The right of Kerry Brown to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2018 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-2456-3

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-2457-0 (pb)

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Names: Brown, Kerry, 1967- author.

Title: China's dream : the culture of Chinese communism and the secret sources of its power / Kerry Brown.

Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018007932 (print) | LCCN 2018029569 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509524600 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509524563 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509524570 (paperback)

Classification: LCC JQ1519.A5 (ebook) | LCC JQ1519.A5 B75 2018 (print) | DDC 306.20951–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018007932

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Preface

China is just a geography. A place with borders and territorial limitations. Why does it merit special attention?

While the argument in this book is about China, and things that happen in that geographical place, underlying its contents there is an overarching generic question. This is about how it is that twice in the twentieth century China managed to take what were regarded as universal rules, and transformed and adapted them in ways which were exceptional.

The first was the importation of Marxism-Leninism with its stress on urban revolution, and the upending of this so that in China it ended up being an agrarian-based phenomenon.

The second was the use of capitalist economic methods after post-Mao reforms in 1978, and the development of a society which has become increasingly wealthy, where all expectations that it would also introduce political, democratic reforms have, so far, not been met.

These two great moments of innovation have created a China in the twenty-first century which is convinced it is exceptional, and that it uses models which are relevant only to it. It stands as the great inconvenience to Western universalist ideas. That gives what it has done not just a local but a global significance, because it undercuts ideas which are a necessary part of the Western Enlightenment mentality.

For this reason, the phenomenon described in this book is of significance way beyond being a description of a behaviour of a particular geography and the frameworks it might fit into. It is about the attempt to create a different form of modernity, a bespoke one – one which is hybrid, guided by moral and intellectual sources of thinking utterly different in their history and development from the West. Those are the questions that have prompted, and guided, the writing of this book.

I would like to express my thanks to Louise Knight and Nekane Tanaka Galdos at Polity Press for commissioning and then steering this book through to publication. It has been stimulating and highly congenial to work with them. I would also like to thank Justin Dyer for his copy-editing. I am also grateful for comments received on the first draft of this book from Simone van Neuwenhuizen, Siv Oftedal, Cindy Yu, Jolita Pons, Julia Lovell, James Miles, Jasper Becket, and from two anonymous reviewers. They have helped enormously in shaping the book.

Kerry Brown is the Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London and Associate for Chinese Affairs at Chatham House. With 30 years experience of life in China, he has worked in education, business and government, including a term as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing. He writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, The Observer, The Diplomat and Foreign Affairs, as well as for many international and Chinese media outlets. He is the author of ten books on China, including the Amazon-bestselling CEO China: The Rise of Xi Jinping, and The New Emperors.

1911–12	Fall of the Qing Dynasty through the Xinnai Revolution. Establishment of the Republican government.
1919	May Fourth Student Movement, a rebellion by young intellectuals promoting modernization in China.
1921	First Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in Shanghai and Jiangsu.
1927	Savage purge of Communists by the ruling Nationalists; retreat of the main Communist movement from Shanghai to the rural areas in Jiangxi.
1932	Marco Polo Bridge incident, marking Japanese interference in Chinese affairs.
1935–6	Long March, led by newly dominant Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, taking the Party to a northern refuge to counter Nationalists’ attacks.
1937–45	Sino-Japanese War.
1946–9	Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists.
1949	Establishment of the People's Republic of China under Communist rule after their victory in the Civil War. Nationalists flee to Taiwan and establish a government there.
1950–3	Korean War.
1953	Launch of First Five-Year Plan, introducing planned economy into China.
1956	Hundred Flowers Campaign, which results in the first major clampdown against intellectuals and ‘rightists’.
1957	Launch of the Great Leap Forward, to accelerate China's industrial development, setting ambitious new growth targets. First signs of Sino-Soviet rift as a result of de-Stalinization in the USSR.
1959–61	The great famines, which led to the deaths of as many as 50 million people.
1964	China successfully tests hydrogen bomb.
1966–76	The Great Cultural Revolution.
1967	Felling of Liu Shaoqi, until then President of China.
1971	Death of Lin Biao, Mao's chosen successor, while trying to flee to the USSR on a plane.
1976	Death of Mao Zedong, and fall of the ‘Gang of Four’ radical group around him.
1978	Announcement of reforms to open up the Chinese economy, tolerate the market, and promote entrepreneurialism, at the Third Plenary of the Eleventh Party Congress. Deng Xiaoping emerges as paramount leader.
1981	Announcement of the Resolution on Party History, which criticizes the Cultural Revolution as a ‘mistake’. Introduction of Special Economic Zones which allow manufacturing for export and foreign investment.
1989	Tiananmen Square uprising, which is put down by the Deng Xiaoping leadership. Appointment of Jiang Zemin as Party Secretary.
1991	Collapse of the Soviet Union.
1992	Deng Xiaoping Southern Tour, reaffirming commitment to reforms and openness despite the setback of Tiananmen in 1989.
2001	China's entry into the World Trade Organization.
2002	Appointment of Hu Jintao as Party Secretary.
2008	China hosts Olympics in Beijing. Tibet uprising.
2009	Widespread unrest in Xinjiang region, in the north-west of the country.
2010	China becomes world's second largest economy, overtaking Japan.
2012	Appointment of Xi Jinping as Party Secretary.
2017	Start of Xi Jinping's second term as Party Secretary.

CCDI	Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
CCTV	China Central Television
CPC	Communist Party of China
CPPCC	Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
PLA	People's Liberation Army
PRC	People's Republic of China
SOEs	state-owned enterprises
WTO	World Trade Organization

China's Dream

The Culture of Chinese Communism and the Secret Sources of Its Power

Chronology

Abbreviations

Preface

Acknowledgements

About the Author