This paper elaborates on the basic tenets of the survive syntactic theory under the Minimalist Program,and comments on the advantages and disadvantages of the theoretical model.A contrastive study between the survive theory and the phase theory shows that the survive theory is more compatible with the basic ideas and requirements of minimalist syntax,which has a more reasonable theoretical design and wider area of data analysis.Furthermore,based on the survive theory,this paper proposes some critical issues concerning the construction of derivational theories in the Minimalist Program,from the angles of core syntactic operations,syntactic features,and the interfaces between syntax and other language modules.