Dengism

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"It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."

Dengism, also known as Socialism with Chinese characteristics, Deng Xiaoping Theory or Xi Jinping Thought, is an authoritarian, economically debatable (but definitely pro-markets, at least in the short term), culturally variable (but right-leaning since Xi Jinping) ideology with nationalistic tendencies. Dengism saw that for China to adjust to its present economic conditions, capitalism, with party influence and foreign investment, would have to be implemented to increase productivity. This theoretically lifts China out from its primary stage of capitalism into socialism.

While the character is called Dengism here, it more accurately represents Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in general. It can represent the ideology of the PRC and its supporters at any period after Deng's market reforms. While it is called "Dengism" for name recognizability, it can also represent the Three Represents ideology of Jiang Zemin, the Scientific Outlook on Development ideology of Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping Thought, as all of these ideologies fall under the umbrella of "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics".

History

The ideology was first formulated and implemented by Deng Xiaoping during the late 1970’s-1980’s under himself and continues to be practiced by his successors and is now the dominant faction within the Communist Of China Party (or CPC for short).

Deng Xiaoping Era (1978-1989)

Shortly after the end of the Maoist cultural revolution movement, Deng was able to rise to power after years of political prosecutions against him. The reformists led by Deng launched a bloodless coup against the moderate Maoist Hua Guofeng and launched mass-scale agricultural and economic reforms, alongside with small-scale political liberalizations.

The agricultural reform (Household Responsibility System) implemented by Deng significantly improved the production and the living standards of farmers who greatly suffered from Mao’s regime. The legalization of small businesses and the opening of SEZs also gradually increased the living standards of the Chinese people in both physical and spiritual spheres. Those reforms in the 1980s paved the way for China's economic boom in the 1990s.

Small-scale political liberalizations were launched, and many prisoners of Mao’s totalitarian regime who were prosecuted for being accused of ‘betraying the revolution and the party’ were rehabilitated. The control exerted on average Chinese was relaxed, and some liberties like the freedom of the press and the freedom of assembly were partially distributed. Most of those reforms were carried out by Hu Yaobang, a prominent reformist member in the CPC. However, Hu was hated and sidelined in the late 1980s by the conservatives like Chen Yun and Li Peng.

However, many anti-government democrats and liberals were unsatisfied with the half-measures and demanded further change by protesting Tiananmen Square. Deng worked with the conservatives like Chen Yun and Li Peng and permitted the latter to order the brutal massacre against the protesters and subsequently declared a state of emergency in the 1990s to prosecute and ‘disappear’ political dissents in the name of ‘fighting crimes’. Deng also purged democratic reformists like Zhao Ziyang.

The incident in Tiananmen sparked heavy criticism from the international observers, especially by human rights advocates such as journalists from Amnesty International who condemned Deng's massacre and oppression. Deng however, feared that softening his stance will lead to chaos like the collapse of USSR’s satellite communist countries in the Socialist Camp during the Revolutions in Eastern Europe. (Though China has different national characteristics with a multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic union like the USSR).

Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour - Deng Xiaoping's southern tour refers to the tour Deng Xiaoping, did from January 18 to February 21, 1992, in southern China, including in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. Said tour inspired Deng to pursue increased market liberalization of the Chinese economy and privatization of state-owned enterprises. As his famous quote goes "It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches the mice."

Deng Xiaoping's famous words in Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour: 1. Revolution is the liberation of productive forces, and reform is also the liberation of productive forces. We should fully stress the emancipation and development of the productive forces;

2. The basic line should be managed for a hundred years and should not be shaken. The key to adhering to the line, principles and policies since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee is to adhere to "one central task and two basic points". The army and the state power should uphold this path, this system and these policies;

3. We should be bold in reform and opening up, and we should boldly try and break new ground when we see the right thing. Stick to what is right, change what is wrong, and solve new problems as soon as they arise;

4. The key is the question of whether the surname is "Socialism (社)" or "Capitalism (资)". The standard of judgment should mainly see whether it is conducive to the development of the productive forces of the socialist society, whether it is conducive to the enhancement of the comprehensive national strength of the socialist country, and whether it is conducive to the improvement of the people's living standards;

5. It is not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism whether there are more plans or more markets. Both planning and market are economic means;

6. The essence of socialism is to liberate and develop the productive forces, eliminate exploitation and polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity;

7. If socialism wants to win the comparative advantage with capitalism, it must boldly absorb and learn from all the achievements of civilization created by human society and all the advanced management methods and management methods reflecting the laws of modern socialized production in all countries in the world, including the developed capitalist countries;

8. China should be alert to the right, but mainly to prevent "left";

9. To seize the opportunity and develop ourselves, the key is to develop the economy. We should pay attention to stable and coordinated economic development, but stability and coordination are relative, not absolute. Development is the last word;

10. Science and technology are the primary productive forces. To develop the economy faster, we must rely on science, technology and education;

11. We should adhere to the two pronged approach, namely, reform and opening up and cracking down on all kinds of criminal activities. Both hands should be hard;

12. In the whole process of reform and opening up, we must always adhere to the four basic principles;

13. The problem in China still lies within the Communist Party. We should be sober about this problem. We should select people with both political integrity and ability to join the leading bodies according to the standards of "revolutionization, youth, knowledge and specialization". We should pay attention to the training of the next generation of successors. Now it is necessary to select people who are recognized by the people as adhering to the line of reform and opening up and who have made achievements in government and boldly put them into the new leading bodies;

14. Formalism is also bureaucracy. We should spare time to do more practical work and talk less.

15. To learn Marxism Leninism, we should be precise and effective;

16. After a long process of development, socialism will inevitably replace capitalism. This is an irreversible general trend of social and historical development;

17. China is a firm force in safeguarding world peace. China opposes hegemonism;

18. Between now and the middle of the next century, it will be a very important period, and we must work hard. The burden and responsibility on our shoulders are heavy!

However, now President Jiang Zemin was skeptical of Deng's newfound ideas as he argued that further market-liberalization and privatization would challenge the authority of the Communist Party of China people which could potentially have lead to the end of the country's one-party rule. However, he was forced to go along with the Chinese economic reform program as Deng Xiaoping threatened to demote any party official who opposed it.

Jiang Zemin Era (1989-2002)

In 1997, after the death of Deng Xiaoping, and the resignation of former Premier Li Peng, President Jiang Zemin was persuaded by the new Premier Zhu Rongji to change his stance on free-market capitalism and improve relations with the west. Between 1998 and 2003 the Jiang-Zhu Administration sold off and privatized the majority of China's 13,000 large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, except for a few large monopolies such as the energy sector and natural resources. During the same period, the Jiang-Zhu Administration also reduced tariffs, trade barriers, and regulations; reformed the banking system; dismantled much of the Mao-era social welfare system; reduced inflation; and joined the World Trade Organization.

Many big private Chinese corporations were founded and entered the world stage throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, during Jiang Zemin's reign. Among those include Alibaba Group, founded by Jack Ma in 1999, which specializes in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Tencent is the world's largest video game vendor, and among the largest social media, venture capital, and investment corporations. Geely is a multinational automotive company headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. is a multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, and by 2021 is ranked the second-largest R&D investor in the world. Thousands of private schools and hospitals also appeared throughout the country during this time.

Foreign companies were also encouraged to invest in the Chinese market and were free to exploit their Chinese employees as they pleased. Foxconn, a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer, founded by billionaire and Kuomintang member Terry Gou has come under heavy scrutiny for the infamous "Foxconn suicides" in Shenzhen caused by the company's poor treatment and abuse of their employees. The economic "reforms" championed by the Jiang Zemin-Zhu Rongji Administration earned the CPC the support of most major western corporations and CEOS such as Bill Gates ( Microsoft), Elon Musk (Tesla), Michael Bloomberg, among others, who would help the CPC with establishing giant networks of mass-surveillance and propaganda.

