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What is innovation? What is the role of comprehensive innovation practice in promoting process of evolution of human civilization? How has the path of independent innovation been blazed for China’s space cause? How does CASIC carry out innovation exploration and practice on the long journey of space power construction? On May 15, Gao Hongwei, Secretary of Party Leading Group and President of CASIC delivered a keynote speech at Zhejiang University. In the speech delivered from two aspects: theoretical and practical, President Gao shared his thoughts and ideas from multiple dimensions and angles with more than 900 teachers and students of Zhejiang University. The speech was not only thoughtful, theoretical and research-based, but also targeted, realistic and easy-to-understand.
This was a special presentation themed on “Leaders and Cadres onto Stage---Lesson 100 of State-owned Enterprise” co-hosted by CASIC and Zhejiang University. Relevant activities were participated by Ren Shaobo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang University, Chen Guoying, member of Party Leading Group and the Deputy General Manager of CASIC, Zheng Qiang, Deputy Secretary of Party Committee of Zhejiang University and Xiong Weisong, Head of Publicity Department of Publicity Bureau of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
On the presentation, Gao Hongwei shared in depth the learning and implementation of new development concepts and thoughts and ideas as well as practice experience in accelerating construction of an innovation-based country. Themed on “some thoughts and practices on innovation”, the speech of Present Gao contained abundant historical facts and vivid examples from definition of innovation on the micro level to interpretation of innovation through the process of evolution of human civilization in a macroscopic perspective and from the path of independent innovation for space cause to innovation exploration and practice in construction of a space power.
Gao Hongwei further interpreted the significance of the national strategy of innovation-driven development and defined innovation on the micro level apart from pointing out that the connotations of innovation need to be comprehended from both the micro and macro levels, the realistic and historical perspectives and the special and general senses. According to Gao Hongwei, any country that has become the center of international scientific and technological activities has without exception first become the forerunner in ideological emancipation. The “new development philosophy” and thought of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping have become the great banner that guides China in overall and in-depth reform and opening up, promoting constant ideological emancipation, implementing innovation-driven development strategy and building a science and technology power.
As pointed out by Gao Hongwei, innovation in nature and on the macro level is a full-dimensional, long-lasting and self-motivated process of the evolution of human civilization. He demonstrated profoundly with abundant historical facts that the evolution of human civilization is a history of constant innovation and the role of innovation practice in promoting the process of evolution of human civilization needs to be understood according to the epistemology in Marxism. Human civilization has undergone three processes from clan communes to agricultural civilization, then to commercial civilization and industrial civilization, and has entered the fourth period of civilization evolution, i.e. from industrial civilization to information civilization. Innovation plays an important role at the emergence of and during the process of each form of civilization.
According to Gao Hongwei, each form of civilization emerges upon the discovery of some disruptive innovation activities and theories, and new theories are constantly discovered with the constant development of practices: Social activities of agricultural tribes resulted in the great discovery of ethnics; commercial navigation activities resulted in the great discovery of geography; large-scale scientific research resulted in the great discovery of physics; research on mathematics and logic in the information era resulted in the great discovery of mathematics which in return resulted in informatization (digitalization, networking, intelligentization and cloudification). The evolution of civilization, like the evolution of life, is a progressive, adaptive and innovation-based process in which multiple forms coexist. Innovation and civilization evolution processes can be promoted in parallel, but it is hard for them to cross over each other.
Gao Hongwei reviewed the path of independent innovation of CASIC and pointed out that the main reasons why the space cause of China could grow from nothing to something, from small to large and to finally making it in the top tier in international aerospace field were that we always stick to the leadership of the Communist Party, stick to putting into fully play the advantages of the socialist system, stick to path of self-dependence and independent innovation, and stick to gathering talents under the precious space spirit and stimulating their initiatives, motivation and creativity. Among them, sticking to the centralized and unified leadership of the Communist Party is the basic precondition and sticking to the path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics is the fundamental policy. The space cause is the cause of the Party, the cause of the country and the cause of the people across the country. With the Party Central Committee continuing to draw the blueprint for development of space cause of our country, batches after batches of excellent students, skilled talents and professional backbones constantly join the team for development of the space cause of China. Assembled under the “space spirit” and carrying on the unfinished work of former generations, they are advancing the development of the space cause of our country to nail new victories and climb new peaks. China is witnessing a transition from following behind to running neck-to-neck and taking the lead in terms of its aerospace technologies and application results.
Gao Hongwei introduced CASIC’s innovation exploration and practice for building a space power from three aspects: dreams, innovation and action. He pointed out that space dream was an important part of the Chinese dream. With “strengthening the army by technological development and serving the country by aerospace development” as its mission and building the enterprise into a globally competitive world-class enterprise as its vision, CASIC has fully devoted itself into the construction of a space power by focusing on “serving national strategies, serving national defense construction and serving national economy and the people's livelihood”. CASIC, taking technical innovation as the first priority, taking innovation of business models as the key and taking management innovation as the guarantee, has been ensuring that innovation is carried out effectively, constantly and profoundly with high innovation investment. CASIC has successively unveiled a series of mid- and long-term innovation-driven projects and key projects related to industrial Internet, intelligent industry and commercial aerospace, with an intention to promote sustained innovation-driven development of space cause of China. The relatively rapid development trend maintained by CASIC in recent years relies exactly on the fighting spirit, persistence and pioneering spirit.
