坚持中国特色社会主义
坚持中国特色社会主义是中国式现代化的本质要求。现代化不是少数国家的“专利品”，也不是非此即彼的“单选题”，不能搞简单的千篇一律、“复制粘贴”。一个国家走向现代化，既要遵循现代化一般规律，更要立足本国国情，具有本国特色。中国式现代化是社会主义现代化，而不是别的什么现代化。
中国始终高举中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜，既坚持科学社会主义基本原则，又不断赋予其鲜明的中国特色和时代内涵，坚定不移地走中国特色社会主义道路，确保中国式现代化在正确的轨道上顺利推进。
中国坚持把马克思主义作为根本指导思想，不断深化对共产党执政规律、社会主义建设规律、人类社会发展规律的认识，不断开辟马克思主义中国化时代化新境界，为中国式现代化提供科学指引。中国坚持和完善中国特色社会主义制度，不断推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化，形成包括中国特色社会主义根本制度、基本制度、重要制度等在内的一整套制度体系，为中国式现代化稳步前行提供坚强制度保证。中国坚持和发展中国特色社会主义文化，激发全民族文化创新创造活力，为中国式现代化提供强大精神力量。
Upholding socialism with Chinese characteristics
Upholding socialism with Chinese characteristics is one of the essential requirements of Chinese modernization. Modernization is not an exclusive patent in the possession of a small handful of countries, nor is it a question with a single answer. It cannot be realized by a one-size-fits-all approach, or by simplistic copying and pasting. To achieve modernization, a country needs to follow the general laws governing the process, but more importantly it must consider its own national conditions and distinctive features.
Chinese modernization is socialist modernization, not modernization of any other kind.
China upholds socialism with Chinese characteristics. While adhering to the basic principles of scientific socialism, it also constantly enriches scientific socialism with distinctive Chinese features and elements of the times. Socialism with Chinese characteristics ensures that the country's modernization always advances on the right track.
China takes Marxism as its fundamental guiding thought. It has continually deepened its understanding of the laws that underlie governance by a communist party, the development of socialism, and the evolution of human society. It has opened new frontiers in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times. All of this has provided sound guidance for Chinese modernization.
China has upheld and improved the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and made continued progress in modernizing its system and capacity for governance. During this course, it has established a set of systems and institutions, including the fundamental, basic, and important systems that underpin socialism with Chinese characteristics, which have provided strong institutional support for the steady progress with the country's modernization.
China has upheld and improved a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, to ignite the cultural creativity of the entire nation and provide a powerful source of inspiration for modernization.
