Public scientific literacy is the basis for the progress of social civilization

1. Introduction

In 2006, the National Action Plan for Scientific Literacy (2006–2010–2020) was officially released and implemented. At that time, China's development situation was characterized by a relaxed international environment with relatively weak tensions among major countries. The domestic economy was booming, and economic development dominated the national agenda. However, China was largely adopting a ‘catch up – imitate’ model in the realms of science and technology and governance. Major strategic plans and home-grown concepts, such as the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, independent innovation and diversified and coordinated social progress, were still at the nascent stage.

In 2021, the National Action Plan for Scientific Literacy (2021–2035) was officially released. What are the important changes in both the domestic and the international situation 15 years later? How have those changes affected the formulation of the 2021 scientific literacy plan? In the light of China's current development context and its goal of building an innovative country by 2035, the 2021 scientific literacy plan has set out new purposes, objectives and methods for promoting public scientific literacy. Most importantly, the plan has proposed that public scientific literacy is the basis for the progress of social civilization and has systematically planned towards that end. This paper provides an analysis of the immediate and future significance of the plan by focusing on the following four aspects.

2. The basis for the progress of social civilization: A new starting point and direction for the advancement of public scientific literacy

The 2006 scientific literacy plan captured the development needs of the first stage of reform and opening up. According to the plan, the central theme in promoting public scientific literacy in China was to support and promote the country's economic development through the popularization and dissemination of science and technology; the specific requirements included ‘four S's and two abilities’ (four S's referred to scientific knowledge, scientific method, scientific thinking and scientific spirit; the two abilities were the ability to solve practical problems and the ability to engage in public affairs by using the four S's); the major actors included ‘four key groups’ (teenagers, farmers, industrial workers and public servants); the underlying principle was that ‘science and technology are the primary productive force’ (State Council, 2006). It emphasized productivity and scientific and technological capabilities. Despite the fact that it embraced a scientific spirit, the plan fell short with respect to overall planning and on-the-ground measures.

The 2021 scientific literacy plan treats public scientific literacy as the basis for social progress. It emphasizes shifting the focus away from productivity and towards a new structure that coordinates production relations and productive forces, and promoting a more systemic and balanced approach to building a modern and comprehensive civilization. In terms of the macro environment, there is indeed a clear shift in China's development goals: high-quality and coordinated development of various social factors has been placed in a high position; and making parallel progress on the economic, cultural, political, social and ecological fronts has become the core requirement. This approach represents an expanded, enriched and refined agenda and differs from the guiding principles clarified in the 2006 plan, which took economic development as the central task and regarded science and technology as the primary productive force. The most obvious change in the 2021 plan that relates to public scientific literacy is that it clearly states that coordinated development on the five fronts should be achieved by scientific innovation, and this forms the blueprint for China's development in the 2021–2035 period.

In the 2021 plan, the values and goals related to the enhancement of public scientific literacy have notably broadened compared to the 2006 plan, and its logical structure is also very different from the previous one. Innovations in science and technology and social governance, which form the backdrop of the 2021 plan, are currently generating a notable amount of support and enthusiasm. Those innovations will undoubtedly change the modes of production and the lives and values of all people. The mission of the public scientific literacy project needs to highlight the fundamental purpose of promoting the continuous progress of the entire population so that the scientific culture that grows out of modern civilization can be integrated into the governance and innovation of science and technology. Doing so would provide support for cultivating the modern character and cultural quality of the population and establish an ideological and cognitive foundation for embracing modern governance.

The guiding principles of the 2021 plan have been phrased in the following way: ‘strive to build a scientific literacy ecosystem with socialized collaboration, intelligent dissemination, standardized construction and international cooperation; create a social atmosphere of advocating science and innovation, and boost the level of social civilization … and make contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind’ (State Council, 2021). It is obvious that the ambition, dimension and scale of the vision are already very different from the guiding principles in the 2006 plan, and the concept of ‘a community with a shared future for mankind’ has already been established as a fundamental goal of the campaign in the global dimension.

3. Science and technology must take meeting people's growing needs as a basic principle

The report delivered to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) includes the following statement: ‘As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved. What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life’ (Xi, 2017). In focusing on the central task of serving the people's growing needs, the CPC has put forth the concept of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development for the new era. This marks the first time in the history of China that the main contradiction of social development has been expressed in this way.

