The modernization of agriculture and rural areas is crucial to the overall development and quality of Chinese modernization. As a vital component of accelerating this modernization, the construction of livable, workable, and harmoniously beautiful villages embodies a unity of strategic, systemic, value, and developmental logic as is manifested in a strategic positioning aimed at Chinese modernization, a systematic design oriented toward the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, a people-centered value stance, and a developmental mainline driven by reform. Starting from the practices of China’s rural development, during the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan, we need to take comprehensive and coordinated efforts from multiple fronts, including creating livable spaces, developing distinctive industries, preserving a sound ecological environment, improving governance systems, and fostering vibrant rural culture so as to promote the construction of livable, workable, and harmoniously beautiful villages and the achievement of comprehensive rural revitalization, thus accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas and better advancing Chinese modernization.

Since the mid-20th century, with the deepening advance of globalization in the worldwide economic, political, and spiritual-cultural spheres, interactions between regions and nation-states have continuously expanded, and the connections among humanity have grown increasingly close, thus there being a “global village” with a shared future, a community of survival, development, and values. This has substantially enhanced humanity’s capacity to work together to solve common challenges of survival and development. Simultaneously, however, the era of globalization is an epoch of intensifying differentiation, diversity, and even heterogeneity, an age full of uncertainties and risks. This new and severe living situation objectively and urgently requires the international community to base itself on the common interests of all humanity and focus on public welfare. It requires abandoning the obstinacy and prejudice of traditional theories of “civilizational antagonism” and “clash of civilizations”. There is a need to explore a path of “harmonious coexistence and mutual flourishing” to extricate from the current predicament. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government, Chinese society, and Chinese intellectuals have advocated transcending narrow cultural and ideological constraints, and presented a series of new theoretical propositions and practical strategies to the international community, including the “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”, “Civilizational Exchange and Mutual Learning”, and the “Common Values of Humanity”. With Chinese wisdom and Chinese approaches, the aim is to realize a beautiful new world of order and justice characterized by “appreciating the beauty of all civilizations”.

Since modern times, a tremendous challenge faced in the global process of world modernization has been the loss of the “community” once serving as the profound foundation for the survival of traditional society. In this process, bourgeois civil society and the political state representing its fundamental interests achieved absolute dominance and control. Bourgeois society and capitalist civilization, according to their own logic, established a new narrative regarding civilization, community, and the relationship between the two. Bourgeois society is a society of atomized individuals, representing alienation from, betrayal of, and opposition to community. The era in which the theory of historical materialism was conceived and born faced the reality of traditional communities being deconstructed by the powerful logic of bourgeois civil society and the political state; it faced the reality where the ontological basis, the subject, and the value-meaning of history were rewritten and distorted by the bourgeois view of industrial civilization. Marxists, in such contexts, have consistently adhered to the original aspiration and stance of “viewing development through the lens of survival”, “viewing history through the lens of community”, and “viewing community through the lens of civilization” and they have consistently taken “real individuals” as the foothold, emphasizing a social logic of existence and life centered on the holistic well-being of humanity and the standard of public practical value. Their aim is to reconstruct a new logic of “community” and “civilization” with transcendent significance so as to provide a legitimate and appropriate rational basis for the emergence of a new form of social history. Historically, it constitutes the normative logical foundation for the creative practice of Chinese modernization and the new form of human civilization.

Since the advent of Enlightenment modernity, the civilizational order and value system dominated by Western first-mover modernized nations have either eliminated differences in the name of universalism or exaggerated divides under relativism. This has long made it difficult for human society to reach a most fundamental consensus on values and ethical principles. Against this backdrop, the proposal of the concept of “Common Values of Humanity” aims to break through the binary opposition of universalism and relativism and rebuild a global value paradigm centered on consensus. However, the international communication of this concept has long been suppressed by the Western discourse system and subjected to cognitive biases, and thus its ideological influence and practical efficacy have not yet been fully realized. The key to gaining widespread recognition for this value concept lies in embedding it, with institutional support, into global governance platforms, innovating multi-agent collaborative communication mechanisms through a synergistic approach, and achieving the transformation from conceptual consensus to collective action in arenas such as the “Belt and Road” Initiative guided by a cooperation-oriented mindset. In doing so, China not only provides a new path for reshaping the global communication landscape but also contributes intellectual wisdom and civilizational solutions for improving the global ethical order and advancing the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.