While Jiang Zemin's and Zhu Rongji's market-liberal reforms lead to spectacular economic growth and asserted China's standing on the world stage, they did not lead to increased political freedoms or an end to the epidemic of corruption and nepotism that had plagued the country for generations.

In 1998, the Communist Party of China feared that the China Democracy Party (CDP) would lead to increased dissent among the Chinese population which would once again challenge the one-party rule. The CDP was immediately banned, followed by arrests and imprisonment. That same year, the Great Fire Wall project was started to control the flow of information on the internet which had arrived in China four years earlier. Fang Binxing, former Principal of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications has been dubbed the "Father of China's Great Fire Wall."

Jiang Zemin used the Collective Leadership of the Communist Party to maintain a high level of influence in Chinese politics after the end of his term in 2004, by stacking the administration of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao with his own cronies, effectively making them puppets of Jiang.

As the wealth gap between the rich and poor increased the CPC found its power challenged by the "Chinese New Left, " a mix of Maoists, social democrats, and other leftists discontent with China's crony-capitalist and elitist economic system and who desired greater distribution of wealth and better worker's conditions. Many members of the Chinese New Left have been arrested due to "incitement of social unrest. "

Despite all the faults of Jiang’s administration with the increase of cronyism, mass corruption, and income inequality, he continued the reduction of absolute poverty started from the Deng era and oversaw one of the most rapid reductions of poverty in human history.

Hu Era (2002-2012)

Hu and Wen Jiabao took a more conservative approach towards reforms, and began to reverse some of Deng Xiaoping's reforms in 2005. Observers note that the government adopted more egalitarian and populist policies. The administration increased subsidies and control over the health care sector, increased funding for education, halted privatization, land use right reform and adopted a loose monetary policy, which led to the formation of a U.S.-style property bubble in which property prices tripled.


The privileged state sector was the primary recipient of government investment, which, under the new administration, promoted the rise of large "national champions" which could compete with large foreign corporations. During Hu's administration, the Chinese government increasingly funded the consolidation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), supplying massive subsidies and favoring SOEs in regulatory matters.   These efforts helped SOEs to crowd out foreign and domestic private sector competitors. Nevertheless, the share of SOEs in the total number of companies have continued to fall, dropping to 5%, though their share of total output remained at 26%. Exchange rates for the yuan were also liberalized and the peg to the U.S. dollar was broken, leading the yuan to rise by 31% against the dollar from 2005 to 2012. China's economic growth has averaged around 10% under Hu, while the economy surpassed the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.


After taking over, Hu and Wen proposed to set up a Harmonious Society which aimed at lessening inequality and changing the style of the "GDP first and Welfare Second" policies. They focused on sectors of the Chinese population that had been left behind by the economic reform, and took a number of high-profile trips to the poorer areas of China with the stated goal of understanding these areas better. Hu and Wen Jiabao also attempted to move China away from a policy of favouring economic growth at all costs and toward a more balanced view of growth that includes factors in social inequality and environmental damage, including the use of the green gross domestic product in personnel decisions. Jiang's clique, however, maintained control in most developing areas; as a result, Hu and Wen's macroeconomic regulation measures faced great resistance.

Xi Jinping Era (2012-Present)

After Xi Jinping became Paramount Leader in 2012, Jiang Zemin's power and influence over Chinese politics declined rapidly due to Xi's Anti-Corruption Campaign which saw the arrests of hundreds and thousands of corrupt party members and billionaires, many of whom had been Jiang's allies. Xi Jinping has increased state control over the Chinese economy and clamp down on monopolies and corporations. He also banned private tutoring and home-schooling in 2022 which had become a market of its own and gave an advantage to rich kids wanting to get into prestigious universities. This is called the "Double reduction" policy. Xi's choice to ban private tutoring was met with much criticism by former private tutors and the families who paid for such services for their kids. Actually, Xi's direct aim is to help him cope with the "Three Children" policy of China's aging population by reducing the cost of education. The fundamental purpose is still to maintain the socialist system. Because the salaries of extracurricular tutoring institutions are high, many famous teachers have flowed into informal institutions to make big money, which has become an asset chain. Of course, this can not be completely banned. On the contrary, it also leads to the more practice of "one-to-one" private tutoring, because only large-scale educational tutoring institutions are prohibited. This indirectly increases the academic pressure and educational competition, and gives more advantages to those who can afford the high cost of "one-to-one" tuition.

In order to cope with China's aging population, Xi proposed the "Three Children" policy. In fact, this policy is in vain, because in China's medium-sized cities, if the total annual income of both parents is less than 1.2 million yuan, it is basically impossible to raise three children. But in fact, the combined annual salary of most parents is less than 300000 yuan. Later, plans of restricting non-medically necessary abortion were then implemented in 2022 to prevent selective abortion based on gender which plays a key contribution to sex ratio imbalance, another factor of gradual solution of overpopulation since the beginning of the "One-child policy".

Xi also recently propose a common prosperity policy which aims to unite China in economy and prosperity with increasing the middle class and reduce wealth gaps especially between urban and rural. This is Xi's idea for building socialism. According to Bloomberg, In Xi’s eyes, there will be only one China — not a veritable collection of feudal states of varying wealth (despite the fact that China was already unitary since the Qin). However, some say that the progress of the Common Prosperity policy is stalling and it hasn’t achieved its goals.[8]

Under Xi's rule, censorship increased and state control over the Chinese people's lives increased. China’s implementation of its Zero Covid policy and lockdown of cities to test the extent of control the government could exert on ordinary citizens. Two other examples are removing the term limits from the presidential post.

China's confrontation with the United States and its allies over the status of ethnic minorities in China escalated during this time. According to sources like Amnesty International, UN Human Rights Council, and other human rights organizations, there are human rights abuses and cultural genocide in Xinjiang. The UN report points out wide abuse of Uyghurs’ rights, tortures, slave labour in Xinjiang and Tibet, and crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese authorities. Although it declined to use the “genocide” label.[9][10] Most countries allied to the US believe its existence and say it is the Uyghur Genocide and believe that 1-2 million Uyghurs are in concentration camps. However, many Muslim countries, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran, as well as other countries that have friendly relations with China, disagree with this assessment.At the same time, the Chinese government has pushed back against this claim, condemning the countries that made the reports and publicizing more about Xinjiang's governance at the UN Human Rights Council.This does undermine the credibility of the contents of the report. Many point out declining birth rates of the Uyghurs as genocide. However there are also many reports that the one child, two child, and three child policies were never applied to Uyghurs and only applied recently. The PRC officially denies all allegations and calls it a conspiracy theory of the “anti-China Foreign Hostile Forces” and believe that there is a contradiction of sources of what's really going on in Xinjiang. It can be seen that for outsiders, the situation of the main ethnic minorities in China is unknown. Because this matter has been used in the propaganda confrontation between countries.

Xiism has an agenda of "the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation", aiming on constructing modernized system and forming a socialist superpower.

Belt and Road Initiative - One of his programs were the One Belt One Road Initiative, aiming to build infrastructure in third world country, which the West criticizes as "debt trapping". One example is Sir Lanka’s inability to pay off the debts of China, causing a severe economic crisis in the country that could lead to bankruptcy, However it should be known Chinese debts only made up 10% with owing Japan even more debt (12%) along with many other and other countries like India along with most of the debt owing to the World Bank.

Basic workers' rights in China under Xi's era are still poor, and the infamous scandal of 996[Note 11] for Chinese IT workers is an example (although Xi Jinping later made it illegal[11]).

The conditions of Chinese laborers, especially rural migrant workers in cities are generally bad with low wages and long hours of work. Unlike the Marxist ideal of emancipation of the working class, China does not have a good track record on workers. [12] [13]

Rural areas have usually been left out of China's prosperity though making a gap between the rural and urban. Originally there were very low wages for Chinese workers with long hours. Xi has putting out a social program known as All-round Well-off Society which stresses the need for more say for workers in working conditions and to make sure prosperity in China goes to all people from urban to rural and closing the gap as well as raise in wages and increase of wage laws causing some companies to even move to Vietnam because Chinese labor gotten more expensive. Xi emphasizes All-round Well-off Society with his new economic policy and unity of the Chinese economy, as well as poverty programs to combat rural poverty, which has resulted in the rapid fall of poverty in rural China.

