China’s socialism beats capitalism, Communist Party ideology veteran says in ‘bid to shore up support’
- President’s ideas are the Marxism of this century and China is enjoying ‘the most wonderful chapter of world socialism in 500 years’, article says
- Propaganda campaign aims to project the country’s confidence and Xi’s grip on power after the Covid-19 outbreak, observers say
He Yiting, executive vice-president of the school, said that under the guidance of Xi’s political thinking, “socialism with Chinese characteristics will clearly tell a great conclusion: socialism is indeed better than capitalism, as the decisive achievement of building a powerful socialist modern country will show”.
The article continued: “Today, the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics has written the most wonderful chapter of world socialism in 500 years. The world’s two ideologies, two doctrines and two systems are undergoing profound changes in favour of socialism.”
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A seasoned expert on party ideology, He hailed the president’s political thinking as “the Marxism of the 21st century”. He said Marx and Engels represented Marxism in the 19th century; the ideas of Lenin, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping represented Marxism in the 20th century; and Xi’s thought represented the Marxism of today.
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Xie Maosong, a professor at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said a situation such as a pandemic could accelerate either the rise or fall of great powers.
“It can be the final blow to the failing state, or it may stimulate a rising country to renew and repair itself,” he said.
“In the case of China, the epidemic pushed the leadership and government agencies to swiftly get people organised and mobilise resources. It helps to expose problems in China’s rise and accelerate efforts to fix them. Overall, it will emerge stronger with better social cohesion.”
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Junfei Wu, deputy director of the Tianda Institute, a think tank in Hong Kong, said the timing of the articles was intended to promote the message that, despite a spate of new infections in Beijing in recent days, China’s confidence from its apparent containment of its Covid-19 outbreak was “unshaken”, especially with the West, particularly the United States, continuing to struggle to halt the spread of both the virus and protests triggered by the death of George Floyd.
Deng Yuwen, a former deputy editor of the Central Party School journal Study Times now living in the US, said He’s article was intended to “tell everyone that [Xi’s] grip on power is as firm as ever”.
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Gu Su, a political scientist at Nanjing University, said the commentary formed part of the propaganda campaign that followed China’s five-yearly party congress, last held in 2017, which set policy goals and anointed its top leadership. The campaign, interrupted by the Covid-19 outbreak, pushes new propaganda themes at intervals of two to three months.
“The resumption of this series of articles shows most of the Chinese political apparatus is getting back to its usual agenda, after the pandemic was brought under control, despite the recent cases in Beijing,” Gu said.
China’s capital has reported dozens of new local infections since last Thursday – all linked to a food market – after 55 consecutive days of reporting zero non-imported transmissions. The authorities have locked down more than 20 residential communities, after 36 new cases were confirmed on Sunday alone.
