On the afternoon of May 13th, the Seminar on the 500^th Anniversary of Socialism and the Innovative Development of the Socialism with Chinese Characteristics co-hosted by Shanghai Party Institute, Shanghai Scientific Socialism Society, and No.3 branch of SPI was successfully held at SPIs No. 3 Branch. The first and the second half of the seminar were respectively presided by ZHU Lianggao, a member of the School Committee of SPI and President of SPI No. 3 Branch, and WU Jiesheng, Vice President and Secretary General of Shanghai Scientific Socialism Society. More than 40 leaders, experts and scholars attended the seminar from People’s Daily, China Organization and Personnel News, members of Shanghai Party School System, Shanghai Scientific Socialism Society, and some noted colleges.

    ZHU Lianggao firstly mentioned that the seminar would aim to trace the 500-year evolution of the worlds socialism academically, theoretically, and practically, thoroughly learn about and understand new theories, thoughts and strategies on the development of scientific socialism developed by the CPC Central Committee headed by XI Jinping, deeply grasp the positive interactions between socialism with Chinese characteristics and socialism of the world, thoroughly explore the new height of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the practice of the world socialist movement, hold high the Partys  banner, and keep up with the worlds socialism so as to better bring the Party Institutes ideological, academic, and educational roles into full play and serve the Institutes construction of major courses and highlighted courses.

    XIA Jun, President of Shanghai Scientific Socialism Society, also gave a speech. He pointed out that the Societys research projects required improvement of consciousness of problems, environments and politics. He encouraged the attenders to express their own ideas about the innovation of socialism with Chinese characteristics and to embed more Chinese characteristics into the deep elaboration of the latest theories. LIU Chenggong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Fudan University, pointed out in his speech that study of scientific socialism was to be studied on the basis of standpoints, views, and methods of historical materialism, as well as theoretical innovation, and that we should keep deepening our knowledge and summarizing experience according to the changes of the time and the requirements of practical development to realize the development of Marxism in the 21^st century in China.

    In the theme-oriented speech, leaders and experts expressed their own insights. PAN Shiwei, the former Secretary of the CPC Committee of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, talked about the perseverance in and extension of socialist narration in three points. Firstly, the perseverance in and extension of socialist narration was to be socialism-oriented with modern narration as the trunk, Chinese civilization as the root, and world civilization as the supplement; secondly, a two-tier integrated theoretical structure was to be constructed, incorporating both the narration of Chinese socialism and the worlds socialism so as to alter the traditional path for theoretical innovation with an innovated theory; thirdly, an outlook of the narration of Chinese socialism was given in new chapters. PENG Guohua, a committee member of the Theory Department of People’s Daily expressed his own ideas of Marxism and the Communist Party of China in the 21^st century: independence should be the standing point, win-win cooperation the growth point, and shoulder-to-shoulder efforts the merging point of Marxism in the 21^st century. SANG Yucheng, the former Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations, gave his insightful views about missions of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In particular, he considered the major issues of the modern time through the three points on the timeline of the socialist development proposed by DENG Xiaoping and clearly stated that political issues were to be solved on the basis of the political development process and the actual situation. SUN Li, a PhD supervisor of Nanjing University of Political Studies at Shanghai, indicated that members of the CPC had deep introspections about the laws of modern social development in the late 20^th century when a serious global setback occurred. He said that socialism with Chinese characteristics had gone forward while giving answers to major issues of the time, which distinctly showed its scientific knowledge of the laws of modernization and its deep explorations into the socialist realm. It had undoubtedly gone beyond the mode and level of the traditional understanding of socialism, and made great contributions to socialism. WANG Gonglong, Director of the Teaching Affairs Division of SPI, explored the future of socialism with Chinese characteristics from the angles of community of common destiny for all, socialist countries, capitalist countries, community, and philosophy. He stated that, facing potential opportunities, we should be of tolerance and respect, renew the old views, cooperate to achieve win-win results, and grasp opportunities. Dr. BU Xinbing from No. 3 Branch of SPI brought forward his own ideas towards the interactions between socialism with Chinese characteristics and the worlds socialism. He thought that the theories and practice of the worlds socialism were the ideological base and source of Chinese socialism and its experience was the valuable references; the 21^st century would be a great time for the Chinese socialism to feed-back and guide the worlds socialism. HE Jiquan, Deputy Director of China Organization and Personnel News said in a summarizing speech that the seminar had been featured with strong sense of responsibility and innovation, and problem-based sense. GUO Dingping from Fudan University, YUAN Xinhua from SPI, and some others exchanged ideas with each other on the basis of the theme of the seminar. The seminar which had seen heated discussions and extensive and deep topics was reported to have inspired many new ideas for the experts present.

    GUO Qingsong, Vice President of SPI, indicated in his summarizing speech that the high-quality, high-level, and meaningful seminar would play a positive role in promoting and boosting the teaching and research of Party schools. Having systematically sorted out and summarized the highlights of the experts speeches, GUO said that General-Secretary XI Jinping had made higher requirements for Party schools academic research, theoretical research, and class teaching in an important speech at a work conference of the national Party schools, and that Party schools should help with the ideological establishment and consolidation in the fostering of highly faithful, disciplined and responsible government officials, and help government officials keep up with the steps of the CPC Central Committee. He also stated that teachers of Party schools should properly play their roles in the construction of ideological systems.