In the current context of China's development, science and technology are being treated not only as the primary productive force, but also as a measure to meet the people's growing needs for a better life. How to serve people's needs in a more comprehensive and balanced way has become the core focus of the new era. Meeting the people's vision for a better future at a higher level requires the guidance of a systematic and nationwide project for public scientific literacy—one that plays a crucial role in the unprecedented transformation of life for all Chinese people.

The 2021 plan has highlighted the new context for China to achieve common prosperity by achieving modernization with Chinese characteristics. In this context, one of the major requirements in promoting public scientific literacy is achieving sustainable and maximum scientific welfare by providing science popularization services related to scientific innovation resources, and thus to meet the people's growing needs for scientific survival capabilities. The aim of the scientific literacy enhancement project is to ‘leave no community behind and not neglect any poor or weak region’, rather than keeping the scientific and technological benefits concentrated in the elite class and in regions that have developed first, which would undermine the core principle of joint construction and common prosperity. For example, in the section about actions to improve the scientific literacy of farmers, the 2021 plan makes the following pledge:

We should enhance the scientific literacy of farmers in old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border regions, and previously poverty-stricken areas, and channel more of society's science popularization resources towards less-developed rural areas. We should carry out initiatives to revitalize the border regions and enrich their people, conduct science popularization activities in those regions, and vigorously provide science and technology assistance to Xinjiang and Tibet in order to improve the scientific literacy of farmers in remote areas. We should also enhance the professional skills of low-income rural populations and strengthen their endogenous development capacity. (State Council, 2021)

As this excerpt demonstrates, sharing the benefits of scientific discoveries and technological advances with all social communities is now being regarded as the most basic means of securing a better life for all people in an innovation-driven country. The enhancement of public scientific literacy is thus tied to an important historical responsibility and mission.

In the 2021 plan, industrial workers and new farmers, who make up the basic group of social production, have received extra attention as priority groups in the scientific literacy enhancement project, and industrial workers have been included in the priority groups for the first time. The plan has reaffirmed the belief that the basic literacy of ordinary citizens will become a prerequisite for determining modern development in the new historical stage. Therefore, the plan initiates an adjustment of priorities and relationships among different groups of people in their access to scientific and technological welfare and the enhancement of their survival and creative abilities. In the context of the new historical stage, which takes common prosperity as a major goal of Chinese-style modernization, this reallocation of scientific and technological resources is indeed representative of a major transformation in social production relations. The 2021 plan thus signifies the shaping of a new ethical value that science and technology must serve all people.

4. More balanced and fuller development is the basic spirit of the public scientific literacy enhancement project

In China's new efforts to build an innovative country, the goal of enhancing public scientific literacy should reflect the core requirements of Chinese-style socialism in the new era, as underscored in the 19th CPC National Congress, and should focus on the main contradiction of the new era to form an instructive strategic plan. The 2021 scientific literacy plan places a special emphasis on the basic principle of fully coordinating plans for multiple communities and suggests:

We should promote coordinated advancement. Governments at all levels should strengthen organizational leadership, policy support and investment guarantees to stimulate the vitality of universities, scientific research institutes, enterprises, grassroots organizations, scientific communities, social groups and other diverse groups, inspire the people to participate, and foster a pattern of socialized science popularization jointly driven by the government, society and the market. (State Council, 2021)

In such a pattern of comprehensive participation, the dynamic balance of multi-population consumption of science and technology resources and the full delivery of science and technology welfare and popularization have become important indicators of fairness and justice. As the 2021 scientific literacy plan states:

To meet the people's new demands for a better life at a higher level, the scientific literacy campaign needs to underscore its steering role of value guidance, and aim to improve the public's lifelong learning ability, constantly enrich the people's cultural pursuit and serve the all-round development of the people. (State Council, 2021)

Based on the belief that all Chinese people should have open access to the benefits of new scientific and technological advances, the 2021 plan stresses the delivery of science popularization services to the people who have the greatest difficulties adapting to the new lifestyle brought by scientific advances and to people at the grassroots level who constitute the largest population and the widest sectors in society. The scientific literacy of elderly people, industrial workers and farmers has been highlighted in major action plans, and the first two groups have been placed at the centre of China's national development strategy for the first time. For example, the section about actions to improve the scientific literacy of the elderly includes the following statement:

Focusing on improving information literacy and health literacy, efforts should be made to improve the ability of the elderly to adapt to new social developments, and enhance their sense of satisfaction, happiness and security, so as to achieve enjoyment, lifelong learning and new achievements among the elderly. (State Council, 2021)

With population ageing as a foregone conclusion, it is important to increase the supply of science and technology resources to the elderly, who make up a large portion of the population but possess a declining ability to adapt, through science popularization services. This step will help them embrace a new life with better survival abilities and a wider variety of new content for survival. The preferential distribution of scientific literacy resources is necessary and reflects the pursuit of fairness in the context of major social transformation. If we simply follow the social Darwinism of ‘survival of the fittest’, we would be likely to end up becoming a country that undermines the purpose of civilization and the ethics of a harmonious society in the course of innovation and modernization. It would also be inconsistent with the CPC's goal of working for the welfare of all people.

