Over the past several decades, China has put forward the idea that “science and technology are the primary productive forces.”This recognition has profoundly contributed to China’s emphasis on technological innovation and modernization. There is no doubt that science and technology are central drivers of productivity development and fundamental foundations of industrialization, informatization, and the modern economy.
However, viewed from the broader perspective of human civilization, science and technology themselves do not automatically lead to progress.
Technology is a form of capability, rather than a system of values. It can create wealth, but it can also enable destruction; it can improve human life, but it can also serve warfare; it can promote cooperation among societies, but it can also be used for oppression and conquest.
The history of Germany and Japan during World War II provides a profound lesson.
At that time, Germany possessed one of the world’s most advanced industrial systems, scientific research capabilities, and engineering expertise. It had made significant achievements in chemistry, physics, mechanical manufacturing, aerospace, and other fields. Japan, after its modernization following the Meiji Restoration, had also established one of Asia’s leading industrial and military systems. However, advanced technological capabilities did not automatically guide these two countries toward peace and civilization.
Instead, driven by extreme nationalism, militarism, and expansionism, their technological and industrial strengths were transformed into engines of war, serving aggression, occupation, and large-scale atrocities.
This reveals a fundamental principle:
Technology determines the magnitude of power; ideology determines the direction of power.
If a country possesses advanced technology but lacks values and concepts aligned with the development of human civilization, its powerful productive forces may not benefit humanity. They may instead become tools of destruction.
From this perspective, true human progress depends not only on “whether something can be achieved,”but also on “why it should be achieved.”
Nuclear technology provides the clearest example. Nuclear energy can be used for electricity generation and support global energy development; it can also be used to create nuclear weapons and bring enormous risks. The same scientific achievement can produce completely different historical outcomes under different guiding concepts and institutional constraints.
Therefore, our understanding of the concept of the “primary productive force” needs to be further deepened:
Science and technology are the primary drivers of productivity development, while ideological concepts determine the direction in which productivity evolves.
A country’s true competitiveness does not lie only in the amount of technology, capital, or resources it possesses. More fundamentally, it depends on whether it has strategic thinking consistent with the development of the times, and whether it can transform technological capabilities into forces that promote social progress, safeguard peace, and advance human civilization.
Human history has repeatedly demonstrated:
Power without the guidance of the right direction may become a source of disaster; technological progress guided by sound values can become a driving force for civilization.
Therefore, future competition among nations will not only be competition in technology, industry, and economic strength. At a deeper level, it will be competition in development concepts, civilization perspectives, and governance capabilities.