On April 2, 2026, the seminar on the New Book The Creative Transformation of Political Unification: A New Theory of China's Modern State-Building, hosted by Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security, was successfully held at Renmin University of China (Zhongguancun Campus). The seminar was moderated by Du Xinlei, Editor of Journal of Renmin University of China. Experts from Fudan University, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Renmin university of China talked around the book at the seminar.
Yang Guangbin, Dean of the School of International Relations, Director-general of Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security, Renmin University of China: The "Second Integration" has opened a window of opportunity for the independent development of China's philosophy and social sciences. The academic approach of grand history and broad comparative analysis adopted in this book aligns profoundly with the contemporary proposition of the "Second Integration". It fills the academic gap in the integration of China's traditional political civilization and modern political science, and serves as an exemplary work in combining China's traditional political civilization with Marxism.
The Great Unification, which has endured for three millennia, stands as China's most fundamental political concept. Following the historical trajectory of state evolution, there are two distinct narratives: one is the account of European social history represented by Fernand Braudel, and the other is the political history discussed by Lü Simian and Qian Mu. In the context of social history, the wars in Europe around the 16th century led to the widespread emergence of nation-states. In contrast, within the framework of political history, the embryonic form of China's Great Unification system originated in the Zhou Dynasty, took shape in the Qin and Han dynasties, and established an institutional framework comprising centralization, the merit-based military system, the bureaucratic system, and the prefecture-county system.
Politics exhibits historical continuity at three levels. First, political ideas constitute the core layer and are difficult to change once formed. Second, state forms—whether unified or fragmented—exert strong continuity in determining whether subsequent states evolve into a grand unification state or a nation-state. Third, at the regime level, the choice lies between representative system and centralization system. History, both Chinese and foreign, offers us profound insights. What we need to explore is the inherent logic behind the remarkable persistence of historical continuity during the transformation of China's political civilization from tradition to modernity.
Wang Shikai, Author of The Creative Transformation of Political Unification: A New Theory of China's Modern State-Building, gave keynote address. He first expressed his sincere gratitude to the experts, students and media participants at the new book seminar. The book originated from the his long-term inquiry into the identity and historical origins of China's modern state. The underlying research question is whether contemporary China constitutes a modern state, and if so, what kind of modern state it is.
The theoretical contribution of the new book lies in connecting the power structure and institutional form of China's modern state with the Great Unification. Specifically, political centralization serves as a theoretical abstraction of the power structure and institutional form of China's modern state. On the one hand, such political centralization differs from the centralization of modern Western nation-states; on the other hand, it bears similarities to the centralization of ancient Chinese states.
At a deeper level, political centralization constitutes the substantive content of the Great Unification. The deep structure of ancient China's state was political centralization, and the deep structure of modern China's state remains political centralization. What is crucial is that the political centralization of modern China maintains a dialectical relationship with that of ancient China, as the former is the product of the creative transformation of the latter. The key to the creative transformation of political Great Unification discussed in the book lies in the fact that, in leading the social revolution, the Communist Party of China has reconstructed a new form of political centralization compatible with modern politics through the creative application of democratic centralism. From the perspective of power structure and institutional form, political centralization has determined that China has been a unified Great Unification state from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the present. Due to the continuity and renewal of political centralization, a distinction is made between the ancient Great Unification state and the modern Great Unification state. Contemporary China represents a new type of modern state, namely a modern Great Unification state distinct from modern nation-states.
What merits further discussion is that the process by which the Communist Party of China reconstructed political centralization, as well as the creative transformation of political Great Unification, embodies the distinctive logic underlying China's modern state-building. This logic refers to the creative integration of China's ancient state traditions with modern political resources introduced from the West, thereby giving rise to a new, third form that differs from both of its predecessors. In short, a third entity is created through "combining two into one". While this third entity undoubtedly incorporates elements of the original two, it cannot be reduced to either of them. Instead, it constitutes a fully independent and self-contained new unity.
Experts from Fudan University, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Renmin university of China discussed around the book on topics including political centralization, historical studies, historical research, China's modern state-building, ancient Chinese politics, and China's frontier governance.
During the response session, Professor Wang Shikai addressed the issues raised concerning "Great Unification". He argued that Great Unification is not a homogeneous and monolithic order, but an organic unity founded on diversity, emphasizing the combination of central political authority and the participation of diverse actors. He also responded to issues regarding the application of the concept of centralization and the indigenization of theory, as well as the historical continuity and future direction of China's Great Unification.
Professor Yang Guangbin, in his concluding remarks at the seminar, affirmed the day's discussions. He encouraged scholars engaged in historical political science research to maintain disciplinary confidence and not give up amid tensions between theory and history. Methodologically, social science research pursues both commonalities and differences. As a people-oriented civilization, Chinese civilization has established a political order that responds to shared human needs such as peace, equality, fairness and justice, which are common human values, and thus possesses universal significance. Political science research in China is moving beyond basic factual and historical description toward in-depth conceptualization. He noted that the forum had generated many insightful views and in-depth discussions, and expressed sincere gratitude to the participating experts for their profound opinions. At a time when China is increasingly moving toward the center of the world stage, how Chinese political science can develop independent intellectual concepts and build its own independent knowledge system is not only the core concern of this seminar but also the academic mission undertaken by historical political science in the present era.