The Communist Party of China Understanding the Durability of the World's Most Powerful Political Organization
Book contents
- The Communist Party of China
- The Communist Party of China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Communist Party of China
- 2 The CPC’s Metamorphosis from Class-Based Organization to Nationalist Party
- 3 The Chairman’s Long Shadow
- 4 Language, Discourse, and Hegemony
- 5 Patriotic Nationalism as Commodity
- 6 Manufacturing Consent and “Correct Collective Memory”
- 7 Neo-Maoist Sticks and Nationalist Carrots
- 8 Co-opting the Private Sector
- 9 China’s Adaptive State Capitalism and Its International Sources
- 10 Digital Power
- 11 Social Stability through Responsive Social Policy
- 12 Dealing with Dissent
- 13 The Party and the Army
- 14 After Xi
- Index
2 - The CPC’s Metamorphosis from Class-Based Organization to Nationalist Party
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2025
By
Book contents
- The Communist Party of China
- The Communist Party of China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Communist Party of China
- 2 The CPC’s Metamorphosis from Class-Based Organization to Nationalist Party
- 3 The Chairman’s Long Shadow
- 4 Language, Discourse, and Hegemony
- 5 Patriotic Nationalism as Commodity
- 6 Manufacturing Consent and “Correct Collective Memory”
- 7 Neo-Maoist Sticks and Nationalist Carrots
- 8 Co-opting the Private Sector
- 9 China’s Adaptive State Capitalism and Its International Sources
- 10 Digital Power
- 11 Social Stability through Responsive Social Policy
- 12 Dealing with Dissent
- 13 The Party and the Army
- 14 After Xi
- Index
Summary
The new nationalism of the Xi Jinping era, which has brought together political nationalism and cultural nationalism – two largely opposing streams between 1919 and 1989 – has redefined the CPC and the PRC. On paper, the party is a class organization while the PRC is a class dictatorship that sanctions class sovereignty rather than popular sovereignty. Since 2001, the party has been represented as a national party as well as a class organization. Representing the nation entails the promotion of national culture, and a major component of the Chinese Dream is cultural revival. Consequently, the CPC and the PRC are nationalized in a shift from Marxist classism to synthesized Chinese nationalism. Their class identities appear to be at odds with their national identities, but the tension is minimized as the party turns Marxism into an empty signifier and sinicizes it out of existence.
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- The Communist Party of ChinaUnderstanding the Durability of the World's Most Powerful Political Organization, pp. 24 - 41Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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