In diplomacy, Xi appears to be more tactful (based on his so-called peace thinking). "We have reservations about this (我们对此持保留态度)" is one of the most common remarks made by his diplomats on the international situation. This is a very vague term in Chinese, which generally represents the style of officials and institutions to protect themselves. Of course, people do not want Xi to use force or too radical words in foreign relations such as "War wolf" diplomatic rhetoric.

Xi's political education seems particularly successful. The Communist Party of China has developed a software called "Learning Power (学习强国)" for Party members to learn and exchange politics. Chinese people can often see students of all ages write letters of respect to him in this software. Though this might be because of censorship and also cult of personality.

Xi’s international reputation has suffered a blow in recent years, especially among western countries with many people expressing their concerns over China’s hyper-authoritarianism and economic influence in the world with China’s growing aggressive policy in South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, as well as the crackdown against HK protesters and Uyghurs.

From the end of November to the beginning of December 2022, demonstrations against the dynamic zero clearing policy broke out in many parts of China. This hit Xi's reputation again. He has almost lost credibility in some cities with large demonstrations in China, especially among young people and students. As for the excuse of "infiltration of foreign forces" that he always used for demonstrations, the students quoted a line in the Death of Stalin, "foreign forces? Which? Damn the moon?" to refute him. This is because China has a network firewall, epidemic prevention and control, strict exit and entry policies, and selective information shielding to shape the completely correct image of the Chinese government in the minds of citizens. Therefore, it is difficult for foreign forces to contact people at home, and it is also difficult for people at home to know the real situation abroad, except for the information about foreign political scandals pushed to them through the news media. (Most people believe in this situation, but through Chinese citizens scattered overseas , some Chinese people have a clear understanding of other countries. In fact, Chinese people have another way to access the international network through VPN or overseas agents, but few of them want to view political content, most of them just play international games or watch stars live.)

Beliefs

Dengism sidelines the Maoist focus on class struggle on the basis that that struggle would become an obstacle to China's economic development in the face of modern conditions. It maintains that it upholds communism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, leadership of the Communist Party, Marxism-Leninism, and Mao Zedong Thought. Dengism believes upholding Mao Zedong Thought does not mean blindly imitating Mao's actions without much deviation as seen in the government of Hua Guofeng, and that doing so would actually "contradict Mao Zedong Thought". This has led to Deng being characterized as a post Maoist.


According to academic Richard Baum, little evidence of Mao's approach survived in Deng

He believes in what he calls “ Socialism with Chinese characteristics”, where the adoption of market economics is seen as a pragmatic step. Deng himself said: "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."

While "Dengism" usually refers to the economic theories and practices of Deng Xiaoping, it can also, in some cases, be used to represent the cultural policies of Deng and following leaders. In this case, Dengism is strongly opposed to many progressive practices such as lax drug restrictions and homosexuality. Whether it's to promote order by appealing to its conservative citizens after regretting the progressive excesses of the Cultural Revolution or to prevent "Western bourgeois" influence is debatable.

Nonetheless, Dengism is unafraid to promote Chinese national identity, and will try to stop any sort of separation from China. It also a fan of Mandarin and wants to make sure everyone speaks Mandarin. Sympathizers claim this is a way to unite China and to help everyone integrate into Chinese society and the nation; critics denounce it as a cultural genocide and calls it the Sinicization.

Variants

Deng Xiaoping Theory

Deng Xiaoping Theory is a political and economic theory that promotes a reformed and decentralized socialist economy with a neo-authoritarian political model. It supports broad economic reforms, including agricultural reforms (Household Responsibility System) that didn’t privatize the collectivized and inefficient agriculture under Mao’s regime but instead introduced a mixed economic land system. It also opened SEZs such as Shenzhen and Zhuhai that opened to the world with a heavily regulated capitalist market economy in those cities. However, it opposed comprehensive political reforms and instead opted for limited reforms like the ones implemented by Nikita Khrushchev, alongside the 70% good and 30% assessment on Mao.

After the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the progress of the reform and open was stalled, and conservatives such as Chen Yun seized power from Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang. The Southern Tour of Deng and his insistence on the pursuit of the Reform and Open had ensured the economic liberal policy of the CPC to continue, as opposed to Chen Yun’s insistence on his conservative ‘Birds Cage’ policy.

The 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China summarized Deng Xiaoping theory as follows:

First, on the issue of the path of socialist development, we stress following our own path, not taking books as dogmas, not copying foreign models, taking Marxism as the guide, taking practice as the only criterion for testing truth, emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts, respecting the initiative of the masses, and building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Second, on the issue of the stage of socialist development, he made the scientific conclusion that China is still in the primary stage of socialism, stressing that this is a very long historical stage of at least a hundred years, and that the formulation of all principles and policies must be based on this basic national condition, not divorced from reality and beyond the stage.

Third, on the fundamental task of socialism, it points out that the essence of socialism is to liberate and develop the productive forces, eliminate exploitation and polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity. He stressed that the main contradiction in China's society at the present stage is the contradiction between the people's growing material and cultural needs and backward social production. We must put the development of productive forces in the first place, take economic construction as the center, and promote all-round social progress. In the final analysis, judging the merits and demerits of all aspects of work should be based on whether it is conducive to developing the productive forces of the socialist society, enhancing the comprehensive national strength of the socialist country, and improving the people's living standards. Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and economic construction must rely on scientific and technological progress and the improvement of the quality of workers.

Fourth, on the issue of the driving force of socialist development, it is emphasized that reform is also a revolution, the liberation of the productive forces, and the only way to China's modernization. There is no way out of rigidity and stagnation. The goal of economic restructuring is to establish and improve the socialist market economic system on the basis of adhering to public ownership and distribution according to work as the mainstay, and other economic components and modes of distribution as the supplement. The goal of the political system reform is to improve the people's Congress system, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party, and develop socialist democratic politics. In keeping with economic and political reform and development, we should build a socialist spiritual civilization with the goal of "having ideals, morality, culture and discipline".

Fifth, on the external conditions of socialist construction, he pointed out that peace and development are the two major themes of the contemporary world. We must adhere to an independent foreign policy of peace and strive for a favorable international environment for China's modernization. He stressed that opening up to the outside world is indispensable for reform and construction. We should absorb and make use of all the advanced civilization achievements created by all countries in the world, including the developed capitalist countries, to develop socialism. Closing up can only lead to backwardness.

Sixth, on the issue of the political guarantee for socialist construction, we emphasize adhering to the socialist road, the people's democratic dictatorship, the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and Marxism Mao Zedong thought. These four basic principles are the foundation of building a country, the guarantee for the healthy development of reform, opening up and modernization, and have gained new era content from reform, opening up and modernization.

Seventh, with regard to the strategic steps of socialist construction, it is proposed to basically realize modernization in three steps. In the long process of modernization, we should seize the opportunity to strive for the emergence of a number of stages with relatively fast development speed and relatively good benefits, and climb to a new level every few years. Poverty is not socialism, and simultaneous prosperity is impossible. We must allow and encourage some regions and some people to become rich first, so as to drive more and more regions and people to gradually achieve common prosperity.

Eighth, on the issue of socialist leadership and reliance, it is emphasized that the Communist Party of China, as the vanguard of the working class, is the leading core of the socialist cause. The party must adapt itself to the needs of reform, opening up and modernization, constantly improve and strengthen its leadership over all aspects of work, and improve and strengthen its own construction. The Party style of the ruling party and the party's ties with the people are issues that have a bearing on the party's survival. We must rely on the broad masses of workers, peasants and intellectuals, the unity of the people of all nationalities, and the broadest united front of all socialist workers, patriots who support socialism, and patriots who support the reunification of the motherland. The people's army under the leadership of the party is the defender of the socialist motherland and an important force in building socialism.

