Leninism for the 21st Century: Xi Jinping’s Ideological Party-building

Abstract

For a long time, people outside China often forgot that China is a communist state. In many ways it was more capitalistic than some paragons of capitalism—for example, the United States and Great Britain. However, since 2012, the Communist Party of China (CPC) under General Secretary Xi Jinping’s stewardship has abruptly—seemingly—reverted to the grand tradition of communism. Ideology and politics once again take command in China. Unlike the half-hearted efforts of his predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping has given top priority to Party rectification, integrating it within his grand plan for “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era”. This ideological and policy turn has strained China’s relationship with liberal democracies and brought China to the brink of a new Cold War with the United States and some US allies. Arguably, it has also contributed to the drastic slowdown of the Chinese economy. Why did the CPC make such a move that appears detrimental to China’s rise?