As an important path to promote common prosperity, the inclusive development of digital technology has significantly optimized the income distribution pattern by empowering the three distribution mechanisms. Based on the Inclusive Green Development Follow-up Survey (IGDS) data in the first quarter of 2024, this paper systematically examines the impact of digital technology on primary, secondary, and tertiary distribution. The findings are as follows. At the primary distribution level, digital skills have significantly improved workers′ income levels by reconstructing the labor market, with the income growth effect being particularly prominent among groups with high digital skills. However, skill stratification has exacerbated the income gap. At the secondary distribution level, the transformation of government governance driven by digital technology has effectively improved the fairness and efficiency of the secondary distribution policies through intelligent tax supervision, precise social security, and digital public services. At the tertiary distribution level, digital technology has increased charitable donations by reducing participation costs, enhancing information transparency, and broadening donation channels, initially shaping a collaborative mechanism between marketization and socialization. Nevertheless, the digital divide persists, manifested as the structural disadvantages of rural and low-skilled groups in terms of access to, use of, and benefit from technology. Based on this, it is proposed a four-dimensional policy system of “digital skills training-balanced infrastructure-digital and intelligent taxation-charity transparency” to consolidate the institutional foundation of common prosperity through the inclusive development of digital technology.

Employment is the foundation of people′s livelihood and economic development. To achieve fuller and higher-quality employment is a necessary requirement for making solid progress in promoting common prosperity in China. The digital economy, as an important driving force to advance Chinese modernization, contributes to high-quality employment in multiple dimensions, including the employment structure, employment boundary, employment quality, and regional equilibrium. However, it has also triggered a series of social problems, such as the supply and demand mismatch in the labor market, structural employment contradictions, industry involution, and algorithmic hegemony. Therefore, exploring the impact of digital economy on China′s employment holds profound significance for achieving higher-quality employment and promoting common prosperity. As China′s economy moves towards a new stage of high-quality development, it should involve strengthening support for digital employment, optimizing the employment environment, improving employment-first policies, and standardizing labor management systems in platform-based enterprises during the process of promoting digital industrialization and industrial digitalization. With the fundamental goal of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and achieving common prosperity, it is crucial to develop a more inclusive digital economy and transform limited human capital into a new driver of high-quality economic development. Only in this way can China build resilient industrial and supply chains, fully energize its super-large market, and lay a solid foundation for inclusive economic growth and high-quality employment under the New Development Pattern.

In recent years, China′s digital economy has developed rapidly, and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data have also shown accelerated growth, which has become an important force in improving urban carbon productivity. This paper selects panel data from prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2022 for empirical testing and employs a two-way fixed effects model for benchmark regression analysis. Then, this paper conducts robustness tests by replacing the dependent variable and changing the sample size, performs heterogeneity tests across different regions, and carries out transmission mechanism tests by enhancing green technology innovation capabilities and promoting industrial structure upgrading. The research results indicate that the digital economy promotes urban carbon productivity by enhancing green technology innovation capabilities and promoting industrial structure upgrading. Based on these findings, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions, such as breaking through digital technology barriers, enhancing innovation capabilities, narrowing the digital divide between different regions, promoting regional coordinated development, optimizing industrial and energy structures to improve carbon productivity, and fully leveraging the role of green technology innovation in boosting carbon productivity.

In the face of increasingly complex economic situation in the world, the integration of business development with digital technology application has accelerated enterprise digital transformation, making it a key strategy for enterprise adaptation. Against the backdrop of shrinking foreign trade demand, the impact of enterprise digital transformation on export resilience has received growing attention from both academia and industry. Using data from the CSMAR database and annual reports of listed companies, this paper takes the 2020 public health crisis as an exogenous shock and applies a Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach to examine how enterprise digital transformation affects export resilience and its underlying mechanisms. The baseline results show that digitally transformed enterprises exhibit stronger export resilience after the shock, demonstrating the positive role of digital transformation in enhancing export resilience. The findings remain robust and highly credible across multiple tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that the current ratio plays a positive mediating role in the effect of digital transformation on export resilience, implying that digital transformation strengthens export resilience under external shocks by enhancing financial liquidity. Furthermore, digital transformation can significantly alleviate insufficient innovation investment, thereby improving export resilience. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of digital transformation on export resilience is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises and enterprises in the eastern region of China. This paper aims to enrich the current academic findings on the effect of digital transformation and provide empirical evidence for enterprises developing digital transformation strategies.

