The Party and the Sage: Communist China's use of quasi-Confucian rationalizations for one-party dictatorship and imperial ambition

The current bloom of quasi-Confucian political thinking and writing in the People's Republic of China (PRC), encouraged by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and deployed both to discredit Western ideals of democratic pluralism and to rationalize continued one-party rule in China, has been a long time coming. This article examines the origins of this line of thinking, its development since its first appearance with the CCP's cultivation of Confucius studies in the mid-1980s, and the current parameters of this discourse as it has taken a growing role in Beijing's domestic political and emerging geopolitical narrative.     

Making a Historical Fable: the narrative strategy of Lust,Caution and its social repercussions

The screening of the film Lust, Caution in China in late 2007 and the subsequent banning of its actress in early 2008 created a great stir, arousing heated debates across many ranks of society. The debates lasted for more than half a year, making it one of the most sensational cultural (and political) events in China of the year. As a result, the intricate texture of its cinematic text and the complex reactions of the social context constitute an intriguing case of sophisticated cultural politics with rich and significant import. Through an analysis of the film's narrative strategy, this paper reveals the film's nature as a political film noir aimed to allegorize the history of modern China. A discussion of its diversified reception in the Chinese world, rather than echoing the mainstream opinion that sees the harsh critique from the Chinese populace as merely a blind reaction of rampant nationalist sentiment, discloses the heterogeneous voices among differing social forces competing for cultural hegemony in contemporary China.     

Re-interpreting China's Non-intervention Policy towards Myanmar: leverage,interest and intervention

China's non-intervention policy has long been criticized for prolonging the rule of many authoritarian regimes. Myanmar has become one of the classic examples. As China is expected to become a responsible great power, her behavioral patterns have aroused many concerns. This paper aims to re-interpret China's non-intervention policy. While explaining various constraints on China's capability to intervene in the Myanmar government, it shows how China is making efforts to seek a new intervention policy in dealing with countries like Myanmar. It argues that China's insistence on a non-intervention policy does not mean that China does not want to influence other countries such as Myanmar. To assess Chinese leverage and its non-intervention policy toward Myanmar as well as to supplement the current limited academic discussion on Sino–Myanmar relations, in this paper we first examine Chinese leverage in Myanmar through Burmese local politics, such as the power struggle between the central government and local rebel governments. Second, we disaggregate the Chinese interests in Myanmar into different levels (regional, geo-strategic and international) and discuss how these interests affect China's non-intervention policy. Third, we argue that China has indeed tried to intervene in Myanmar politics, but in a softer manner that contrasts with the traditional Western hard interventions, such as economic sanctions and military interference.     

Frustrations and Hopes: Chinese perceptions of the engagement policy debate in the United States

This paper argues that now, more than at any other time, the way that China‐US relations evolve will shape each country's interests and affect the development of global politics. Thus, at this critical point, it is important that the two countries develop a mutually beneficial relationship. In this respect Chinese views of US intentions matter because these views translate into policies; policies that influence US domestic politics and shape relations between the two countries. It is ironic, then, that while Chinese understanding of US domestic politics has never been better and its response to it has never been more sophisticated, the criticisms of China in the US have never been stronger than at any time since rapprochement in the early 1970s. And, pointing specifically to the debate in the US since 1994 over the Clinton Administration's engagement policy, Jia analyzes this as a key source of current Chinese frustrations.     

Searching for a New Cultural Identity: China's soft power and media culture today

The paper argues that China's global expansion and calls for its use of soft power are provoking an ideological crisis which is becoming one of the most critical challenges of the present time. Revolutionary ideology legitimated the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for 60 years, but it has become increasingly at odds with the rapid socio-economic development that began 30 years ago. This paper examines four aspects of contemporary Chinese culture: first the discrepancy between the CCP's ideological rhetoric and its pragmatic policies; second, the fragmentation of the state, the intellectual elite, and the grassroots population in terms of cultural expressions and values; third, the consumer culture which has unleashed materialistic desires; and finally, the emergence of a ‘post-80s’ generation urban youth culture amidst these tension and contradictions.     

China's New Assertiveness in the South China Sea

China's new assertiveness in the South China Sea has arisen from the growth of its military power, its ‘triumphalism’ in the wake of the Western financial crisis and its heightened nationalism. The other littoral states of the South China Sea have been troubled by the opacity of Chinese politics and of the process of military decision-making amid a proliferation of apparently separately controlled maritime forces. The more active role being played by the United States in the region, in part as a response to Chinese activism, has troubled Beijing. While most of the ASEAN states have welcomed America as a hedge against growing Chinese power, their economies have become increasingly dependent upon China and they don't want to be a party to any potential conflict between these two giants. The problem is that there is no apparent resolution to what the Chinese call, in effect, these ‘indisputable disputes’.     

