Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, commonly abbreviated outside China as Xi Jinping Thought, is an ideological doctrine created during General SecretaryXi Jinping's leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that combines Chinese Marxism and national rejuvenation. According to the CCP, Xi Jinping Thought "builds on and further enriches" previous party ideologies and has also been called as the "Marxism of contemporary China and of the 21st century". The theory's main elements are summarized in the ten affirmations, the fourteen commitments, and the thirteen areas of achievements.
In official CCP discourse, Xi Jinping Thought is referred to as "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,"[1][2] or Xi Jinping Thought on a specific field, such as Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy.[3]: 31 The first public usage of Xi Jinping sixiang ("Xi Jinping Thought") came in 2017 when Liu Mingfu and Wang Zhongyuan published a book by that name.[3]: 25 As of at least early 2024, the CCP does not use "Xi Jinping Thought" in official discourses.[3]: 31 In English, "Xi Jinping Thought" is the most common usage, with others including Xi Thought[4][5] and Xiism.[6]
History and development
"Xi Jinping Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era" was formally launched at the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party having gradually been developed since 2012, when Xi became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.[3]: 21–26 News sources have stated that Xi helped create this ideology together with his close advisor, then director of the Central Policy Research OfficeWang Huning.[7][8] The first indications of Xi's platform had come out in a speech titled "Some Questions on Maintaining and Developing Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" given to the newly elected Central Committee on 5 January 2013, and was later published by Central Documents Press and the journal Qiushi.[9][10]
"First of all: Socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism, not any other “ism.” The guiding principles of scientific socialism thus cannot be abandoned. Our Party has always emphasized adherence to the basic principles of scientific socialism, but adapted to the particular conditions of China. This means that socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism, not some other doctrine... It was Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought that guided the Chinese people out of the long night and established a New China, and it was socialism with Chinese characteristics that led to the rapid development of China."[11]
According to Xi, "the consolidation and development of the socialist system will require its own long period of history... it will require the tireless struggle of generations, up to ten generations."[10] On the relationship with capitalist nations, Xi said, "Marx and Engels' analysis of the basic contradictions in capitalist society is not outdated, nor is the historical materialist view that capitalism is bound to die out and socialism is bound to win."[10] Xi also stated: "The fundamental reason why some of our comrades have weak ideals and faltering beliefs is that their views lack a firm grounding in historical materialism."[12]
Xi showed great interest in why the Soviet Union dissolved, and how to avoid that failure in China:
Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fall from power? An important reason was that the struggle in the field of ideology was extremely intense, completely negating the history of the Soviet Union, negating the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, negating Lenin, negating Stalin, creating historical nihilism and confused thinking. Party organs at all levels had lost their functions, the military was no longer under Party leadership. In the end, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a great party, was scattered, the Soviet Union, a great socialist country, disintegrated. This is a cautionary tale![9]
The concepts behind Xi Jinping Thought were elaborated in Xi's The Governance of China book series, published by the Foreign Languages Press for an international audience. Volume one was published in September 2014, followed by volume two in November 2017,[13] followed by volume three in June 2020,[14] followed by volume four in July 2022.[15] Xi has praised Karl Marx as "the greatest thinker of modern times" whose teachings enlightened the working classes of the world and has called upon party cadres to adopt Marxist revolutionary principles as a "way of life".[16]
Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the dialectical unity of the theoretical logic of scientific socialism and the historical logic of China’s social development. It is a scientific socialism rooted in China’s soil, one that reflects the aspirations of the Chinese people, and one that is adapted to the conditions of progress in our times. It is the only way to comprehensively build a prosperous society, accelerate socialist modernization and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
— Xi Jinping, "Uphold and Develop Socialism with Chinese Characteristics", January 5th, 2013, [17]
Speech at the 19th Congress
Xi first used the phrase "Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" in his speech delivered on the opening day of the 19th Party Congress in October 2017. The Politburo Standing Committee (top decision-making body) then prepended "Xi Jinping" to the phrase, in their review of his speech.[18] The Congress then affirmed Xi's speech as a guiding political and military ideology of the Chinese Communist Party[18] and approved its incorporation into the constitution of the party,[19][20] with unanimous support in a show of hands.[21]
The incorporation made Xi the third Chinese leader (after Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping) to have their names incorporated into the list of fundamental doctrines of the CCP. This demonstrated that Xi was more influential than his two predecessors as General Secretary (Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin). Xi promised to make China strong, propelling the country into a "new era".[22]
In subsequent official party documentation and pronouncements by Xi's colleagues, the thought has been said to be a continuation of previous party ideologues, and it "builds on and further enriches" Marxism–Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, "the important thought of the Three Represents" and the Scientific Outlook on Development as part of a series of guiding ideologies that embody "Marxism adapted to Chinese conditions".[18]
Xi Jinping Thought is summarized into the 10 affirmations (十个明确), the 14 commitments (十四个坚持), and the 13 areas of achievements (十三个方面成就).[25][26][27]
Ten affirmations
During his speech to the 19th CCP National Congress, Xi Jinping introduced the "eight affirmations" (八个明确), which later developed to the "ten affirmations" with the addition of the 7th and 10th points during the Sixth Plenum of the 19th Central Committee in 2021.[28]
Fourteen commitments
Ensuring Communist Party of China leadership over all forms of work in China.
