The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s official theoretical fortnightly journal 'Qiushi' on April 1 2019, republished a speech that Xi Jinping delivered in 2013, in which he discussed 'socialism with Chinese characteristics'. Xi’s speech identified several problems or confusions in people’s understanding of the Chinese system. First, Xi Jinping made clear that China’s development path has not veered away from socialism: “socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism, not some other ideology.”  While outsiders have tried to attach alternative labels to China’s economic order such as “capitalist socialism,” “state capitalism,” or “new bureaucratic capitalism,” these are “completely wrong.” No matter how China reforms and opens up, Xi Jinping said, it must always adhere to the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. He then listed a number of attributes that make up this system, emphasizing the leadership of the Communist Party.

 Second, Xi Jinping chose to emphasize areas of continuity between the pre-reform period and the post-reform period saying that throughout both periods “the Party has led the people in socialist construction.”  He explained that if the CCP had not chosen to implement reform in 1978, China would have been destined for the same fate as the Soviet Union. However, this reform was built upon the important ideological, material, and institutional conditions brought about by the establishment of the PRC in 1949. Furthermore, many ideas that were developed during the pre-reform period were not implemented in earnest until the post-reform period. Xi Jinping explained that this confusion was because “hostile forces at home and abroad often make a fuss about the history of the Chinese revolution and the history of New China, and do everything possible to attack, vilify, and slander. Their fundamental purpose is to muddle people’s hearts, inciting the overthrow of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and China’s socialist system.” He pointed out that one of the reasons the Soviet Union collapsed is because the “intense struggle” within the ideological field created space for engaging in historical nihilism and denial the history of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Communist Party, Lenin, and Stalin. Xi Jinping declared that the Party could not survive long if it rejected Mao Zedong. Third, Xi Jinping emphasised that Marxism cannot be static; it must change with the times. While each leader has laid a solid foundation for the development of Marxism, Chinese socialism remains in an “early stage” and faces many problems.  Fourth, Xi Jinping emphasized that “our party has always adhered to the lofty ideals of communism” and that Party members have always been “determined believers and loyal practitioners” of communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics. Their belief in communism and Marxism is their “political soul” and their “spiritual pillar” to withstand any test. Their ultimate goal is the achievement of communism. While the full development of China’s system could still take “dozens of generations,” Xi Jinping said, Marx and Engels’ analysis that the death of capitalism is inevitable is not outdated.

 As noted by the South China Morning Post, this week’s re-release includes a paragraph not previously made public:

 “[...] In the end, capitalism will die out, and socialism will be victorious. This inevitably is a long-term historical process. We must deeply recognize the capacity of capitalist societies to self-correct, and fully take into account the objective reality of Western developed countries’ long-standing superiority in economic, scientific, and military matters. We must prepare well for long-term cooperation and struggle between these two social systems. For a fairly long period of time, early-stage socialism must cooperate and struggle with more highly productive capitalism. It must conscientiously study and draw lessons from the useful civilizational achievements of capitalism [...] The most important thing is to concentrate on managing one's own affairs, and ceaselessly expand our comprehensive national strength, improve our people’s lives, and develop a socialism that is superior to capitalism [...].”