China's Prolonged Stability and Political Future: Same political system,different policies and methods

Contrary to the earlier political upheavals which culminated in the 1989 Prodemocracy Movement, China has achieved an extended stability in the 1990s. This paper argues that the prolonged stability resulted from a set of changes in China's state‐society relations, and much of it was related to the 1989 movement. After the 1989 movement, the CCP veterans selected younger leaders who were both reform-minded and had a Machiavellian sense of politics. This new leadership skillfully managed the economy and contained dissident activities from public attention. Reform and the booming economy also provided many opportunities for intellectuals and students and turned them from the earlier economic 'losers' into the current 'winners'. As market forces penetrated into China more deeply and the state no longer took charge of everything as it used to, the Chinese became less interested in national politics, and political conflicts localized. This paper also argues that although China's state‐society relations underwent great changes, the state still bases its legitimacy on performance and is thus intrinsically unstable. A political reform that aims at changing the basis of state legitimation becomes crucial.     

Grand Mediation and Legitimacy Enhancement in Contemporary China—the Guang'an model

China has seen numerous instances of collective resistance in recent years. Suppression cannot stop popular resistance. It is also hard to solve all problems through the existing judicial system, administrative method or by social means. Based on a case study in Sichuan, this article studies the Grand Mediation (GM) mechanism in Guang'an as one of the ways in which the Chinese government chooses to build institutions and channel social grievances. GM is successful in containing social conflicts and helping the state to garner legitimacy by reducing people's hostility towards local government, which could enhance the CCP's legitimacy, whose paramount goal is to maintain political stability and social harmony.     

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Legitimacy? Contributing to a new research agenda

Previously in this journal, Gunter Schubert's article, entitled ‘One-party rule and the question of legitimacy in contemporary China’, called for the setting up of a new research agenda to analyze the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While making a valuable contribution to the study of the CCP's legitimacy, Schubert's emphasis on the empirical measurement of this concept gives rise to a number of conceptual and theoretical issues. As a consequence, this article seeks to contribute to the research agenda by addressing these issues. In so doing, it suggests that a shift away from a narrow empirically-measured focus on legitimacy towards a broader conceptually-driven concern with legitimation would allow for a more inclusive agenda within the China studies community and lead to a more complete understanding of why the CCP remains in power.     

Political Institutionalization as Political Development in China

Contrary to many doubts, the institutionalization of political leadership survived the succession process in China between 2002 and 2003. In 2004, Jiang Zemin attempted to override the institutionalized political leadership but was unsuccessful. These episodes demonstrate the level of political institutionalization that has been steadily undertaken since the reform and opening of China. After theoretically defining institutionalization as the first significant stage of political development, this article examines the current progress in political institutionalization at two distinct levels: external and internal. This article argues that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership intended to establish political stability directly and facilitate economic development indirectly under the goal of sustaining the political legitimacy of the CCP's rule of China. Finally, this article examines whether China would follow the ideal sequence of political development, i.e. institutionalization leading to participation leading to contestation. Though China has achieved considerable political institutionalization and conducted many experiments of expanding political participation, public contestation is still confined solely to within the party. Thus, it remains to be seen whether or not China will follow the ideal sequence.     

新时代中国共产党自我革命的内外动力及其互动——学习《习近平谈治国理政》第三卷

中国共产党自我革命的根本动力源于中国共产党作为马克思主义政党的先进性,源于中国共产党始终不变的初心和使命以及不断自我革命的历史自觉,这是中国共产党自我革命的内生动力。新时代中国共产党面临的"四大考验"、新的社会主要矛盾以及国家治理现代化的目标,要求中国共产党必须把党的自我革命推向深处,这是中国共产党面临的时代任务,也是外在的压力,对于一个有使命自觉的马克思主义政党而言,这又是我们党自我革命的外在动力。内生动力是党自我革命的关键性动力,决定了党自我革命的深度。外在动力是自我革命的条件和目标指向,决定党自我革命的广度,也是进一步激活党自我革命内生动力的重要力量。新时代,进一步把党的自我革命推向深入,需要凸显内外动力的互动,将外在动力转化为内生动力,不断克服自身存在的问题,使党永葆先进性。     

坚持和完善中国特色政党制度的再思考

中国特色政党制度与西方资本主义政党制度有着本质的区别,这种本质的区别主要表现在二者有着不同的经济基础、不同的政党关系、不同的政治目标与运作方式;共产党领导,多党派合作,共产党执政,多党派参政;同时,中国特色政党制度还有着鲜明的比较优势,优势一是有利于执政党自身建设,优势二是有利于集中力量办大事,调动一切积极因素进行社会主义现代化建设,优势三是有利于发扬社会主义民主。在现阶段,要根据新形势新变化,不断坚持和完善中国特色政党制度。     

