China: Change and continuity

This chapter gives a 70-year overview of communist rule in China which, though being based consistently on Leninist one-party rule, has oscillated between personalism, collective leadership and party institutionalization, and back to centralization and personalization. The chapter first discusses the CCP’s institutional reforms and shifts in party ideology and legitimation strategies under Deng Xiaoping and his successors. Then follows a discussion on how, despite previous institutionalization attempts, Xi Jinping was able to re-centralize and consolidate power, amongst others through anti-corruption measures and a new personality cult. Along with political centralization, the political space for civil society has been shrinking under Xi Jinping, while cutting-edge data-driven surveillance technologies have introduced a new surveillance state. As demonstrated by Xi’s rigid COVID-19 measures, centralization risks disrupting the flow of vital information, silencing dissenting elites, and suffocating innovation.