Features of Modernization Processes in the West and China

In the article “Modernization in China” discusses the concept of modernization and options for its definition. The phenomenon itself is still often interpreted as westernization, although the development of a number of Asian countries, and above all of China, shows that there can be many types or versions of modernization. In the light of new scientific data, the main provisions of M. Weber on the impossibility of the development of the bourgeois system in China, related to his analysis of the Confucian and Taoist mentality in comparison with the Protestant principle of “economic man”, are explored. It is shown on concrete material that Euro-centrist methodology often does not give valuable objective results. This requires a new methodology for studying the Chinese national mentality, in particular in the aspect of its ability to form the principles of modern thinking and apply them to economic life.