Scientific Socialism and International Communist Movement

Scientific Socialism and International Communist Movement Discipline of Central China Normal University is one of the earliest 3 National Key Disciplines in China. (The other two are that of Peking University and Party School of the CPC Central Committee) and also the only National Key Discipline in this area in Hubei province.

This discipline has a long history. As early as the 1950s, Gao Yuan, Yang Hongyu, and Li Huibin have begun their research on Scientific Socialism and International Communist Movement in CCNU. In 1978, its research office was established and it conducted long-period academic research under the leadership of Prof. Gao Yuan and Li Huibin. It is one of the first group of China’s master stations and the second group of doctor stations in this discipline. In 1984, it set up Scientific Socialism Research Institute on its own, which is school-level research and postgraduate training organization directly under the university. In 2000, with its support, the CCNU China's Rural Issues Research Center became the Ministry of Education Key Humanities and Social Science Research Base, which also involved efforts of faculty of relative disciplines of the School of Political Science and Law, CCNU. In 2001, it was cited as the national key discipline.

After so many years of accumulation, this discipline has established its clear research directions, evident characteristics, and well-arranged research team. It now has a faculty of 20 members, among whom, 14 are professors and 4 are assistant professors. Its academic research power has largely been improved, its advantages are further strengthened and the research field is greatly broadened. It has accomplished 37 national or provincial standard or international cooperative projects. Now it has ample funds with 50 projects under research. A series of high-level academic achievements are made, winning more than 20 awards issued by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Ministry of Education or of Hubei Province Humanities and Social Science Research Excellent Achievements. The construction of degree-granting spots is promoted and a lot of qualified doctors and masters have been produced. 3 doctoral dissertations are selected among the National One Hundred Excellent Doctoral Dissertations, and 9 are selected as Hubei Province Excellent Doctoral Dissertations. As a result, the group strength is increased.

This discipline had reasonable organization and young and middle-aged scholars constitute its main strength. Except for a few teachers who are now working for their Ph.D. degrees, the left young and middle-aged scholars all have obtained Ph.D. degrees. One of the faculty members is the principal expert of the third batch of Important Textbook Editing of the Marxism Theoretical Research and Construction Project. Several scholars enjoy the State Council Special Allowance. There are frequent academic exchanges in and abroad. It hosted 7 international and national academic conferences and many of its scholars have given keynote speeches at international conferences and more than 10 foreign scholars have given lectures here. It has its books and reference materials center and Teaching and Scientific Research base. It also runs “Chinese Political Science Network”, “China's Rural Issues Research Network” and “China’s Urban Community Network”.

This discipline has four research directions, namely, scientific socialism and socialism with Chinese characteristics, contemporary world socialism and foreign communist parties, socialist political construction and democracy and legality, the international environment of socialist construction, and China's peaceful development. These directions have their disciplinary features and are at the leading positions in the whole province or even the whole country, implying a promising future. The direction of scientific socialism and socialism with Chinese characteristics makes the most of its long-accumulated basic theoretical research foundation and makes deep and systemic research on the history of socialism, scientifically summarizing lessons of the history and deepening the understanding of socialist construction regularity.

The representative outcomes include, apart from winning the “five ‘one’ projects and one good book” prize, Socialism: the 20th Century Retrospect and Prospect" edited by Prof. Li Huibin, four-volume “Series on History, Theory and Practice of Socialist Construction Research”, which summarizes historical lessons of socialist construction of economy, politics, culture and the ruling party from perspectives of history, theory and practice and provides suggestions for the development of socialism in the 21st century. The direction the contemporary world socialism and foreign communist party relies on the advantages of research of the Soviet Union and eastern European socialist countries traces the development of world socialism and works to open up new research fields.

Representative achievements of this direction are the “Series on Research of Communist Parties in Contemporary Capitalist Countries “edited by Prof. Nie Yunlin and a consultative report for important decisions (its main points were included in the 2005 China- Russia Joint Statement). As for the direction of socialist political construction and democracy and legality, importance is attached to research on history and lessons of socialist political construction, urban and rural community autonomy and inner-party democracy, etc. Besides theoretical research, it also provides intellectual support to the government. Consulting reports submitted by scholars are mostly valued and have received feedback.

A large number of academic works and papers are published in this direction. Moreover, consulting reports submitted are accepted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Policy Research Office of Party Committee of Hubei province, and the organization department, and they make positive social influences. In the last direction international environment of socialist construction and China's peaceful development, intensive studies are made concerning China’s current international environment, political environment, economic environment, and relative strategies. Close attention is paid to studies on Chinese international cooperation and diplomatic practice. Considerable papers in this direction are published in important journals as well as academic works.

In addition to the four major directions, impressive progress has been made in studies on the ethnic minority issue, city community construction, and cultural and moral construction in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Some researchers have undertaken many projects for National Social Science Fund and published their monographs. Papers are issued in "Ethnic Studies" and many are transshipped by “Xinhua Wenzhai” in full text.