Ninth, on the issue of the reunification of the motherland, put forward the creative idea of "one country, two systems" with one country and two systems. Under the premise of one China, the main body of the country adheres to the socialist system, and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan maintain their original capitalist systems for a long time to come. We will promote the accomplishment of the great cause of the peaceful reunification of the motherland in accordance with this principle.

Three Represents/Jiang Zemin Thought

Jiang Zemin Thought or Three Represents is an ideology that emerged under Jiang Zemin's government. The ideology had been enshrined in the CPC, following Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, and Deng's theory, in which it preached the Nationalism of Chinese culture, personality cult, and the transition to a market economy. It is based on three principles, namely: The CPC represents the increase and development of advanced productive forces, the orientation of the advancement of Chinese culture, and the fundamental interests of the majority of Chinese.

Jiang Zemin's government was known for authoritarianism and repression against the Falun Gong spiritual movement due to its popularity among the Chinese masses, in which he even created an office to suppress and capture its practitioners, Office 610. Human rights abuses and forced organ harvesting were also conducted on Falun Gong practitioners.[14] Another change was the liberalization of the economy during the late 1990s to early 2000s, in which GDP grew on average 8% a year and China had joined the WTO, but the number of wealthy people in the CPC also increased. One of the main features was the increase in corruption in the military hierarchies (especially clientelism).

Despite all the faults of Jiang’s administration with the increase of cronyism, mass corruption, and income inequality, he continued the reduction of absolute poverty started from the Deng era and oversaw one of the most rapid reductions of poverty in human history.

Main contents of "Three Represents":

(1) The Communist Party of China should always represent the development requirements of China's advanced productive forces, that is, the party's theory, line, program, principles, policies and all kinds of work must strive to conform to the laws of the development of productive forces, embody the requirements of constantly promoting the liberation and development of social productive forces, especially the requirements of promoting the development of advanced productive forces, and constantly improve the people's living standards through the development of productive forces.

(2) The Communist Party of China must always represent the forward direction of China's advanced culture, that is, the party's theory, line, program, principles, policies and all kinds of work must strive to embody the requirements of developing a national, scientific and popular socialist culture oriented to modernization, the world and the future, and promote the continuous improvement of the ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality of the whole nation, And provide spiritual impetus and intellectual support for China's economic development and social progress.

(3) To always represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, that is, the party's theory, line, program, principles, policies and all kinds of work, the Communist Party of China must persist in taking the fundamental interests of the people as its starting point and destination, give full play to the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the people, and enable the people to continuously obtain practical economic, political and cultural interests on the basis of continuous social development and progress.

Scientific Outlook on Development

Scientific Outlook on Development is the ideology of former President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and their administration which was in power from 2002 to 2012. It can also be applied to former Premier Li Keqiang under the Xi Jinping administration. There isn't much to say about Scientific Outlook as an ideology, as Hu Jintao and Li Keqiang are probably the most loyal adherents to Deng Xiaoping's beliefs.

The social programs and opening-up policy of the Hu-Wen Administration continued to reduce poverty while accumulating economic growth that peaked during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

the main content of Scientific Outlook on Development First, economic construction should be the center. China is in and will remain in the primary stage of socialism for a long time. The fundamental task at this stage is to develop the productive forces, which is the priority of our party in governing and rejuvenating the country. As a large developing country, China must maintain a fast speed for a long time and achieve unity in speed, structure, quality, and efficiency. Only in this way can we provide a material basis for society's all-round progress and people's all-round development.

Second, we should adhere to coordinated economic and social development. While promoting economic development, we should pay more attention to accelerating social development and strive to solve the problem of "one leg is long and one leg is short" in economic and social development.

Third, it adheres to the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. We should study and solve the "three rural" problems from the perspective of the overall situation of national economic development, implement the policy of "cities leading townships, industry promoting agriculture, urban-rural interaction and coordinated development", and gradually change the dual economic structure of urban and rural areas.

Fourth, adhere to coordinated regional development. We will continue to promote the large-scale development of the western region, revitalize the northeast and other old industrial bases, promote the rise of the central region, encourage the eastern region to accelerate development and form a new pattern of interaction between the East and the west, complementary advantages, mutual promotion, and common development.

Fifth, adhere to sustainable development. We should coordinate the harmonious development of man and nature and adequately handle the relationship between economic construction, population growth, resource utilization, and environmental protection. Build a resource-saving and ecological protection society.

Sixth, adhere to reform and opening up. We will promote reform in all aspects in an all-around way and provide institutional guarantees for promoting comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable economic and social development. We should make overall plans for domestic development and opening up to the outside world, correctly handle the relationship between domestic and foreign demand and the use of foreign capital and domestic capital, and entirely use both domestic and foreign markets and resources.

Seventh, adhere to people-oriented. This is the essence and core of the scientific outlook on development and the inevitable requirement of adhering to building the party for the public and governing for the people. We should regard the people's interests as the starting point and the result of all our work, constantly meet people's needs in various aspects, and achieve people's all-round development.


Hu distinguished himself from his predecessor in domestic and foreign policy. Hu's political philosophy during his leadership is summarized by three slogans — a "Harmonious Socialist Society" domestically and "Peaceful Development" internationally, the former aided by the Scientific Development Concept, which seeks integrated sets of solutions to arrays of economic, environmental, and social problems, and recognizes, in inner circles, a need for cautious and gradual political reforms. The Scientific Outlook on Development was written into the CCP and State Constitutions in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The role of the Party has changed, as formulated by Deng Xiaoping and implemented by Jiang Zemin, from a revolutionary party to a ruling party. During his tenure, he continued the Party's modernization, calling for the Party's " Advancement " and its increasing transparency in governance.

What emerges from these philosophies, in Hu's view, is a country with a systematic approach to national structure and development that combines dynamic economic growth, a free market energized by a vigorous "nonpublic" (i.e., private) sector, heavy-handed political and media control, personal but not political freedoms, concern for the welfare of all citizens, cultural enlightenment, and a synergistic approach to diverse social issues (the Scientific Development Perspective) that lead, in Hu's vision, to a "Harmonious Socialist Society." In the view of the Chinese government, these philosophies, which have created a new "China Model" of governance, serve as a legitimate alternative to the West's "Democracy Model," particularly for developing countries. In Hu's words, "A Harmonious Socialist Society should feature democracy, the rule of law, equity, justice, sincerity, amity and vitality." Such a society, he says, will give full scope to people's talent and creativity, enable all the people to share the social wealth brought by reform and development, and forge an ever-closer relationship between the people and government. Hu even emphasized the potential of religious communities to contribute to economic and social development under the banner of "Building a Harmonious Socialist Society."

Some observers attribute the political origins of the low-carbon development strategy to Hu's Scientific Outlook on Development. However, some industrial support in this area had already begun before Hu formulated the Scientific Outlook on Development.

Western criticism of Hu, particularly regarding human rights, exposes his hypersensitivity to social stability but does not lay as much emphasis on his fresh commitment to address China's multi-faceted social problems.[42] Hu's pragmatic, non-ideological agenda had two core values—maintaining social stability to further economic development and sustaining Chinese culture to enrich national sovereignty. In domestic policy, he seems to want more openness to the public on governmental functions and meetings. China's news agency recently published details of many Politburo Standing Committee meetings. He also canceled many traditionally practiced events, such as Chinese leaders' lavish send-off and welcoming-back ceremonies when visiting foreign lands. Furthermore, the Chinese leadership under Hu also focused on such problems as the gap between rich and poor and uneven development between the interior and coastal regions. Both parties and states seem to have moved away from a definition of development focusing solely on GDP growth and toward a definition that includes social equality and environmental effects.

In June 2007, Hu gave an important speech at the Central Party School that indicated his position of power and guiding philosophies. In the speech, Hu used a very populist tone to appeal to ordinary Chinese, making serious note of China's recent challenges, especially regarding income disparity. In addition, Hu noted the need for "increased democracy" in the country.

