Opinion | The 'Chinese dream' is not a return to the Empire, says Communist Party official

China does not want to return to its imperial roots but instead wants to become a middle-class country with a "harmonious society", a senior Communist Party official said.

Kong Genhong, an associate research director of party's international department, made the comments in party magazine Contemporary World in an article he wrote in which he tried to explain President Xi Jinping's newest propaganda slogan the “Chinese dream”.

“The 'Chinese dream' has a new objective and significance,” he wrote.

“It is to build an overall middle-class (xiaokang) society by the centenary of the founding of China's Communist Party and to build a modernised state with a prosperous, strong, democratic and civilised harmonious society by the centenary of the founding of the New China.”

Arguing that China will not return to the practices of the Chinese empire, which lasted for more than two millennia, Kong tried to dispel “concerns among a minority of neighbouring countries that they will again be subordinate countries that have to pay tribute to China”.