增强六种意识,建设中国特色社会主义的高素质参政党

为了适应中国共产党从革命党向执政党的转型,我国现在的民主党派非常需要与时俱进地创新与发展,实现从民主革命时期的"左翼政党"、社会主义改造时期"被"作为"团结、教育、改造"对象的民主党派,向中国特色社会主义参政党的转型。我们务必认真学习习近平总书记2014年在与各民主党派、工商联、无党派人士"共迎新春座谈会"上关于"努力把中国特色社会主义参政党建设提高到一个新的水平"的重要讲话精神,以适应新世纪、新时期、新形势、新任务,民主党派完成这种时代性转变,需要不断增强政党意识、政治意识、参政意识、学习意识、实践意识、改革意识。     

China's Strengthened New Order and the Role of Propaganda

The issue of whether or not the current regime in China is sustainable is one of the key questions of interest to specialists on Chinese politics today. The authors of this paper contend that the CCP government has actually strengthened its hold on power in recent years, rather than weakening it, as so many analysts predicted. The paper uses CCP propaganda work in the current era as a lens to consider why this might be so and utilizes the term ‘Popular Authoritarianism’ to describe China's new political order.     

Identity,Sovereignty, and Economic Penetration: Beijing's responses to offshore Chinese democracies

Investigating how the PRC responds to democratization in Taiwan and Hong Kong, this paper argues that the Chinese Communist leadership has mainly developed three strategies in managing the complicated crises, including Beijing's own legitimacy crisis and the integration crisis of the Chinese nation, caused by the rise of offshore Chinese democracies. These strategies are: identity politics, sovereignty politics, and economic penetration. With ‘identity politics’, Beijing identifies ‘identification with the Communist leadership’ as the sole Chinese national identification, and utilizes the nationalistic passions of mainland and even overseas Chinese people against democrats in Taiwan and Hong Kong, by labeling the latter as ‘separatists’ or ‘national traitors’. Further, Beijing defines ‘sovereignty’ in a way in which the ‘central’ government monopolizes all possessions of the nation, and excludes ‘people's sovereignty’ from the politics of national reunification or the ‘one country, two systems’ model actualization. While appealing to both ‘soft power’ based in ‘patriotic nationalism’ and ‘hard power’ embedded in national sovereignty, however, the Chinese regime also mobilizes business resources and opportunities provided by China's growing economic power and China's dominance in Greater Chian economic integration for its political purposes of curbing offshore Chinese democracies.     

对中国特色政党制度的几点思考

政党制度是现代民主政治的重要特征之一,它是公民参与政治与社会管理的主要形式。一个国家实行什么样的政党制度是由它的的国情、国家性质以及社会发展状况决定的。我国实行的中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度,是中国长期的革命、建设、改革实践中逐步形成和发展起来的、适合中国国情的一项基本的政治制度,是中国社会主义民主政治的一个重要组成部分。     

Discussion of 'The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes'

In a response to Yan Xuetong's paper, 'The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes', Ted Osius (writing in August 1999) discusses Dr Yan's perspective on Chinese history and the question of whether China's rise will be peaceful. Mr Osius argues that, while we cannot know for certain what China's future holds, the Clinton‐Gore Administration has been clear in its goal of integrating China into the leadership ranks of the world community.     

用社会主义核心价值体系引领参政党文化建设

社会主义核心价值体系为我国的参政党文化建设带来了新的契机,我国的各民主党派应抓住机遇,在文化建设上坚持马克思主义指导思想不动摇,坚持走中国特色的社会主义民主政治发展道路,坚持用中国特色社会主义共同理想武装全体民主党派成员,继续发扬民主党派追求民主与爱国的精神,带头践行社会主义荣辱观,切实以学习社会主义核心价值体系为契机,做好参政党文化建设。     

The impact of reform on the party and ideology in China

In the People's Republic of China (PRC), the monolithic organization of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its unchallenged official ideology, Mao Zedong Thought, used to be the two mighty pillars sustaining Communist rule during Mao's era. Since the late 1970s, however, these two pillars have been shattered by a series of post‐Mao economic and political reforms under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. As the result of a drastic decline in the standing of the party leadership and its official ideology, the ruling methods and foundation of the current regime have also changed. How did the reforms significantly affect the party and the official ideology? How did the changes in the roles of the party and ideology, in turn, redefine the nature and ruling methods of the current Communist regime? What do these changes imply for the future of this regime and the course of ongoing political and economic modernization? These questions, which are crucial for our understanding of the nature of sociopolitical transition in China, will be addressed in this article.     

Returnees and their Political Impact: evidence from returned students and trainees from the Soviet Union in China, 1950–1966

This paper will study one of the unique population movements in modern history: the circular movement of students and trainees between China and the Soviet Union from 1950 to 1966. This population movement includes more than 38,000 Chinese who were trained by the leading Soviet Union industrial enterprises, research centers and institutions of higher learning. These returned students and trainees from the Soviet Union captured a considerable number of prominent positions in the Chinese leadership from the 1980s to the 1990s. The explanation of their political impact relies on the domestic country's politics and international context.