On May 26, an academic workshop themed "Building a Socialist Society with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era" and a meeting of Chinese Sociological Association to study and implement the spirits of the 19th CPC National Congress and the NPC & CPPCC Sessions sponsored by the Chinese Sociological Association and jointly organized by Shanghai Academy and Shanghai University’s School of Sociology and Political Science was held at Shanghai Academy.

The workshop was divided into two parts: the first part devoted to keynote reports; and the second part a roundtable discussion.

Researcher Li Lin, member of the Academic Division of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences（CASS）, former Director of the CASS Institute of Law, and Vice Chairman of the China Law Society, was invited to give a keynote report entitled "Guiding the New Journey of Building a Law-based Society with the Spirit of the CPC 19th Congress ". The workshop was hosted by Xie Shouguang, Secretary General of the Chinese Sociological Association, and addressed by Li Youmei, First Deputy President of Shanghai Academy.

Li Lin pointed out that, to open the new journey of building a law-based socialist society in the new era under the guidance of the spirit of the CPC 19th National Congress, we should adhere to integrated construction and mutual promotion of a law-based country, a law-based government, and a law-based society, and adhere to new guidelines for construction of the rule of law, respond to new contradictions, and new requirements for building a law-based society, form new planning for building the law-based society demanded by the new targets, and meet new task requirements for building a law-based society.

Li Lin also explained the important significance of integrated construction and mutual promotion of a law-based country, government, and society. He proposed that China should: place high emphasis on people's new needs for building a law-based society; actively respond to solve problems such as unbalanced supply of institutions in respect of the construction of a law-based society; and build version 2.0 of the transformation and upgrade of construction of a rule-of-law society.

The roundtable session centered on topics of the workshop, where attending experts and scholars conducted discussion from such aspects as grasping the change of major social contradictions, and promoting the construction of law-based society standards.

Li Youmei chaired the roundtable session. She said that, at the CPC 19th National Congress, "social governance" was included into the New Party Constitution, and a "Social Construction Committee" was newly established in the National People's Congress, which shows that social governance is becoming more socialized, law-based, intelligent and specialized, and that the modernization of the national governance system in China is entering into a new development stage.

Professor Bing Zheng, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Sociological Association, and Executive Vice President of Jilin University, said China should strive to continuously meet people's yearning for a good life by such measures as strengthening the guarantee for people's fundamental rights.

Wang Ning, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association, and Deputy Director of the School of Sociology & Anthropology of Sun Yat-sen University, held that every individual has social rights, and under China's special political and social condition, how to realize social rights and how to equalize and standardize them is worthy of our study.

Chen Guangjin, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association, member of the Academic Committee of Shanghai Academy, and Director of the Institute of Sociology of the CASS, said we must have an in-depth understanding about the ideas of "people-oriented development", as it is the scientific answer to the fundamental purpose, motivation, and trend of economic and social development, during the process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Guan Xinping, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association, and professor of Sociology at Nankai University, pointed out that the issues concerning the vital interests of the people should be protected by enacting relevant legislation and legal procedures.

Wang Sibin, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Sociological Association, and professor of Sociology at Peking University, said China should stick to the principle of taking protection of the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of people as the starting point and end point of coordination and handling of social contradictions, and development of relevant social policies, and China should formulate relevant policies to optimize the social structure, provide sound social services, and promote social building.

Song Linfei, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Sociological Association, and professor of Sociology at Nanjing University, said that in building an intelligent society, the development of high-end industries and core technology should be strengthened, and the development of urbanization should shift to quality-based upgrades, highlighting the refined development of cities.

According to Xie Shouguang, Secretary General of the Chinese Sociological Association and President of the Social Sciences Academic Press, some of the basic public products provided by the government are still in serious shortage; in such a context, China should speed up the development of the social governance system, and build a common governance landscape characterized by joint building, joint governance and sharing.

Shen Yuan, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association and professor of the Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University, noted we should try to get to know about the working and living condition of different social groups, identify the actual problems in social life, and find appropriate social governance methods by means of social surveys that are both scientific and practical.

Lei Hong, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association and professor of the School of Sociology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, suggested the Chinese Sociological Association should gather more experts and scholars by means such as forums, so as to serve social reform and development, and economic construction, and promote sound operation and coordinated development of the society.

Shi Ying, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association and researcher at Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said that in the era of big data, we can collect, record, and summarize the behavior of the members of relevant groups, and provide technological support for modernization of social governance, utilizing blockchain technology.

Wang Jinling, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association, and researcher at Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences said that we must improve our ability to mine and tap local resources, insisting that we should carry out sociological research in a theoretical and practical manner, to deepen social system reform and realize modernization of social governance.

Liu Xin, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Sociological Association and Director of the School of Social Development and Public Policy of Fudan University, said that to promote building of a society under the rule of law, we should adhere to the principle of integrating social forces, balancing social interests, and regulating social relations on the track of the rule of law, and promote societal development in the right direction by proper institutional constraint.

A total of over 20 persons, including the chairman, vice-chairmen, and the secretary general of the 10th Council of the Chinese Sociological Association, deputy directors of the association’s academic committee, deputy secretaries general of the association and relevant persons from Shanghai Academy, attended this workshop.