A new era dawns for Xi Jinping’s China, but what will it mean for the rest of the world?

David Zweig says the Communist Party’s goal to build national power follows logically from its earlier focuses on national unity and wealth creation. But a political system that is ideologically driven and in the grip of an almost all-powerful leader could be a recipe for disaster

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A poster with a portrait of President Xi Jinping is displayed along a street in Shanghai, on October 24. A political system that is highly centralised, ideologically driven, under one charismatic, almost all-powerful leader, with striking ambitions of global military grandeur and influence, carries its own dangers. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:15pm, 25 Oct 2017Updated: 7:04pm, 25 Oct 2017

We have entered the “third era” of the history of the Chinese Communist Party and “New China”. That is the historical construct that Xi Jinping and the party have presented as a way to understand the 19th party congress and the next 15-30 years of China’s development.

But what exactly do they mean by a “new era”? What are the common characteristics of these three eras and what can they tell us about China’s path forward?

The three eras share three common themes: first, opponents of the dominant leader must be removed from office, some through retirement, but others through purges; second, the party puts forward a new guiding ideology attributed to this one leader, which all party members must follow unquestionably and in a “unified” manner; and, third, China takes on a historic task, which all members must unswervingly seek to attain.

While many analysts see the first era starting in 1949, preparations for it actually began in Yan’an, the communist base in Shaanxi province where the party settled after the 1934-35 Long March. During the Rectification Campaign of 1942, all party members were forced into intensive study sessions to internalise the newly emerging Mao Zedong Thought, creating “unified thinking” within the party.

Former top leader Liu Shaoqi, himself a victim of Maoist purges during the Cultural Revolution, penned a major essay for study, called “How to be a good communist”, which set out the appropriate actions and thoughts for party members. Those who resisted this call for ideological conformity were purged. Many victims were linked to a group of 28 who had studied in Moscow. Other targets were the so-called “bourgeois intellectuals” who had moved to Yan’an after 1937 to support the party in its fight against the Japanese who had invaded China that year. As nationalists, they were deemed unreliable and forced out of the party.

Multimedia: Cultural Revolution, 50 years on

Chinese communist leader Liu Shaoqi and his wife Wang Guangmei pose for a photo in Beijing in 1949. Liu penned a major essay for study, called “How to be a good communist”, which set out the appropriate actions and thoughts for party members. Photo: Xinhua