This book analyses the ideology that China's leader Xi Jinping has crafted during his decade in power. China's political system and domestic and foreign policies have, between 2012 and 2022, become more defined by the political thought of Xi Jinping, the most powerful leader of the Chinese Communist Party since the time of Mao Zedong. Today, Xi's China is embroiled in superpower rivalry with the United States and its allies. Therefore, ongoing ideological transformation in the People's Republic is destined to have global repercussions. Yet surprisingly, the ideological mission of Xi Jinping is poorly understood. Based on analysis of Xi Jinping's collected speeches, the book argues that China's new state ideology is constructed around the three key concepts of loyalty, discipline, and greatness. Xi's mission is about ideological re-orientation and re-activation, as well as organizational innovation, seeking to frame China's national self as a collective unit under one political banner and one leader. However, despite the monumental Party-state effort to boost the new ideology and state-scripted moral careers, the book contends that Xi Jinping cannot take for granted that political and patriotic loyalty will forever trump the formation of disloyal moral careers in society.

Proposes a unique analytical framework centering on issues of ideological re-activation and organizational innovation Explains how China's new state ideology is constructed around the key concepts of loyalty, discipline, and greatness Analyses the ideology that China's leader Xi Jinping has crafted to boost governance and contend with liberal democracy

Autorentext

Johan Lagerkvist is Professor of Chinese Language and Culture and Director of Stockholm Center for Global Asia at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Klappentext

This book analyses the ideology that China's leader Xi Jinping has crafted during his decade in power. China's political system and domestic and foreign policies have, between 2012 and 2022, become more defined by the political thought of Xi Jinping, the most powerful leader of the Chinese Communist Party since the time of Mao Zedong. Today, Xi's China is embroiled in superpower rivalry with the United States and its allies. Therefore, ongoing ideological transformation in the People's Republic is destined to have global repercussions. Yet surprisingly, the ideological mission of Xi Jinping is poorly understood. Based on analysis of Xi Jinping's collected speeches, the book argues that China's new state ideology is constructed around the three key concepts of loyalty, discipline, and greatness. Xi's mission is about ideological re-orientation and re-activation, as well as organizational innovation, seeking to frame China's "national self" as a collective unit under one political banner and one leader. However, despite the monumental Party-state effort to boost the new ideology and state-scripted "moral careers", the book contends that Xi Jinping cannot take for granted that political and patriotic loyalty will forever trump the formation of "disloyal moral careers" in society.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction: China's National Self, President Xi Jinping, and the Realization of the Chinese Dream.- Chapter 2: Anti-corruption Forever: Discipline and Loyalty.- Chapter 3: Loyalty Toward State and Nation: Top-level design and Moral Careers.- Chapter 4: Loyalty to the Nation: Lunar and Martian exploration for Lasting Greatness.- Chapter 5: Post-Zero-Covid Policy: Limits to Loyalty on the Horizon?