Moral guidance

In response to the many social problems in China, in March 2006, Hu Jintao released the "Eight Honors and Eight Shames" as a set of moral codes to be followed by the Chinese people and emphasized the need to spread the message to the youth.[87] Alternatively known as the "Eight Honors and Disgraces," it contained eight poetic lines that summarized what a good citizen should regard as an honor and what to regard as a shame. It has been widely regarded as one of Hu Jintao's ideological solutions to China's perceived increasing lack of morality after Chinese economic reforms brought a generation of Chinese predominantly concerned with earning money and power in an increasingly frail social fabric.

It has become a norm for Chinese communist leaders to contribute to Marxist–Leninist theory. Whether this is Hu's contribution to Marxist–Leninist theory is debatable, but its general reception with the Chinese public has been moderate. Its promotion, however, is visible almost everywhere: in classroom posters, banners on the street, and electronic display boards for preparing for the 2008 Olympics and Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The codes differ from the ideologies of his predecessors, namely, Jiang's Three Represents, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and Mao Zedong Thought, in that the focus, for the first time, has been shifted to codifying moral standards as opposed to setting social or economic goals.

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era (Xi Jinping Thought for short), is an economically third positionist and culturally right ideology based on the definition of Wang Huning, the chief theorist of China. It advocates for a strong economic collaboration consisted with full employment, unified market and strict governmental regulation. It highly emphasises the significance of social justice, cultural confidence and leadership of party, and opposes radical reforms, contemporary progressivism and western democracy.

Xi Jinping's concept of "Chinese Dream" has been described as an expression of new nationalism. His form of nationalism stresses pride in the historic Chinese civilisation, embracing the teachings of Confucius and other ancient Chinese sages [Note 12] He also partially reversed Deng’s 'reform and opening up' reforms. He banned many Western and Japanese social media, films, and TV series, citing ‘immoral’, 'western degeneracy', and the 'cultural propaganda' of 'foreign hostile forces'. Pornography, in particular, was clamped down heavily. Xi, as a Nationalist eager to reunite the Mainland, was highly aggressive against Taiwan and cracking down on both peaceful and violent protests in Hong Kong as well as strengthening the legislative control in the city. So far, Hong Kong's Legislative Council only consists of pro-Beijing Camp legislators that support the CPC. [15] Xi also implemented party political control of enterprises internally to 'limit economic freedom' and exert wide control over businesses.

Xi has been known to clamp down on many monopolies in China especially targeting the tech industry, such as Tencent. Xi recently stressed out common prosperity which has made Xi Jinping Thought more people oriented or nation oriented in order to unite China with prosperity instead of splits with rural and urban. Xi mainly stress unity even in economy. During Xi’s administration, reports have shown signs of economic stagnation with the decline of GDP growth.

Many criticize that Xi's purging of corrupt officials was primarily about jailing its opponents of the Jiang era to consolidate power for himself rather than genuine attempts to fix corruption in China.

He believes that the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The Communist Party of China is the highest political leadership force. The whole Party must strengthen the "Four Consciousness", strengthen the "four self-confidence", and achieve the "two safeguards". "Two safeguards" is his idea of "resolutely safeguarding Xi's core position of the Party Central Committee and the core position of the whole party, and resolutely safeguarding the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized and unified leadership" in order to establish personal worship.

He insisted on his Chinese dream and tried to build a "prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful socialist modern power" in the middle of this century, and promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese style modernization.

He pointed out that the main contradiction in Chinese society in the new era is the contradiction between the people's growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. Therefore, we must take the people as the center and develop people's democracy throughout the whole process. It is debatable of this democracy as it presents only one candidate.

He put forward the "five in one" general layout: economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, and ecological civilization construction; It also put forward the strategic layout of "four comprehensives": comprehensively building a modern socialist country, comprehensively deepening reform, comprehensively administering the country according to law, and comprehensively administering the party strictly. These are two of his most famous layouts. He wants to comprehensively deepen reform and comprehensively promote the rule of law. However, the illegal phenomenon in China is still very serious. Therefore, this is a very arduous task.

He put forward the new development concept of "innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing", and wanted to make China's economy highly connected with the world economy. He also made great efforts to strengthen the army, trying to build an army that "obeys the party's command, can fight and win battles, and has an excellent style" and wants to make his army lead in the world.

He also wants to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. Some people think that this is to increase China's influence in the world and make more backward countries rely on it economically.

He also proposed that the CPC should carry out self revolution and push forward the anti-corruption struggle in depth, but in fact, it may be in order to purge the opponents of the Jiang Zemin era.

Core Socialist Values (社会主义核心价值观)

In October 2006, during the 6th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the 12 core values of Chinese socialism were first put forward.[16] They are, split into three categories[17]:

In China, 6-year-old primary school students in grade one are required to recite these skillfully. But in fact, they did not begin to learn Chinese socialism until the third year of junior high school (14 or 15).

In the opinion of the Maoists, these core values are just façades.

Xi–Li Administration/Likonomics

Li Keqiang's core idea is that China must transform and develop, and also ensure people's livelihood.

He participated in the formulation of the 12th Five Year Plan, which is regarded as a watershed in the development of modern China.

Perhaps it is related to his experience in politics at the grassroots level in his early years. It is always Li Keqiang's ideological background to sympathize with the hardships of the people. Li Keqiang, Hu Chunhua and others used to serve in the Communist Youth League. They were called "League Groups" ("League" refers to "Communist Youth League". The Communist Party of China did not recognize the existence of the so-called factions). Therefore, unlike Xi's "Zhijiang Team" ("Zhijiang" refers to the Qiantang River) and other colleagues, they are usually closer to the Chinese people. So it is believed that there are some contradictions between "League Groups" and Xi. At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022, Hu Jintao wanted to read his own documents, but was stopped by Wang Huning and Li Zhanshu, and then forcibly removed by security guards invited by Xi. This triggered widespread speculation. Of course, Chinese people generally do not know this (So interesting).

On November 15, 2012, at the first plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee held in Beijing, Li Keqiang was re elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Six days later, Li Keqiang pointed out at the national comprehensive reform pilot work forum that "to make the people live a better life, we must pass reform and opening up", "reform is the biggest dividend of China's development", "in the process of reform, we should pay more attention to fairness in rights, opportunities and rules", "we should be good at using the thinking and method of the rule of law to promote reform", "reform is like sailing against the current, and if we do not advance, we will retreat", "We have a great responsibility. We must move forward and have the courage to try. This is our responsibility. We may not make mistakes if we don't do it, but we must bear historical responsibility." this clearly conveys our determination to reform to the society. He also encouraged participants to speak freely.

Li's attitude towards the people is in sharp contrast to Xi's in some aspects. For example, when the epidemic broke out in Wuhan, Li rushed to Wuhan for inspection in January at the risk of virus, while Xi went there two months later. For another example, Li inspected the flood in Henan in time, but Xi disappeared.

He also let Henan Province, which has a deep-rooted sense of farming, strengthen industrialization. Later facts proved that this was a correct move. However, at that time, many people misunderstood Li Keqiang and thought that he no longer insisted on the "three rural issues". He also let Liaoning Province strengthen the scale of opening up.

Li Keqiang also acted decisively and promised never to develop improper monetary relations with officials.

The Xi Li government is committed to implementing Li Keqiang's economics of deleveraging, economic rebalancing, and streamlining administration and delegating power. At the same time, it softened the past attitude that "development is the last word", proposed the "new normal", and became more tolerant of GDP and other economic data. At the beginning of the new deal, Premier Li Keqiang tried to practice the concept of "releasing the reform dividend" and promote the establishment of the Shanghai free trade zone and the loosening of policies. However, towards the first anniversary of the establishment, Dai Haibo, the head of the free trade zone, was dismissed, and the policy reform was also postponed. Some commentators believe that the Xi Li government has encountered setbacks in reform and become more cautious. After the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held, Li Keqiang proposed at the executive meeting of the State Council to innovate the investment and financing mechanism, introduce social capital to participate in the investment of hydropower, nuclear power, network access, civil space facilities, railways, shipping, airports, water supply and heating, sewage and garbage treatment, public transport, agriculture, water conservancy, environmental monitoring, and other education, medical care, elderly care, sports and fitness and cultural facilities, Promote the PPP mode of cooperation between the government and social capital.

