What is the Chinese Communist Party's elixir of youth? ?

Panda, Rice Alcohol and PCC is a column of Camille Brugier, aimed at introducing scientific articles to a wider audience. His publications can be found on his thread Twitter.

While the Chinese have recently taken to the streets to demonstrate against the reform relating to their social Security, against rising prices, the anti-COVID policy, and violations of freedom of expression, one can wonder about the capacity – it seems infinite – resilience of the Chinese Communist Party.

Researcher Yuenyuen Ang explains that the resilience of the CCP is mainly due to the latest tweaks made by Xi Jinping to reforms dating from the era of Deng Xiaoping (1978-1989) and gradually institutionalized.

Xi Jinping notably maintained the existence of a performing bureaucracy instituted by Deng – which he knows he needs – while limiting his autonomy. He also removed the obstacles to the exercise of his own power: end of collective governance, removal of the two-term limit, thought of xi in the constitution, etc.. Thereby, within the party, executives are no longer promoted solely on the basis of their performance (economic growth, social stability) but also according to their loyalty to Xi Jinping and his thought. Xi thus changed the logic of the bureaucracy: rather than following economic rationality, it is now vested in one man.

These changes strengthen Xi but also the Party: following the anti-corruption campaign launched in 2012, one of China's major domestic scourges is now under control. Another lesser-known novelty: the risks of war between factions, that followed each end of presidential term, no longer exist with Xi since his succession is not on the agenda.

Despite all these upheavals, Xi has kept the keystone of the CCP's resilience in place– “adaptive governance”. When the CCP encounters a problem with no ready-made solution, he resorts to experimentation administrative. For instance, one of the recent thorns in the Party's side is the accumulation of wealth and power by big names in the high-tech sector. Following the failure of restrictive measures under the banner of “common prosperity” (Common prosperity) who have plunged the Chinese stock market into chaos, Xi has radically changed gear: he named a pilot province, le Zhejiang, to offer innovative solutions. If the problem is well identified by the central State, it is up to local governments to find solutions. And this practice is far from new..

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“Adaptive governance” gives the CCP the flexibility to manage a territory the size of China and also allows the Party to dump on local governments in the event of popular unrest. This strategy paid off: a study by the Harvard Ash Center shows that Chinese citizens express a much higher level of satisfaction when it comes to central government than local governments. The author concludes that these characteristics partly inherited from Deng and reformed by Xi make China a particularly resilient and increasingly authoritarian ruling state.. Yuenyuen Ang thus warns of the associated risks (beyond armed conflict) of a confrontation between the Chinese authoritarian regime, in full ascending phase, and our democracies weakened by populism.

Reference: The, Yuen Yuen. “How Resilient Is the CCP?” (2022), Journal of Democracy, vol. 33(3), pp. 77–91.