The relationship between the digital economy and residents′ cultural consumption involves not only micro-level issues closely related to residents′ daily lives but also macro-level issues concerning the formulation of cultural consumption policies in China. By combining macro and micro data, this paper constructs an evaluation index system for China′s digital economic development from three aspects: digital infrastructure, digital application, and digital innovation. It calculates the comprehensive index of digital economic development for 30 provincial-level regions in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Xizang) from 2011 to 2021 and empirically examines the impact of digital economic development on households′ cultural consumption level and its mechanism. This paper finds that the digital economy significantly enhances households′ cultural consumption level, with significant heterogeneity among households at different life cycle stages, with different income levels, and in different regions. Specifically, the digital economy exerts the most significant positive effect on cultural consumption in households with a household head aged 60 and above, followed by those with a household head aged 30 to 39; it most significantly boosts cultural consumption in upper-middle-income households, with high-income households ranking second; and the promoting effect of the digital economy on the central and western regions is greater than that on the eastern region. The results of the mediation effect test show that the digital economy elevates households′ cultural consumption level by increasing per capita net income on the demand side and facilitating industrial structure upgrading on the supply side. Therefore, it is necessary to actively encourage the innovative development of the digital cultural industry, enrich the supply of digital cultural products to meet the cultural consumption needs of different groups, and at the same time cultivate and expand new forms of digital cultural consumption, expand cultural consumption scenarios, and release the potential of digital cultural consumption.

Modern economic development has offered vast non-agricultural employment choices for the rural labor force. Nevertheless, this off-farm behavior has simultaneously challenged the traditional labor-intensive agricultural production model. As the land plots contracted by rural households in China are generally small in size, it is difficult to mitigate the agricultural production losses resulting from rural labor force outflows by using large-scale agricultural mechanization. In response to this practical predicament, the Chinese government is actively promoting the rural land transfer policy, aiming to optimize the allocation of land resources and enhance agricultural production efficiency to adapt to the changes in the labor structure. However, it remains undetermined whether such behavior can alleviate the contradiction between rural labor transfer and agricultural production. To explore whether rural land transfer alleviates the agricultural production disturbance caused by rural labor transfer and its threshold level, we conduct an empirical study on this issue using the sample of rural households from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study database in 2018 and contrast it with the sample in 2013 when the rural land transfer policy was not yet widely implemented. The polynomial regression and threshold regression analysis are innovatively conducted, in which agricultural productivity is the explained variable, rural labor transfer is the core explanatory variable, and rural land transfer is the threshold variable. (1) The rate of rural labor transfer, and the rate of rural land transfer in 2018 all exceed those in 2013, indicating that the three are experiencing profound changes. (2) The impact of rural labor transfer on agricultural productivity in 2018 presents a U-shaped pattern of first decreasing and then increasing, with no significant relationship between the two in 2013. By dividing the sample into two parts based on whether rural land transfer has occurred and re-conducting the polynomial regression, it is discovered that rural households who choose land transfer can significantly enhance agricultural productivity with the transfer of labor force, suggesting that rural land transfer might be a crucial reason for the alteration in the relationship between the two. (3) The agricultural productivity exerts a significant single threshold effect. When the average rural land transfer area of rural households in this sample exceeds 20.83% of the contracted rural land, rural labor transfer can significantly improve agricultural productivity, namely that promoting rural land transfer is conducive to achieving a win-win situation of non-agricultural employment for rural households and the enhancement of agricultural productivity. (4) For rural households whose land rights have been confirmed and those in grain-producing areas, the threshold value of rural land transfer is lower than the average level of the sample, namely that a relatively low degree of the threshold of rural land transfer can achieve a positive impact of rural labor transfer on agricultural productivity. Based on this, we propose that rural land transfer should continue to be promoted, and in the overall direction of rural land transfer, more emphasis should be placed on the land area transferred rather than expanding the number of rural households participating in the transfer. Additionally, it is necessary to accelerate the confirmation of land rights and implement differentiated rural land transfer scale strategies based on local conditions to adapt to the needs of different rural households and the characteristics of local agricultural development.