The Chinese government has launched a series of antitrust investigations and issued a number of large fines against Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Qualcomm and other companies. In 2015, against the background that the people's daily and other state-run media actively said that stocks would rise, A-shares heated up rapidly, and finally collapsed in June, with the whole market falling continuously.

Chinese Neoauthoritarianism

Chinese Neoauthoritarianism or "Chinese Neoconservatism" (Chinese: 新权威主义; pinyin: xīn quánwēi zhǔyì) is a current of political thought within the the People's Republic of China, that advocates a powerful state to facilitate market reforms.

Chinese proponents of neo-authoritarianism are opposed to radical reforms such as the transition to a western-style liberal democracy like the one seen in Russia under Mikhail Gorbachev and argue that an authoritarian and incrementalist approach is necessary to stabilize the process of modernization.

Li Peng

Li Peng was a Chinese politician who served as the fourth Premier of the the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, from 1998 to 2003.

In 1948, Li Peng was sent to the Soviet Union to study at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. After his graduation in 1954, he returned to China (Now under Communist rule) to work at an important national power company. He managed to escape the political turmoil of Mao's totalitarian regime due to his political connections and his employment in the company.

After the death of Mao and the opening up of China, during the Deng Xiaoping Era, Li Peng rapidly rose through the ranks of the Communist Party, with the help of Party Elder Chen Yun, and served as the Vice-Minister and Minister of Power between 1979 and 1983. Li Peng was raised to the position of Premier partially due to the departure of Hu Yaobang, who was forced to resign as General Secretary after conservative party members blamed him for a series of student-led protests in 1987.

Li Peng was an opponent of the market-liberal economic reforms pioneered by then General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, and argued that a market-driven economy and an open society would undermine the authority of the Communist Party and would make China susceptible to influence from "foreign hostile forces." Li Peng was most known for his staunch support for the use of force to quell the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He used his authority as premier to declare martial law and, in cooperation with Deng Xiaoping, who was the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, ordered the infamous June 4th military crackdown against student pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. This earned him the nickname the "Butcher of Beijing."

The death toll of the Tiananmen Square crackdown is disputed by both scholars and Communist Party officials and ranges from 200 to several thousand. Zhao Zhiyang was removed from his position as General Secretary and put under life-long house arrest for his support of the protests and was replaced by former Shanghai Party Secretary Jiang Zemin.

After Zhao was removed from office, Li Peng would continue to resist economic reform but lost influence to his successor Zhu Rongji and was unable to prevent the increasing market liberalization of the Chinese economy during the late 1990s.

Wang Huning

One of the most influential advocates for Chinese Neoconservatism is the current First Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party, Wang Huning. Wang Huning previously served as Director of the Central Policy Research Office from 2002-2020 which enabled him to influence the ideology and policies of all three Paramount Leaders of the 21st Century, Jiang Zemin (1989-2002/2003), Hu Jintao (2002-2012), and Xi Jinping (2012-Present). This is an impressive feat in Chinese politics due to the many inter-party power struggles that have divided the CPC since its inception. Wang Huning's personality and beliefs were shaped after studying in the US for 6 months, the year 1988, which lead to the release of his book "America Against America" (1991), in which he tells of his contempt and criticism of western liberalism and multi-party democracy. He believes that liberal democracy is a system built on the conflict between two or multiple political parties that are only different in name and aesthetics but are actually near identical in practice and only exist to deceive the masses. Like most Chinese politicians he also despises Maoism and rejects Marxist class struggle and instead believes in a class-collaborationist catch-all party to unite the people.

Huism

In the 1980s, the Chinese government countered some political prisoners convicted during the Cultural Revolution, and then opened small-scale freedom of speech. The Chinese intellectuals, represented by Wei Jingsheng, immediately carried out a lot of criticism activities against the government on the west wall of Beijing, mainly focusing on greater freedom of expression, removing official corruption, adjusting prices, and preventing inflation. However, Hu Yaobang, the implementer of the reform, was forced to resign in 1986 and then triggered a large-scale democratic movement after his death in 1989. At that time, the senior officials of the CPC Central Committee were divided into two groups, one group supported the student movement for freedom, and the other group demanded to suppress the student movement. In the end, Zhao Ziyang, the then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, lost Deng Xiaoping's support. Liberals in the party, such as Xi Zhongxun, lost power, and many people were expelled from the top of the CPC. The democratic movement in 1989 was finally bloody suppressed. Hu Yaobang's liberalization reform, as well as Hu Yaobang's ruling ideology, is considered a kind of free socialism. However, this reform has not carried out more liberalization of the economy due to the obstructions of conservatives like Chen Yun and Li Peng. Jiang Zemin later completed the task of economic liberalization. But at that time, the Chinese people did not live better, the problem of corruption was more serious, and the political oppression was more serious.

Chen Yun

Chen Yun (simplified Chinese: 陈云; traditional Chinese: 陳雲; pinyin: Chén Yún, pronounced [ʈʂʰə̌n y̌n]; 13 June 1905 – 10 April 1995) was a Chinese revolutionary leader who was one of the most influential leaders of the People's Republic of China during the 1980s and 1990s and one of the major architects and important policy makers for the reform and opening up period, alongside Deng Xiaoping.

Early Life and Rise in the Communist Party

Chen Yun was born in 1905 in Jiangsu Province, China, into a poor working-class family. His early life was shaped by hardship, a reality that deeply influenced his later economic philosophy. As a teenager, he worked at a newspaper distribution company in Shanghai, where he was exposed to socialist ideas and labor activism. In the 1920s, he joined the Communist Youth League and later the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), quickly rising through the ranks due to his organizational skills and firm ideological commitment.

During the Long March (1934–1935), Chen became one of the key economic planners within the CCP, working closely with Mao Zedong and other leaders to establish supply lines and ensure the survival of the Red Army. His reputation as a pragmatic economic strategist solidified during the Yan'an period, where he played a central role in managing the region’s wartime economy. Unlike some of his contemporaries who favored radical ideological purity, Chen believed in balancing socialist principles with pragmatic governance, an approach that would later define his economic theories.

Formulation of the Bird’s Cage Model and Economic Thought

After founding the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chen Yun was appointed to key economic positions, playing a crucial role in shaping China's centrally planned economy. However, by the mid-1950s, he began to express concerns over the excessive collectivization policies being pushed by Mao Zedong. His economic philosophy diverged from Maoist radicalism, advocating instead for a carefully controlled market economy within the framework of socialism.

Chen famously compared the economy to a bird and the state’s economic policies to a cage, stating that the market (the bird) should have some room to fly freely but not so much that it escapes control. This "Bird’s Cage" model of state capitalism sought to balance limited market mechanisms with strong government oversight, ensuring that economic growth served the needs of the socialist state rather than private capitalists. This concept made him a leading figure of Authoritarian Conservative Socialism, State Capitalism, and Post-Maoist economic pragmatism within the CCP reminiscent of Moderate Marxism-Leninism.

He also vehemently opposed monopoly capitalism and neoliberal economic reforms, fearing they would lead to unchecked capitalist excesses and undermine socialist governance. He criticized excessive privatization and foreign investment, advocating instead for industrialism led by state-owned enterprises. While some CCP leaders, such as Deng Xiaoping, pushed for greater economic liberalization, Chen favored a Chinese Neoconservatism that maintained decisive state intervention to prevent economic inequality and instability.

Advocacy for Anti-Corruption and Collective Leadership

Chen Yun was a staunch advocate for anti-corruption measures, believing that unchecked bureaucratic power and economic liberalization could erode the legitimacy of the CCP. He promoted strict party discipline and frequently warned against the dangers of excessive foreign influence on China's economy. His skepticism towards reforms led him to push back against radical market policies during the 1980s, aligning him with conservative factions within the party.

