The Regime Durability of Communist Power in China: Three Approaches to Examine the Chinese Communist Party

Haoguang Li

doi:10.61187/ts.v2i2.101

Authors

Haoguang Li
haogli@keio.jp
Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Japan

Keywords:

Regime durability, the Chinese Communist Party, economy, surveillance, sanctification

Abstract

This essay examines the durability of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from an interdisciplinary perspective. By conducting investigations into the CCP’s evolution, this essay offers three crucial approaches to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the durability of the Communist regime in China. It argues that the fast-growing economy since the Reform and Opening-up in 1978 has decisively improved the living standards of the Chinese people, forming the core of the CCP’s legitimacy. However, relying solely on the economic approach is not sufficient to fully assess the durability of the CCP. The second approach suggested by this paper involves a more democratized approach to speech control and loosened censorship, allowing a certain degree of plurality of opinions while still prohibiting subversive speeches. The third approach involves the sanctification of the CCP among the people, wherein the concept of “the CCP is always for the people” is constructed and imbued. These three mutually constitutive, conjunctive, and integrated approaches thereby reinforce the Party’s durability consistently.

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