In recent years, grounded in an indigenous problem consciousness arising from contemporary China’s political development, historical politics has gradually emerged and promoted a historical turn in Chinese politics, with its central aim directed toward advancing the construction of an autonomous disciplinary knowledge system. However, as an emerging research orientation still in its formative stage, it face multiple challenges in terms of methodological foundations, ontological positioning, and the treatment of temporality. Building upon a review of existing historically oriented political studies, this article reflects on the methodological dilemmas confronting historical politics, including the demarcation of disciplinary boundaries, the relationship between structure and agency, the division between macro and micro level theorization, and the separation of deduction and induction. By further examining the limitations of teleological, experimental, and eventful temporalities, the article reveals the explanatory tensions embedded in prevailing temporal frameworks within historical social science. On this basis, the study introduces a genetic methodological perspective. By tracing its relevant philosophical lineage, it advances the analytical approach of “genetic historical politics”, emphasizing the reconstruction of processual explanatory frameworks of political change from the perspective of historical genesis and multiple contingencies with an aim to offer methodological insights for deepening the knowledge system of historical politics and promoting the autonomous development of Chinese politics.

The robust growth of computational social science is reshaping the research paradigms and methodological systems of political science. As a generative explanatory approach, agent-based modeling reconstructs multi-level interaction processes within complex systems by relying on computer platforms and it enjoys unique advantages in solving the cross-level inference problem of “micro-level individual behavior—macro-level social emergence”. However, existing research predominantly focuses on Western institutional environments or single-policy scenarios, failing to adequately capture the complex vertical game logic under China’s party-state system. Based on Chinese political practice, The research selects “Central Authority Intensity” and “Local Action Space” as core dimensions, and constructs an agent-based modeling analytical framework for “central-local interactions” under the party-state system. By setting behavioral rules and interaction strategies for heterogeneous agents, this framework attempts to replicate dynamic processes in virtual space, including policy implementation deviations under the pressure-based system, the diffusion of local innovations under the tournament system, and governance involution under the logic of blame avoidance. The research translates the core characteristics of China’s party-state system into a computable experimental design and provides a dynamic evolutionary perspective for understanding political operations within complex institutional environments. Consequently, it opens a new methodological path for constructing an autonomous knowledge system in China’s political science.

Modern state, a trace of its trajectory reveals, evolves from a power that nurtures life to one that constrains it. Existing research overlooks the political-economic roots of this shift: this paradox stems from the dominance of capitalist reproduction over the modern state. Driven by capitalist reproduction, the state optimizes life for seizing advantages within the global system, while individual lives respond in pursuit of survival and development. Within this mutual constitution, the biopolitics of the modern state emerges. However, once life and politics are imbued with the economic significance of capitalist reproduction, the biopolitics of the modern state inevitably falls into paradox. In terms of the realities of capitalist globalization, we conclude that developed nations continually scale competitive heights while developing nations pursue catch-up growth in this race to the bottom, and their biopolitics produces forces that target to themselves. Thus, unraveling the paradox of modern state biopolitics requires delving into the essence of capitalist reproduction, and resolving this paradox necessitates transcending capitalist reproduction itself.

The issue of “returning to the state” has long received widespread attention in academia as it has been discussed in political science, theoretical economics, sociology, and other disciplines. However, such discussions are held within the domestic political, economic, and social arenas and centered on the role of the state within the framework of state-society-market. Yet, in the 21st century, domestic political economy can no longer stand alone beyond the international or even global political economy. A discussion of the issue of “returning to the state” at the domestic level merely concerns the internal functions of the state’s role, failing to well understanding the role of the state. To better understand the state, two perspectives, namely historical institutionalism, and the context of globalization and the global governance system, should be employed. Under the impact of trade protectionism and economic nationalism, “returning to the state” aims to promote internal institutional openness and globalization with institutional openness, thus better serving advancing the “smart globalization”.

During the critical period of technological and innovative development, both shifting from an isolated focus on K-12 students’ technology literacy or engineering literacy to an integrated focus on their technology and engineering literacy, and continuously cultivating interdisciplinary innovative talents serve as important engines for conforming to the trends of integrated knowledge systems and diversified talent capability development, as well as comprehensively advancing the integrated development of education, technology, and talent. Given that some teachers and students hold misconceptions about the concept of “technology and engineering literacy”, it is necessary to employ a method combining historical review and comparative analysis, to clarify the connotation of K-12 students’ technology and engineering literacy from five dimensions: knowledge base, skill requirements, thinking modes, practical activities, and social responsibility, and to elucidate its value in promoting the integrated development of students’ five aspects of education and supporting the cultivation of technological innovation talents. To improve students’ such literacy, we should innovate the technology and engineering education system to guide K-12 students in achieving the integrated development of knowledge, practice, and creation, leverage the synergistic effectiveness of multiple stakeholders to build a community of practice for technology and engineering education, focus on the unity of technology and humanities to explore a cultivation model for technology and engineering literacy that integrates ancient and modern wisdom, and adhere to the unity of international reference and local construction, i.e. to implement technology and engineering education according to local conditions.