Therefore, the 2021 plan highlights the concepts of ‘public’ and ‘whole population’. In addition, its interpretation and implementation of ‘a more balanced and fuller type of development’ have also helped to create a new path for innovation and an ethical view featuring causal links. Those approaches showcase the presence of classic ancient Chinese values in the contemporary period and highlight the importance attached to the national strategy of scientific literacy improvement in the new era.

5. The Chinese population as a global demonstration for scientific literacy enhancement

The 2021 scientific literacy plan targets several key groups in society, especially non-elite grassroots groups and disadvantaged groups, such as the elderly. It has reinforced the new ethical view that the enhancement of scientific literacy must meet the growing needs of the people for a better life in a more balanced and adequate way, which provides a demonstration of civilization in terms of the value orientation of scientific literacy enhancement. One important event that deserves special attention occurred on 1 July 2021, in the same year that the 2021 scientific literacy plan was released, when China announced the successful realization of the basic goal of eradicating absolute poverty in the whole country. That achievement came about as a result of the unremitting efforts made on the part of the CPC and the government. It is a national project of outstanding exemplary significance. For the poor people in developing and even developed countries, it is a clear manifestation of the philosophy articulated by General Secretary Xi Jinping in his speech at the ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC: ‘The country is its people; the people are the country. As we have fought to establish and consolidate our leadership over the country, we have in fact been fighting to earn and keep the people's support’ (Xi, 2021). The roots and lifeblood of the CPC centre on creating a better life for the people. The values and logic of that statement are consistent with the conclusion reached by the 19th CPC National Congress regarding the shift of the main contradiction in the new era and the new plan for the improvement of scientific literacy.

Currently, ‘innovative science + people's science’ is a concept that can help people enjoy a better life on a sustainable basis. For the whole population, the most realistic benefit is to be able to better enjoy the benefits of scientific and technological progress through continuous improvement of scientific literacy; otherwise, the universality and fairness of scientific and technological innovation will be notably affected. However, the problem of uneven distribution of scientific literacy among different communities, social structures and regions remains prominent, and a shift towards the value of ‘people-shared science’ is urgently needed. If that goal can be achieved in the 15 years covered by the 2021 scientific literacy plan, the ethical value of China's scientific literacy campaign, which stresses equal access for all people, will serve as an inspiration for the world and provide a shining example of how to build an innovative country.

In the speech marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, two notable terms emerged: ‘a new and uniquely Chinese path to modernization’ and ‘a new model for human advancement’. What can be perceived is that, while China is inheriting and carrying forward the most classical people-oriented and common-benefit ideologies of ancient Chinese civilization, it is also taking a firm stand in advocating and participating in the building of a community with a shared future for mankind—a vision that has already become the ‘global ideal’ and ‘civilization mission’ of contemporary China.

At present, human civilization is witnessing changes unseen in a millennium. Disruptive scientific and technological innovations of unprecedented scale keep emerging, and epidemics and military confrontations that threaten the survival of humanity could push us over the edge. In these circumstances, the future of humanity is increasingly intertwined, and global governance and the creation and maintenance of a community with a shared future for mankind have become the most fundamental means of survival. The holistic development of people, especially their scientific literacy, has become a prerequisite for social development and a better life.

The 2021 scientific literacy plan proposes a project for international exchanges and cooperation in scientific literacy for the first time. It assumes the position of ‘encouraging mutual learning between civilizations, promoting value recognition, raising the level of open exchanges and participating in global governance’. It also sets the goal of ‘exploring the establishment of international standards, promoting the establishment of a World Organization for Scientific Literacy, participating in the initiation and setting of issues, and actively offering Chinese solutions and sharing Chinese wisdom in multilateral activities’ (State Council, 2021). Meeting the fundamental requirements of the people to enjoy a better life through scientific and technological progress and building a community with a shared future for mankind based on sustainable improvement in scientific literacy is the guiding purpose of China's scientific literacy plan under the vision of the ‘new and uniquely Chinese path to modernization’.