One of his significant contributions was his insistence on Collective Leadership, opposing excessive concentration of power in a single leader. He believed that economic and political stability depended on shared decision-making among top leaders rather than dictated by a singular figure as Mao had done in the past. This principle became a lasting feature of CCP governance in the post-Mao era.

Legacy and Influence

Chen Yun’s ideas continue to shape China's economic policies today. His Bird’s Cage model influenced China’s approach to State Capitalism, where the state retains control over key industries while allowing limited private enterprise. His advocacy for Anti-money policies and anti-liberalism remains visible in contemporary Chinese economic strategies, particularly in the government's recent crackdowns on large private corporations and tech giants. His warnings against excessive neoliberal reforms also echo China’s cautious approach to globalization.

While figures like Deng Xiaoping often overshadowed him, Chen Yun’s conservative economic pragmatism impacted Chinese governance. His insistence on balancing market forces within socialist control continues to guide the country’s economic trajectory, making him a pivotal figure in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. Today, as China navigates economic challenges, many of his policies remain relevant with Xi Xinping acting as the successor to his ideals.

Personality

The personality of Dengism depends on the person as Dengism is often a big tent ideology. Dengism during Deng era was a Machiavellian who doesn't care about the way he does things as long as it preserves the economic survival of China and the CPC from collapse. During the Jiang era, it was known for being very corrupt and loves oligarchs and crony capitalism. In the Hu-Wen era, Dengism went through a painful identity crisis due to factionalism and the many inter-party conflicts that plagued the CPC at the time. In the Xi era, Dengism became far more socially and culturally conservative, authoritarian, nationalistic, and traditionalist, while having suspicion of big corporations and foreign interest groups and became more socially oriented and often stresses unity and somewhat of a cult of personality as well as strongman politics.

How to Draw

Flag of Dengism

Dengism's symbol is the flag of the People's Republic of China, with the main star replaced with a yuan (¥) symbol. The flag is supposed to represent a stark contrast between socialist principles of the PRC and its market-based economy.

  1. Draw a ball
  2. Fill it with red
  3. Draw a yellow Yuan symbol in the top left
  4. Draw 4 small stars to the right of it in the same color
  5. Add the eyes and you're done!
Color NameHEXRGB
 Red#EF1620rgb(239, 22, 32)
 Yellow#FFFF00rgb(255, 255, 0)

Note: Due to the flag of Dengism contains desecration/mutilating elements towards the national flag of China which is a criminal offence in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, therefore there are several alternative versions that are used for the Chinese version of Polcompball, which are:

  1. The yuan (¥) symbol surrounded by four stars at each corners version, or
  2. Only the yellow yuan (¥) symbol are present on the red ball version.

Optionally, you can just draw Winnie the Pooh to represent Dengism. To represent Xiism, you can also draw Nazbol or Chinese Blueshirtism wearing a Dengist mask.

Relations

中国爱国者 (Chinese Patriots CPC followers)