Digital textbooks have evolved from version 1.0 to 5.0. and the robust growth of generative artificial intelligence brings new technological affordances for the transformation of digital textbooks. However, there have been structural issues such as linear knowledge presentation, homogeneous learning support, and lagging evaluation feedback. A conceptual framework for developing AI-powered digital textbooks oriented towards human-machine collaboration and a large model embedded solution based on graph-vector fusion enhancement might well address such issues. This solution is based on a three-layer technical architecture of “multi-dimensional representation-intelligent service-collaborative application”: at the knowledge representation layer, a hybrid representation combining knowledge graphs and semantic vector databases is adopted, and multimodal data fusion in textbooks is achieved through triple extraction and vectorization encoding technologies; at the intelligent service layer, a clustered service system based on large model agents is designed that integrates specialized agents, including course design, learning diagnosis, and dialogue guidance, forming modular service units; at the application and collaboration layer, a bidirectional interaction model of “human-led, intelligence-enhanced” is constructed, and three-dimensional application scenarios are proposed, such as teacher-AI collaborative instructional design and student-AI cognitive partnership interaction. The future-visioned development pathways including building education-specific large models, reshaping the textbook compilation industry, and strengthening ethical regulation for human-machine collaboration can provide references for large language models empowering innovative applications of digital textbooks and promoting high-quality educational development.

Strengthening science education and reinforcing the cultivation of core competencies are key links in implementing the strategy of building a strong educational nation and constructing a high-quality education system. The cultivation of scientific literacy must be grounded from the early childhood stage. Currently, however, kindergarten science activity curricula are unsatisfied, thus hardly being capable of cultivating scientific literacy for all. The root cause lies in the outdated logic of kindergarten science activity curricula and multiple realistic gaps between this logic and contemporary talent demands as are mainly manifested as the hindrance of traditional educational knowledge views on children’s subjectivity, the suppression of teacher-centered practice views on children’s innovative abilities, and the constraint of exam-oriented evaluation views on children’s individual development. To bridge such realistic gap, the logic of kindergarten science activity curricula urgently needs to be reconstructed. Specifically, the curriculum creation logic takes constructivist views of knowledge as its theoretical basis; the curriculum practice logic takes experiential naturalism as its philosophical guide; the curriculum evaluation logic follows humanistic development views as its normative standard. To implement these logical shifts, integrated STEAM curriculum goals and content across multiple domains should be created, a child-centered STEAM curriculum practice model should be constructed, and a diversified STEAM curriculum evaluation framework should be established, thus driving the overall innovation of kindergarten science activity curricula from concept to practice.

Based on the theory of cultural capital reproduction, this study takes Town D in Guangdong Province as a case to explore the dilemmas and reconstruction paths for the collaborative governance of rural science education. Many science education resources, due to urban-rural cultural capital disparities, bear just symbolic value in rural practice, failing to truly empowering teaching; advanced technological equipment becomes ornamental due to detachment from the local context; teacher agency is difficult to exert effectively; the multi-party collaboration among government, family, school, and society also falls into a predicament. Consequently, there is a need to construct a four-dimensional collaborative framework of “value reshaping-resource adaptation-agent regeneration-mechanism reconstruction”. Through confirming the legitimacy of local knowledge, achieving technology-culture synergistic matching, building localized teacher communities, and reconstructing diversified evaluation mechanisms, rural science education can be promoted to move from “resource sinking” to “cultural rooting”, thus providing theoretical insights and path innovation for educational equity practices in the context of rural revitalization.

Promoting the high-quality and balanced development of county-level compulsory education is an important measure to ensure educational equity and it is also an inevitable requirement for achieving educational modernization and building a strong educational nation. Digital village construction provides a significant opportunity for advancing the high-quality and balanced development of county-level compulsory education. Situated within the context of China’s digital village construction and employing the fsQCA method, this study combines 113 county-level cases. From a configurational perspective, it examines the complex mechanisms and configurational paths through which digital village construction drives the high-quality and balanced development of county-level compulsory education. The research finds that: a single element in digital village construction does not constitute a necessary condition for driving high-quality and balanced development of county-level compulsory education; there are four configurational paths that drive such development: the digital infrastructure and digital economy synergistic driving type, the digital infrastructure and digital governance synergistic driving type, the digital infrastructure and digital life synergistic driving type, and the digital economy and digital life synergistic driving type. Furthermore, there are two configurational paths that hinder high-quality and balanced development. Accordingly, the various elements of digital village construction should be synergistically integrated; the multiple interconnections and adaptive roles of elements such as digital infrastructure, digital economy, digital governance, and digital life should be fully leveraged to promote the high-quality and balanced development of county-level compulsory education.