The integration of digital technology into grassroots governance has become a new trend in modernizing the capacity for governance. The construction of digital villages in China still faces numerous challenges. The decline of farmers′ subjectivity has affected the level, quality, and effectiveness of digital technology governance in rural areas, which is a practical issue that urgently needs to be addressed in the new development stage. Subjectivity is a prominent feature of modernity, which can be understood as the characteristics of autonomy, agency, self-action, and creativity that humans exhibit in practice activities. Farmer′s subjectivity refers to an attribute that farmers can correctly recognize their status and role, and consciously, purposefully, and actively participate in practical and creative activities based on practical needs. It is an organic unity of independence, agency, autonomy, and creativity. In the process of allocating digital technology governance resources to rural areas, the decline of farmers′ subjectivity has become a practical obstacle hindering rural governance digitalization. The effectiveness of the digital transformation of rural technology governance depends not only on the degree of digital technology integration, but also on whether the deployment of these technologies meets the practical needs of farmers. The fulfillment of farmers′ subjective needs mainly relies on the effective utilization of supply mechanisms, participation mechanisms, operation mechanisms, and cultivation mechanisms. Improving farmers′ subjectivity from aspects such as stimulating farmers′ autonomous awareness, awakening farmers′ initiative potential, strengthening farmers′ self-action status, and mobilizing farmers′ creative vitality can highlight the subjective status of farmers in rural digital governance and truly achieve “effective governance” in rural areas. Rural governance digitalization is not a static goal or linear development, but a dynamic process of continuous improvement and optimization. To promote rural governance digitalization, rural society should be shifted from “following the example of superiors” to “linking up and down”, achieve internal and external synergy and coordination, and promote the effective manifestation of farmers′ subjectivity. This paper explores the manifestations of the decline of farmers′ subjectivity in the field of rural technology governance and its blocking factors, clarifies the logical relationship of the four aspects of farmers′ subjectivity in rural governance digitalization based on Marxist subjectivity theory, and discusses the paths for reshaping farmers′ subjectivity in the process of rural governance digitalization, providing a feasible approach for modernizing the capacity for rural grassroots governance.

Since the mid-20th century, economic, social, and environmental problems have intertwined under the logic of capital. Among them, ecological crisis and consumption alienation profoundly reflect the organic interaction among capital, nature, and society, which deeply reflect the dual alienation of nature and society in modern capitalist society as well as the internal unity of human alienation and world alienation. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to re-examine the complex interaction between ecological crisis and consumption alienation from the critical context of Marxist political economy. Taking Aristotle′s Four Causes theory as an analytical framework, this paper analyzes the homogeneity of ecological crisis and consumption alienation in terms of material, formal, efficient, and final causes. By revealing the deep-seated reasons, action mechanisms, and governance dilemmas of the metabolic rift between man and nature under the logic of capital, it further expounds on the importance and urgency of constructing a community of life for man and nature. This paper shows that in the social-ecological system of capitalism, the homogeneity of ecological crisis and consumption alienation is manifested in the following aspects: in terms of the material cause, both man and nature have become the factors of production of capitalism involved in capital accumulation and value proliferation, which serve as the basis of their homogeneity; its efficient cause is jointly shaped by the accelerated operation of production and consumption treadmill driven by the logic of capital; its final cause lies in the misplacement of ecological values and the deviation of consumption meanings under the dual control of man and nature in capitalist society; in the aspect of formal cause, it is manifested in the metabolic rift between man and nature, that is, the irreparable rifts between men and between man and the external world, which is the final result of the homogeneity of the two. It has been proved that the conflict between man and nature and the contradiction between production and consumption ultimately stem from the opposition and contradiction among humans, all of which are rooted in the capitalist system. However, capitalism cannot fundamentally extricate itself from the dual dilemma of ecological crisis and consumption alienation. In this case, reshaping a better human ecological civilization in a socialist ecological civilization that emphasizes ecological justice and sustainable social development has become the right and necessary way to build a community of life for man and nature and to achieve the dual liberation of man and nature.