The Communist Party of China should take a people-centric approach for the public interest.
The continuation of "comprehensive deepening of reforms".
Adopting new science-based ideas for "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development".
Xi Jinping Thought seeks to reinvigorate the mass line.[3]: 10
In economic matters, Xi Jinping Thought highlights the historical importance of state-owned enterprises:[30]: 217
[W]ithout the important material foundation that state-owned enterprises have laid for China's development over a long period of time, without the major innovations and key core technologies achieved by state-owned enterprises, and without state-owned enterprises' long-term commitment to a large number of social responsibilities, there would be no economic independence and national security for China, no continuous improvement in people's lives, and no socialist China standing tall in the East of the world.
Influence and reception
Finding cultural expressions for Xi Jinping Thought has been a priority. On 27 November 2017, more than 100 of China's top filmmakers, actors and pop stars were gathered for a day in Hangzhou to study the report of the 19th Party Congress featuring Xi Jinping Thought.[31]
Content from Xi's 2017 speech is used in public messages, described as being 'pervasive' by a Beijing correspondent for TheNew York Times.[32] A poster featuring the slogan "Chinese Dream" comes from the speech, where the phrase is used 31 times.[33][34] In July 2018, the carriages of a train in Changchun Rail Transit were decked out in red and dozens of Xi's quotes to celebrate the 97th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party. The train was described as a "highly condensed spiritual manual" of Xi Jinping Thought by the local government.[35] In January 2019, Alibaba Group released an app called Xuexi Qiangguo for studying Xi Jinping Thought.[36] In May 2024, the China Cyberspace Research Institute, which is under the Cyberspace Administration of China, announced a large language model whose training data includes Xi Jinping Thought.[37][38]
In education
On 25 October 2017, Renmin University established a Xi Jinping Thought research center, the first of its kind.[3]: 29 By December 2017, 10 such research centers or institutes were approved and, by March 2018, all were in operation.[3]: 29 Several dozen were opened by the end of 2018, and degree programs and online modules on Xi Jinping Thought were developed.[3]: 29 On 20 July 2020, the China Institute of International Studies opened the "Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Foreign Affairs".[39]
Academics such as Jiang Shigong went on to write expositions of Xi Jinping Thought.[40] In December 2019, Fudan University added content concerning the inculcation of teachers and students in Xi Jinping Thought into its charter, leading to protests about academic freedom among the students.[41][42] In mid-2021, the Ministry of Education announced that Xi Jinping Thought would be taught to Chinese students beginning at the primary school level.[43]
In June 2023, the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia (ICCA) at the Russian Academy of Sciences opened the Modern Ideology of China Research Laboratory, the first research center dedicated to Xi Jinping Thought outside China.[44] The ICCA director Kirill Babaev said that the institute aimed to conduct an "in-depth analysis of the ideas and concepts that make up the foundation of the modern Chinese state" and said that the institute would focus on "five areas of modern Chinese ideology – economic policy, internal policy and lawmaking, foreign policy and international relations, defence and security, and ecology and society".[44]
^"Students protest at Shanghai's Fudan University". Asia Times. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019. A video circulating this week showed students at Shanghai's Fudan University singing the school song – which extols "academic independence and freedom of thought" – in an apparent protest.{...}Besides removing "freedom of thought," the ministry adds to the charter "arming the minds of teachers and students with Xi Jinping's new era of socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics." It also obliges faculty and students to adhere to "core socialist values" and build a "harmonious" campus environment – a code phrase for the elimination of anti-government sentiment.
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