Abstract
By the time Xi Jinping completed his two terms as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the autumn of 2022 the Party will have celebrated its centenary (2021), and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will have outlasted the Soviet Union by four years. These forthcoming landmarks are important points of reference for Xi. As China’s leader he is committed to pre-empt a Soviet style implosion and to revive the Party and the country during his watch. The general direction to which he would like to take China is encapsulated in the China Dream, which he articulated in public for the first time at ‘The Road to Revival’ exhibition at the National Museum in Beijing, shortly after he took power in November 2012. This determination was affirmed at the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress held in November 2013. Although the Fourth Plenum (October 2014) focused on ‘comprehensively advancing the rule of law’, the overall objective of Xi was not changed.1
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Notes
- 1.
China.org, “4th plenary session communique.”
- 2.
Xinhua Net, “Fuxing mubiao fenyong qianjin.”
- 3.
Yu, “Xi Jinping the man.”
- 4.
Baum, “Limits of authoritarian resilience.”
- 5.
Tsang, “Consultative Leninism.” 865–80.
- 6.
Ibid., 866.
- 7.
People’s Daily, “Constitution of China.”
- 8.
People’s Daily, “Three represents.”
- 9.
AFP, “Calls for transparency.”
- 10.
Economist, “A corruption fighter.”
- 11.
Coonan, “Communist officials sidestep.”
- 12.
Zheng, “Renqing ‘xianzheng’ de benzhi.”
- 13.
Xinhua, “President Xi vows punishment.”
- 14.
Tsang, Documentary History Hong Kong, 5.
- 15.
People’s Daily, “Xionghuai daju.”
- 16.
Fewsmith, China Since Tiananmen, 52–3.
- 17.
China Digital Times, “Leaked speech.”
- 18.
Buckley, “Vows of change.”
- 19.
Chen, “Xinjiapo Remin Xindongdang,” 5–10.
- 20.
Shambaugh, China’s Communist Party, 9.
- 21.
Dickson, “Populist authoritarianism,” 37.
- 22.
Wang, Ganbu zhidu jianshe, 354.
- 23.
Shambaugh, China’s Communist Party, 114–15.
- 24.
People’s Daily, “President urges improved service.”
- 25.
Nathan and Gilley, China’s New Rulers, 193–4.
- 26.
Xinhua Net, “China focus.”
- 27.
Huang, “Reform panel.”
- 28.
Xinhua Net, “Shenhua gaige lingdao xiaozu.”
- 29.
Saich, Governance Politics of China, 44. The concept of ‘the masses’ is essentially a Maoist concept. The nearest meaning to such a term is ‘patriotic’ citizens, with the Communist Party holding the right to define what ‘patriotic’ means. The issue of patriotism is examined further towards the end of this chapter.
- 30.
Brown, Ballot Box China, 40.
- 31.
Xinhua Net, “Shenhua gaige wenti jueding.”
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Thornton, “Long time coming,” 8–9.
- 34.
Xinhua, “New party leadership elected.”
- 35.
Shi, “Rural China,” 244–6.
- 36.
Deliberative and incremental steps in increasing the element of elections are part of democratization. In the case of Taiwan, for example, local elections from the 1950s onwards helped the democratization process once the Kuomintang authoritarian regime under Chiang Ching-kuo accepted the need to democratize in the late 1980s, even though such elections in the 1950s were not particularly democratic or meaningful at the time.
- 37.
For enlarging the scope for civil society, see discussions below regarding the rescue and relief efforts during the Sichuan earthquake of 2008.
- 38.
Xinhua, “CPPCC play bigger role.”
- 39.
China.org, “18th CPC National Congress.”
- 40.
Wen, Facebook.
- 41.
Danwei, “Chat with Hu Jintao.”
- 42.
Xinhua Net, “Xi paidui mai baozi.”
- 43.
Although the term ‘civil society’ is among seven concepts that are now required not to be used in universities, NGOs are not in fact banned under Xi. Lam, “Seven ‘speak-not’ subjects ban.”
- 44.
Xinhua, “Boost economic efficiency.”
- 45.
Dorrucci, Pula and Santabárbara, “Growth and rebalancing,” 45.
- 46.
Rabinovitch, “Local debt audit.”
- 47.
Zheng, Discovering Nationalism in China, 51.
- 48.
Chen, “Minzu zhuyi,” 74.
- 49.
Lim and Blanchard, “Traditional faiths.”
- 50.
Zhao, “China’s Pragmatic Nationalism,” 134.
- 51.
The large public outburst of nationalism when the Olympic torch relay outside of China met with large scale public protests in April 2008. For a strong representation of some Chinese nationalists’ frustrations, see China Digital Times, “What do you want.”
- 52.
Xinhua, “Xi kaocha Nanhai jiandui.”
- 53.
Economist, “Xi and Chinese dream.”
- 54.
QS Theory, “Ningju Zhongguo Liliang.”
- 55.
Kelly, “Citizen movements,” 201.
- 56.
Zhao, “China’s pragmatic nationalism,” 135.
- 57.
Ibid.
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Tsang, S. (2016). Consolidating Political and Governance Strength. In: Tsang, S., Men, H. (eds) China in the Xi Jinping Era. The Nottingham China Policy Institute Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29549-7_2
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