Dubious Trade Partners

  • 马列主义/Marxism-Leninism - I am you. Why do a lot of you call me revisionist.
  • 保守社会主义/Conservative Socialism - You're super based, but you need to stop criticizing my state-capitalist economy.
  • 华国锋思想/Hua Guofeng Thought - You are a dogmatic leader who upheld the so-called “two whatevers” and hindered the reforms! But again, I have to thank you for purging the Gang of Four and rehabilitating me and my supporters in the CPC.
  • 胡耀邦思想/Huism - You were useful for me at first, but you had to advocate political reforms to harm my interest. At least Wen Jiabao still likes you.
  • 古拉什共产主义/Goulash Communism - Not Machiavellian enough, but abandoning the Stalinist dogma, creating a market economy that lead to rapid growth and killing libtards who wanted democracy rather than an efficient one-party system is pretty good. Although you are still a Soviet social-imperialist puppet.
  • 国家资本主义/State Capitalism - The state shall guide the industry! You're bad for PR though, so I need to deny I'm you. Just...stay in the sidelines.
  • 公司统治/Corporatocracy - Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and many other foreign famous billionaires and CEOs are based friends of mine. Since the late 1990s, I've encouraged investment from international companies. There are now over 3000 Mcdonald's and 5000 Starbucks in China. I also want to thank Cisco for helping me set up the Great Firewall. But as for domestic billionaires and corporations, stay in your fucking lane or else. And why don’t you like me that much under Xi? And I still ban Facebook and Google, because we have our own social media with proper censorship.
  • 民族资本主义/National Capitalism - Gweilo, but free market with implied socialism? AND death camps? Very based. Plus, John Rabe was a hero indeed
  • 铁托主义/Titoism - You know, I'm something of a "market socialist" myself. In all seriousness, tho, the way you balanced relations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, combined socialism with a market economy, held together a nation of multiple ethnicities and handled separatist movements, have been a huge inspiration for me. We both hate trots and ultra-leftoids as well. But why are you so friendly to Hua Guofeng? Plus, I dislike your 1974 Constitution that gave away the right to secede for Yugoslavian member states, which paved the way for the demise of SFRY. You should've sent them to re-education camps instead.
  • 分产主义/Distributism - You seem to pretty like my Common Prosperity policy, but don't even think about abolishing SOEs. Your national version is Xi's type.
  • 社会信用制度/Social Credit - Contrary to online rumours, the Social Credit system doesn't actually exist in China. Bruh, you're not even the Social Credit that I want .[Note 13]
  • 他信·西那瓦思想/Thaksin Shinawatra Thought - We had good ties when you were Prime Minister but now I hear a lot of nasty rumours about you concerning the recent Thai protests.
  • 波尔布特主义/Pol Potism - I supported you during the Cold War against Soviet and Vietnamese social imperialists. But cool down with your Sinophobia and you are too scary and idealistic for my liking.
  • 犹太复国主义/Zionism - I am mixed on you and I recognize Palestine but I recognize you as well. While other communists hate you, you're a good trade partner because I don't really care about other countries politics. However, my western supporters such as USA PSL and The Grayzone despise you with passion. Also stop killing Palestinians. Please ignore the fact that I kill Uyghurs and Tibetans.
  • 中华神权统治/Chinese Theocracy - Look, I'm aware of how horrible the Cultural Revolution was, but reactionaries need to stop simping for you.
  • 主体思想/Juche - We helped you back in the old days against South Korea, but you need to open your markets. Also if you throw nukes around like that I'll get radiation sickness. You're a buffer between me and american puppets anyway.
  • 国家无神论主义/State Atheism - Useful for my goals, but he needs to calm down, in China there are some religions that I can tolerate, but they won't have any influence over the state and society.And we don't need you as most Chinese people are born Atheist.
  • 基督教神权政治/Christian Theocracy - You would be okay if you let me do one thing, that thing being rewriting the Bible.
  • 穆斯林神权政治/Muslim Theocracy - As long as we keep our economic relationship and shut up about Xinjiang, we'll be friends. Also I recognize Palestine but won't support.
  • 三民主义/Tridemism - I WILL RECLAIM YOU WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, EVEN YOUR FOUNDING FATHER AGREED WITH ME. But thanks for your support against Taiwanese independence tho. NEVER FORGET the 1992 Consensus!. Lien Chan and Ma Ying-jeou improved relations with the Mainland and we still have a lot of business ties. I much prefer you over the Green Taliban. However, Taiwan is definitely PRC, stop dreaming about your ROC unification when you only have a small island. Although I preserved your presidential palace (museum) in Nanjing in its original state, just in case I collapsed.
  • 科尔温主义/Korwinism - Quotes my response towards Tiananmen protests as an inspiration, when these protests never happened! BTW thanks for your compliment, at least we both hate Democracy and him.
  • 新保守主义/Neoconservatism - Our relationship is complicated, to say the least. I helped you in the 1970s and 80s with arming and financing various anti-communist groups and governments in Afghanistan, Chile, Nepal, and the Philippines. We were allies during the War on Terror and I poured in a lot of money into Afghanistan and Iraq, after your respective invasion. Also, George H.W. Bush did a lot to improve US-China relations and Henry Kissinger is and will remain a friend of the Chinese people. But most of his followers have turned on me since Xi Jinping came to power even though we used to be partners for decades.
  • 欧洲联邦制/European Federalism - United Europe would be a good thing for a multipolar world, if it weren't for them being America's lapdogs. However, Macron's visit to China has improved our relationship and he agreed to stay out of Taiwan strait. It's none of your business!
  • 海尔维第模式/Helvetic Model - A great European trade partner, but he's been talking to me less because of the re-education camps in Xinjiang and how I dealt with an attempted color revolution in Hong Kong.
  • 自由保守主义/Liberal Conservatism - By all logic, we should be mortal enemies but I get along surprisingly well with most of his followers. Bush I, Merkel, Piñera, May, were all based friends of the Chinese people. Just stop spouting about some "human rights abuses" and we're good.
  • 胡志明思想/Ho Chi Minh Thought - Our relations have gone back and forth over the years. We fought a bloody border war during the 1970s-1980s and we have our disputes over the South China Sea. However, China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, nonetheless and the current General Secretary of the CPV, Nguyen Phu Trong has been very clear that he refuses to turn Vietnam into another US-Proxy against me. Hopefully, we can improve ties in the future. I advise you to be careful with your relationship with the US. They'll backstab you once you don't suit their interests any more. That happened to me and it'll happen to you.
  • 社会威权主义/Social Authoritarianism - Your progress in Shanghai is great! But don't do anything fishy just as in Chongqing and you're fine.
  • 传统主义/Traditionalism - Yes, yes, its true, in this period I'm becoming more and more Culturally Right, and it can be seen by the fact that I'm going more and more against baizuos, [censored], [censored] and gamers. But please, keep it a secret between us, its bad for business with countries of the Western world. Also, you hate my restriction of religion and human experimentation
  • 圣战主义/Jihadism - Dude, you're scaring me with the way you terrorize people, but the Taliban is somewhat friendly. Besides, I gave some of your fellas support to kick out Soviet social imperialists in Afghanistan... just don't terrorize Xinjiang and the world.
  • 媒体统治/Mediacracy - The media is Western ploy unless it's run by me. What "concentration camps"? They're just regular re-education centers, look at how happy the residents of Xinjiang are!
  • 金融主义/Financialism - You were instrumental in the early stages of my rapid growth, but now I am strongly suppressing loan sharks. So that means your behavior MUST be under my control. It's great that you've spawned AI companies like DeepSeek.
  • 民族布尔什维克主义/National Bolshevism - GANG! Your fusional national communism is based on my national rejuvenation, and I can list you in patriot if you cut off all extreme connections and embrace corporatism. I almost forgot we have two kids.
  • 窃盗统治/Kleptocracy - We were good friends once but Hu, and now Xi is getting rid of you. Which is a bit ironic... [19]
  • 另类右翼/Alt-Right & 白人种族主义/White Nationalism - Racist gweilo that make conspiracy theories about me. Some of them like me for some reason, and Fuentes is very based.
  • 克林顿主义/Clintonism - F*ck you for the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, 1999. But thanks a lot for letting me join the WTO to integrate with the world economy.
  • 黑人民族主义/Black Nationalism - Some of you like me, but some others are a bit skeptical about my plans in Africa. I forgave the debt of many African countries while America has military bases in many of them. Still, thank you to introducing me to rap. I made some of my own C-Rap thanks to you! African-Americans do most anti-Chinese hate crimes though...
  • 帝国主义/Imperialism - Some claim my investments and infrastructure projects across the globe is a new form of imperialism. Either way, I build up developing countries while the US/NATO is bombing them. Also you incite separatism just to take over me.
  • 小粉红主义/Pinkieism - He simps for me but you are really insane. Stop claiming that I will liberate Taiwan in a few years! You weren't supposed to say that yet! In addition, we are also imported by "foreign forces", watch out are you saying!
  • 工团主义/Syndicalism - If you just focus on economic issues, I can tolerate you. But if you ally with those Maoids, I'll crackdown on you. Oh, and I banned all unions not affiliated with the "All-China Federation of Trade Unions", deal with it! Just ignore how other commies also outlawed unions that are not affiliated with the official trade state union.....
  • 马克思女权主义/Marxist Feminism - Holy shit, you emerged from nowhere and seems to be replacing those liberals...I often fails to censor you. Just stop calling me revisionist! I'm a Marxist, okay? At least you are saner than her.
  • 保护主义/Protectionism - I proclaim myself an anti-protectionist, so you never get a place in government. But on the other hand, I'm preferred to develop domestic industry and developing countries.
  • 赫鲁晓夫主义/Khrushchevism - I like the spirit of reform, and we both (somewhat) reject planned economy, but you did it in a revisionist way that rejected instead of learned from Stalin. Also in the Cold War I fought you for abandoning Ergatocracy.
  • 反法西斯主义/Anti-Fascism - Many of you are baizuo, but your tankie variants who defend me are based, regardless of cultural views.
  • 国有社会主义/State Socialism - You should allow for markets.
  • 劳工统治/Ergatocracy - I like to say I'm you. But people's democratic dictatorship is the best social system, and you should be in alliance with national bourgeoisie.
  • 福利主义/Welfarism - High welfare feeds the lazy, but I usually execute you under the other name of "Social Security".

境外敌对势力 (FOREIGN HOSTILE FORCES)

  • 分裂主义/Separatism - Every part of China I made claims on are sacred and indivisible!! See you in re-education camp, scumbag!!!
    • NEVER! We want self-determination from your centralized tyranny!
  • If you like "separating", they could be identified as more smaller ethnic groups with divided districts like in history.

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Notes

  1. Jiang Zemin decriminalized homosexuality and lessend enforcement of anti-drug-use and anti-prostitution laws, despite initially proclaiming himself a “conservative” (in a non-western sense).
  2. Jiang Zemin is credited by his supporters for preventing conflict with the west by supporting the US-led War on Terror. Some of his associates like Guo Wengui, Cai Xia and Desmond Shum have recently defected to the US, and became "democracy activists."
  3. While Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji dismantled the welfare state on a national level, some of his collegues (like Bo Xilai and Chen Liangyu) implemented welfare on a local level in some of the major cities.
  4. Wen Jiabao repeatedly talked about "reform" and "democracy" in public and has, on several occasions, shown signs that he wants to end one-party rule. Many Chinese citizens saw this as a deceptive scam to pacify the masses, at a time when faith in the CPC was very low and most idolized the west.
  5. Refers to USA PSL, The Grayzone, Mango Press, GenZedong, and all other westerners who support Xi's China
  6. In a sense of supposedly supporting socialism for the West, yet supporting capitalist governments in China and other nations to the point of denouncing anti-capitalist movements in those very countries.
  7. Chen Yun opposed radical market reforms and Deng's Southern Tour.
  8. Zhao Ziyang opposes economic nationalization.
  9. Marx's proposal of communism as the ultimate goal of the development of human society is not in line with the development of society, because the development of human society is as endless as people's understanding, and an ultimate goal cannot be artificially stipulated. - Zhao Ziyang
  10. Zhao Ziyang supported George Soros set up Economic Reform Foundation (改革开放基金会) in China.
  11. "996" refers to 12 working hours (usually from 9AM to 9PM in 6 working days per week)
  12. Although he stated that Xi claimed to be a Confucianist, Confucius was against tyranny and totalitarianism.
  13. Actually, online rumours may come from census register credit systems - If rural citizens want to enjoy all urban public services in a specific city, they need to make some contributions like kinds of "internal immigration requirements" to accumulate local credits. Many cities each have their own rules. It's like a kind of civil federalism, but these real issues get too little foreign attention.
  14. Southern Huanghan is a faction of Huanghan against CCP, they believe CCP just like Qing Empire, colonized China and gave it torment. There are lots of Subdivisions in it, liberals, conservatives......etc.

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