The bottlenecks and blockages hindering the construction of a unified national market fundamentally stem from the incomplete nature of market-oriented reforms, and result from the obstruction of the old administrative management and control mechanisms. The blueprint of “five unifications and one openness” is the government’s specific path for advancing the construction of a unified national market. The key lies in the consistency of rules and policies and the uniformity of behavioral standards. Currently, in building a unified national market, there is an urgent need to break through various forms of institutional and hidden barriers manifested as “the main gate stays open, but the small gates are locked” in market access, and substantive progress in openness and reform oriented towards “zero barriers” must be advanced. Competition law is the fundamental law regulating the market economy and anti-monopoly law enforcement is a powerful tool for promoting the construction of a unified national market. The credit economy is an important component of optimizing market rules, competitive order, and the market environment in building a unified national market, and constructing a credit economy system is a key focus for the government’s proactive role in building a unified market.

“Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and Innovative” (SRDI) enterprises serves as vital impetus for the rapid development of new quality productive forces, and vital engines for high-quality urban development. How to stimulate the emergence of more SRDI enterprises through the optimization of urban business environments is a theoretical issue that urgently needs exploration. An urban business environment system is constructed with the TOE framework, and with a sample of 632 listed SMEs from 82 cities in China, the dynamic QCA method is employed to explore the multiple configurational paths through which urban business environments drive SMEs towards SRDI across both temporal and spatial dimensions. The research finds that: (1) Individual business environment elements do not constitute necessary conditions for a high level of “SRDI”, but the role of the digitalization condition cannot be ignored. (2) There are five differentiated paths stimulating SMEs towards SRDI, which can be summarized as “environment-led innovation type” and “environment-led digitalization type”. (3) The market environment and government affairs environment are universally core elements; innovation capability and digitalization level are selective elements; the elements within the business environment exhibit obvious substitution and complementary effects. (4) In the temporal dimension, the consistency of the “SRDI” utility for each configurational path declined during 2019-2020; in the spatial dimension, the coverage of one path showed distributional differences. To construct a business environment that propels SMEs towards SRDI, a “government + enterprise” dual-drive approach should be adhered to. Innovation capability should be continuously enhanced. Enterprises should be guided in digital-intelligent development. The coordinated development of the business environment as a “whole+parts” should be promoted.

The Company Law of the P. R. C(2023 version) promotes the rapid development of the directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (D&O insurance) market by strengthening the regulatory synergy between the D&O liability system and the Securities Law of the P.R.C.—an institutional innovation which is of great value to prevent systemic financial risks. Based on a panel dataset of A-share companies listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges during 2012-2024, this paper empirically investigates the effect of D&O insurance on the risk of stock price crashes. It finds that listed companies’ acquisition of D&O insurance significantly mitigates stock price crash risk. Mechanism analysis reveals that D&O insurance reduces stock price crash risk by enhancing listed companies’ willingness to fulfill corporate social responsibility and improving information disclosure quality. Further research finds that the mitigating effect of D&O insurance on the risk of stock price crash is more prominent when the senior executives have financial background, the legal environment of the registration place is not perfect, and the company is a state-owned enterprises. To prevent systemic financial risks and improve business operating conditions, insured listed companies should fully recognize the important role of D&O insurance in corporate governance and actively enhance their governance standards; insurance companies should improve the product development of D&O insurance and promote its widespread application; regulatory authorities should provide incentives and guidance for listed companies to purchase D&O insurance and strengthen policy support.

Taking M&A events of Chinese listed companies from 2016 to 2021 as a sample, this study examines the impact and mechanism of the external executive pay gap on diversification M&A decisions from the perspective of managerial decision-making. The findings are as follows: (1) A larger external executive pay gap leads to a greater tendency to choose diversification M&A in M&A decisions, a conclusion that remains valid after a series of robustness tests. (2) Mechanism tests indicate that reputation maintenance motivation and managerial entrenchment motivation are the main channels through which the external executive pay gap influences diversification M&A. Furthermore, internal agency costs and external analyst attention play a negative moderating role in the process of the external executive pay gap affecting diversification M&A decisions. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of the external executive pay gap on diversification M&A decisions mainly exists during the corporate growth and decline stages, and plays a significant role in cross-regional M&A. To improve the reform of the executive compensation system and optimize compensation incentive design, the design of executive compensation contracts should fully consider executives’ social preferences, establish a diversified evaluation system and incentive mechanism for executives, and continuously improve decision-making supervision mechanisms.