Abstract: The Communist Party of China has led the people to strive unremittingly for a strong and prosperous country and the happiness of the people throughout different phases of the Party history over the past century, during which it has deepened the understanding of relevant concepts, thus being able to interpret the goal of socialist modernization from China’s realities. The general task of the new era is to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects and achieve national rejuvenation. That is to say, after achieving the goal of building China into a moderately prosperous society in all respects, we will build a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful by the middle of this century in two steps. Under the general tasks, a series of specific objectives are set up, among which invigorating China through science and education and developing a strong workforce for the modernization drive is the foundational and strategic support for the overall goal and specific objectives. The core demand for scientific and technological innovation is China’s self-reliance and strength in science and technology. We should take the “seven adherence” as the political principle and the “five major tasks” as strategic measures to achieve high level self-reliance and strength in science and technology so as to provide strong support for the overall goal of building China into a great modern socialist country.

Key words: a great modern socialist country, a world leader in science and technology, modernization of science and technology, self-reliance and strength in science and technology