observe the main characteristics of national security concept in different periods of China.During Deng Xiaoping era(1982-1992,12th-13 th CPC National Congress),reform-and-opening-up made economic development China’s vital national security interest.It is also in this era that a unitary national security concept with traditional security as its core came to an end.In this era,China’s national security concept has an introvert nature,and is the development-oriented national security concept aiming on the economic development.During Jiang Zemin era(1992-2002,14th-16 th CPC National Congress),under the background of multi-polarization and globalization,non-traditional global security issues emerged one after another,which cannot be solved only by the power of just one country.It is in this era that China’s national security concept achieved the outward steering,shaping a new vision of national security emphasizing on the cooperation between countries.During Hu Jintao era(2002-2012,17th-18 th CPC National Congress),facing the contradiction of China’s peaceful rise and "China threat theory",China determined to insist on taking the path of peaceful development.It is in this era that China claims the peaceful nature of China’s national security concept with the prospect of a “harmonious world”.During Xi Jinping era(2012-2022,19th-20 th CPC National Congress),China has achieved dialectical unity and theoretical self-consistency between the concepts of development and security with the complex internal and external effects of the “changes unseen in a century”.It is in this era that China forms a systematic national security concept,it is a holistic approach to national security.In the past 40 years of reform-and-opening-up,the evolution and innovation of China’s national security concepts has been in continuous line with China’s path toward modernization.In this process,China in each era has held high the CPC’s leadership,insisted on the people-centered philosophy and always scientifically grasped the trend of the time,so that China’s national security concept innovation and evolution can be achieved,providing valuable experience and inexhaustible motive for safeguarding national security.