The two-hour lecture was thought-provoking with profound contents explained in simple ways, and was well-received by audiences on site. Gao Hongwei answered every single question asked by the students on site and won rounds of applause from them. Gao Hongwei stated that CASIC would further expand and strengthen its cooperation with Zhejiang University in such aspects as combined cultivation of talents, transformation of achievements and building of innovation and entrepreneurship teams; that students of Zhejiang University aspiring to devoting themselves into the space cause were welcome to join CASIC’s innovation and entrepreneurship teams and build a wonderful life while pursuing their space dreams.
It was reported that the “open class of state-owned enterprise” was co-hosted by the Ministry of Education and SASAC aiming to form the mechanism and atmosphere for ideological and political construction of colleges and universities with the concern, support and efforts of the whole society and by promoting cooperation between colleges/universities and enterprises, combination of theories and practices and pairing of after-school activities counselors with students. A number of 50 central enterprises and 50 colleges/universities were selected in the first batch. Among them, CASIC paired with Zhejiang University.
At the lecture, the ceremony for “appointing backbone of state-owned enterprises as after-school activities counselors” was held. Two excellent cadres of Aerospace Communications Holdings Co., Ltd. Of CASIC were recruited as after-school activities counselors of Zhejiang University.
Before the lecture, the opening ceremony for the 3rd Science and Technology Contest for College Students (CASIC’s Cup) was held. Chen Guoying delivered a speech and kicked off the Contest together with Zheng Qiang. The Contest themed on “application of frontier theories or technical innovations in aerospace field” was aimed to build a platform for space enthusiasts in colleges and universities to exchange thoughts on innovation and ideas on creative design, to expand the channels for college students to enhance their spirits of innovation and practical abilities, and to further enrich the forms of cooperation with colleges and universities.
Before then, witnessed by Gao Hongwei and Ren Shaobo, CASIC and Zhejiang University has signed the strategic cooperation agreement. After the lecture, Gao Hongwei and others accompanying him visited the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology of Zhejiang University. (Written by Dai Zhenying Photo by Dai Zhenying and He Chuan)
Quotes of Gao Hongwei in his Lectures Given in Zhejiang University
1. We must understand in an all-round way the connotations of “innovation” on the micro and macro levels, from the realistic and historical perspectives and in special and general senses.
2. On the micro level, innovation means to purposefully form novel, valuable and fruitful cognition and practices based on existing knowledge and objective conditions. The value of innovation achievements is mainly reflected in two aspects: enhancing the cognitive ability of humans and improving the welfare of humans.
3. On the macro level, innovation in nature is a full-dimensional, long-lasting and self-motivated process of the evolution of human civilization.
4. Any country that has become the center of international scientific and technological activities has without exception first become the forerunner in ideological emancipation.
5. The evolution of human civilization is a history of constant innovation.
6. The evolution of civilization is normally accomplished in the process of multiple kinds of innovations carried out with one mixed in another and one pushing another.
7. Each form of civilization emerges upon the discovery of some disruptive innovation activities and theories, and new theories are constantly discovered with the constant development of practices.
8. The innovation and development of computers, mobile communication and Internet technologies is helping form an incorporeal world that is based on but different from the material world, and meanwhile can interact with and impact the development process of the material world.
9. Innovation is a basic means for humans to know the world. The repeated and infinite cycle of practicing, cognizing, re-practicing and re-cognizing embodies the dialectical materialism of Marxism and is consistent with the Marxist epistemology.
10. Social activities of agricultural tribes resulted in the great discovery of ethnics; commercial navigation activities resulted in the great discovery of geography; large-scale scientific research resulted in the great discovery of physics; research on mathematics and logic in the information era resulted in the great discovery of mathematics which in return resulted in informatization (digitalization, networking, intelligentization and cloudification).
11. The evolution of civilization, like the evolution of life, can never thoroughly deny or abandon histories, but rather a progressive, adaptive and innovation-based process in which multiple forms coexist.
12. Innovation and civilization evolution processes can be promoted in parallel, but it is hard for them to cross over each other.
13. The human society is entering the era of information civilization and comprehensive informatization is the general trend of times, which is inevitable and irreversible. Informatization mainly includes four aspects: “digitalization, networking, intelligentization and cloudification”.
14. There are four main reasons why the space cause of China can grow from nothing to something, from small to large and to finally making it in the top tier in international aerospace field: Always stick to the leadership of the Communist Party; stick to putting into fully play the advantages of the socialist system; stick to the path of self-dependence and independent innovation; stick to gathering talents by the precious space spirit and stimulating their initiatives, motivation and creativity. Among them, sticking to the centralized and unified leadership of the Communist Party is the basic precondition and sticking to the path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics is the fundamental policy.
15. Space spirit is the spiritual wealth which vividly embodies patriotism, collectivism, socialist spirit and scientific spirit. It is not only an important part of the space cause, but also the most inspiring element of the space cause that can move and inspire the whole society.
16. Any aerospace technologies or technological achievements are tangible and tangible things tend to get outdated. In contrast, valuable spiritual achievements will stand the test of time and can be passed down through the generations.
17. The new era is not only the era of strivers but also the era of innovators. The process of making new achievements in the new era in the space cause of China will definitely be the process of deepening reform and opening up and implementing the innovation-driven development strategy in an all-round way.
18. To build China into a strong space power is not only the order given on the Party’s 19th National Congress, but also the dream shared by all people across the country. The space dream is an important part of the Chinese dream.
19. The relatively rapid development trend maintained by CASIC in recent years relies exactly on the fighting spirit, persistence and pioneering spirit.
20. You can never be too versatile to pursue the space cause.