“Chinese modernization” and “striving in unity” are iconic concepts emphasized in the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Unlike the previously emphasized notions of “striving diligently” and “working tirelessly”, the report integrates striving in unity with the cause of national modernization and elevates it to the thematic height of the National Congress of the CPC, and highlights the significant value of the spirit of striving in unity. This paper aims to apply the principles of analysis and synthesis, as well as the unity of logic and history, to reveal the cultural imprint, valuable experience, scientific path, and grand practice of Chinese modernization endeavors from the perspective of striving in unity. Striving in unity is historical experience formed through the CPC′s century-long journey of endeavors and is an essential element of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times in the new era. It provides indispensable ideological guarantees and spiritual motivation for addressing various practical challenges on the journey ahead and for advancing the great cause of Chinese modernization. In the process of the CPC leading the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts, striving in unity has demonstrated its success-promoting functions through cultural accumulation, experiential summarization, theoretical guidance, and methodological generalization. These functions form a comprehensive system with a clear theme, well-defined main line, firm argumentation, and standardized principles. This system answers critical questions about the profound cultural foundation, rich experience, rigorous theories, and robust development of Chinese modernization. Researching Chinese modernization from the perspective of striving in unity breaks through traditional, singular research paradigms. It offers a holistic and stratified analysis of striving in unity and Chinese modernization from both micro and macro dimensions, revealing the theoretical and practical significance of integrating striving in unity into the cause of Chinese modernization. In the face of profound changes in the global, national, and Party contexts in the new era, exploring Chinese modernization endeavors within the framework of striving in unity unveils broader theoretical and contemporary significance. This proposition not only summarizes historical experience but also addresses current practical needs, contributing to carrying out the spirit of striving in unity and the development of Chinese modernization on the new journey ahead. It is further conducive to amassing tremendous strength for creating a bright future for the Chinese nation and achieving its great rejuvenation.

Marx′s theory of labor liberation is not only a profound criticism of labor alienation in capitalist society but also a positive exploration of reconstruction of labor relations in future social forms. In the context of the digital economy, the rapid development of digital and intelligent technologies has profoundly changed traditional forms of labor and labor relations, and labor subjects seem to have favorable conditions for labor liberation. However, capital exploitation hidden behind the digital economy has also shackled the liberation of labor subjects profoundly. The new escalation of labor alienation and issues such as power imbalance caused by capital exploitation have triggered a series of paradoxes about the liberation of labor subjects in the context of the digital economy. While the digital economy brings opportunities for the liberation of labor subjects, it also exposes workers to the dilemma of losing their subjectivity and intensifying alienation. The reasons for the formation of the paradox of labor subject liberation can be attributed to four aspects: firstly, the private ownership system and traditional forms of division of labor still dominate; secondly, workers are gradually marginalized under the intensification of capital domination; thirdly, social equity and justice are facing challenges from the digital divide; fourthly, the imperfection of relevant policies and laws has led to the inability to guarantee the basic rights and interests of workers. In order to seek the liberation of labor subjects in the context of the digital economy, it is necessary to improve the literacy of workers to meet the development needs of New Quality Productive Forces, create fair and orderly principles and institutional norms for digital labor to safeguard labor justice, adhere to the people-centered value orientation and break the shackles of capital logic, and deepen the reform in the field of division of labor and construct a modern division of labor order that is compatible with the level of social and economic development. These paths are interrelated and mutually reinforcing, collectively constituting an effective path to break through the paradox of labor subject liberation in the context of the digital economy. They provide multidimensional solutions to reveal the complex relationship between technological progress and labor subject liberation.

