Following the Spring Festival, which heralds the beginning of the Year of the Loong (Dragon), social science scholars have already immersed themselves in their research projects. They venture into the field for surveys, distill their experience into reports, and keenly observe the dynamics of the era. By articulating the needs of the populace, they actively contribute to the advancement of high-caliber economic and social progress, demonstrating their commitment through tangible efforts.

The year 2024 is critical to actualizing the goals outlined in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025). Ye Jingzhong, a professor from the College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University, has led his team to conduct research on the frontline of rural areas, following up rural revitalization from the perspective of farmers.

Through in-depth investigation conducted over the past year, Ye has recognized profoundly that rural revitalization is a fervent aspiration for hundreds of millions of farmers, and a major historical task for building China into a modern socialist country in all respects.

Discussing his strategy for effectively integrating his research with the objectives of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Ye articulated his intention to further explore ways to truly incorporate the perspectives and expectations of farmers into both national and local rural revitalization efforts. Meanwhile, he will strive to clearly understand and elucidate the vivid practices of agricultural and rural development across China, with a view to constructing development and transformation pathways for the modernization of Chinese agriculture and rural areas. Hopefully, these pathways will be extensively recognized by both domestic and international academia, Ye said.

The philosophy that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets has taken deep root in the minds of the Chinese people. Fang Ying, a professor of economics at Xiamen University, told CSST that China has made remarkable regulatory progress on environmental protection and in the development of an environmental policy system. Certain environmental economic policies, such as the green credit policy, are sufficient to encourage polluting enterprises to increase investments in environmental protection.

To establish a sound green finance system, it is essential to focus on green credit and roll out pertinent policies for other financing channels, Fang said. “Green technological innovation is vital to carrying out the innovation-driven development strategy and the green transformation of the development model, so we should make development plans from the vision of harmony and symbiosis between humanity and nature.”

In early 2024, Zhang Zhiqiang, a research fellow and director of the Institute of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), inaugurated a philosophical study into the five prominent features—consistency, originality, unity, inclusiveness, and peaceful nature—of Chinese civilization, as part of CASS’s major innovation project to research and interpret the modern Chinese civilization. He expressed his hope that future research can be grounded in Chinese philosophy to examine Chinese civilization’s unique features and adopt a macroscopic vision of history and civilization to fuel the transformation of Chinese philosophical research paradigms.

Revolutionary and profound artificial intelligence (AI) technology has the potential to surpass technological barriers, marking an unprecedented turning point. Shen Yang, a professor from the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, and his team have continued to deepen their application and research of AI.

Discussing his plans for 2024, Shen expressed his aspirations for carrying out more meaningful explorations and practices through AI research, particularly the promotion of AI’s application in healthcare by implementing their research outcomes on “digital healthcare,” “precision medicine,” and “smart healthcare.” Additionally, they will be dedicated to enhancing the “Internet Plus Healthcare” service system, aiming to elevate the diagnostic and treatment technologies, service capabilities, and management standards of hospitals to new levels.