Chinese social scientists said in Beijing Thursday that they should adopt a pioneering spirit to solve more theoretical and practical problems of modern life.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), China's top think-tank for the state's decision-makers, gathered the most prestigious social scientists together to discuss the speech made by President Jiang Zemin, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), during his visit to the People's University of China on April 28.

The social scientists said that Jiang's remarks on social sciences would advance social scientific development in the country.

This was Jiang's second speech in the past eight months upgrading social sciences since his meeting with technologists for national defense and social scientists in August 2001 in Beidaihe, a summer resort in north China's Hebei Province.

Jiang gave the same priority to social scientific research as natural scientific research, the CASS experts said.

They said that China was experiencing a great period of reform and opening-up. Therefore, they should conduct more research on the new phenomena and situations occurring both in China and the world.

They also agreed with Jiang's views on social scientists' academic attitude and political awareness. They promised to study real life and research practical issues, in a bid to comprehensively construct the country's social theoretical system.

(People's Daily May 10, 2002)