From the perspective of a holistic approach to national security, the prevention and control of the invasion of alien species not only hold traditional values such as safeguarding agricultural and pastoral production security, economic and trade security, food security, and human health and safety, but also embodies the value of the times in ensuring biosecurity and enhancing national security capabilities and sustainability in the biological field. China′s inspection and quarantine system for the entry and exit of animals and plants, initially established to prevent the introduction of pests and diseases, has progressively developed into a relatively comprehensive legal framework for biosecurity assurance guided by the risk prevention principle of the Biosecurity Law. However, in terms of the legal regulation nowadays of the prevention and control of the invasion of alien species, several critical issues remain unresolved, such as the ambiguous basic concepts, the lack of standards for the identification of regulatory objects, the incomplete implementation of the risk prevention principle, the fragmented regulatory measures, and the regulatory blind spots, etc., making it difficult to fully ensure biosecurity and national security. From the perspective of a holistic approach to national security, it is necessary to take the compilation of the overarching Ecological Environment Code for the ecological and environmental sector as an good opportunity to systematically consider by placing the prevention and control of the invasion of alien species within a broader context of the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. This legislative effort should clarify the legal definition of the invasion of alien species, establish a whole-process legal supervision system for risk prevention and damage prevention separately based on risk levels according to “general alien species” and “invasive alien species”, construct an interconnected, interactive, and integrated prevention and control system under the whole-process prevention and control principle characterized by internal coordination among administrative agencies, and collaborative participation from diverse social stakeholders, and encourage public participation in the prevention and control of the invasion of alien species.

Ordered to await investigation, as a non-custodial compulsory measure added in the new Supervision Law, has the dual functions of ensuring the efficiency of supervision procedures and restricting the arbitrary exercise of power. However, its alignment with the principles of the rule of law and rights protection still need to be improved. This paper analyzes the nature orientation and value guidance of ordered to await investigation, arguing that the current norms suffer from ambiguities in legal application, inadequate rights protection of persons ordered to await investigation, and unclear connection mechanism between ordered to await investigation and criminal procedural compulsory measures. These legislative omissions have expanded the discretionary space for the operation of the supervision power and increased the risk of the procedural justice and rights protection being nullified. Based on the value orientation of the rule of law and rights protection, the improvement of the system needs to be premised on legislative refinement. This can be achieved by clarifying the specific legal application of ordered to await investigation, perfecting the rights relief system for persons ordered to await investigation, reducing the space for the abuse of discretion by incorporating the principle of proportionality review and establishing a hierarchical approval procedure, strengthening the external supervision mechanism for rights relief, integrating the procuratorial organs into the supervision objection and appeal procedure, and refining the substantive connection rules between ordered to await investigation and criminal procedural compulsory measures. Only by promoting the rule of law transformation of the operation of supervision power and the coordinated optimization of the rights protection mechanism can the dynamic balance between anti-corruption governance effectiveness and procedural justice be achieved, and sustained legal impetus be injected into the supervision system reform.

Since the implementation of publicity institution of judgement documents for more than ten years, the court′s judgement documents have gradually changed from closed to open and made great progress. From the external perspective, the publicity of judgement documents effectively guarantees the public′s right to know and right to supervise, and plays an incomparably positive role in unifying judgment standards, regulating judicial behaviors, assisting the construction of social credit system, enhancing the credibility of judiciary, and promoting legal education and research. However, from the internal perspective, the court faces some problems in the publicity of judgment documents, such as the damage to judicial authority, the increased judicial costs, the conflict with protection of privacy, and the increased risk of negative public opinion. The difference of internal and external perspectives provokes the debates on how to promote and improve the publicity institution of judgment documents, whose essence is the conflict between “costs and benefits” of publicity of judgement documents, especially the insufficient allocation of judicial resources becomes the Achilles′ Heel of publicity of judgment documents. In order to achieve the goal of lawful, comprehensive, timely and standardized publicity of judgement documents, it should be started from two aspects of transferring costs and reducing costs. It is not only necessary to clarify the responsibility for the publicity of judgement documents, but also to expand the technical embedding space for publicity of judgement document, enhance the judicial capacity to handle disputes, establish a unified publicity mode for dedicated personnel, and establish rules and regulations for the utilization of judgement documents, so as to make the publicity of judgement documents be carried out steadily and farther by improving judicial resource support.