Skip to main content

Chinese President Xi Jinping Wants To Revive The 'Spirit of the Long March'

The Red Detachment of Women (image by Byron Schumaker via Wikimedia Commons)

On May 1 China adopted a new law that promotes "patriotism and socialist core values" and criminalizes acts that "defame heroes and martyrs," or "distort and diminish their deeds." The law also makes it illegal to "glorify invasions."

The law is part of a larger scheme which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been pursuing since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012. His vision is to end the era of political indifference brought about by economic development.

In 2005 The New York Times remarked that the CCP had been "plagued by the loss of ideological enthusiasm and the rampancy of corruption among its members for the past two decades." Xi Jinping has sought to reverse that trend. Using traditional tools of Communist brainwashing, he wants Party ideology to be once again at the centre of people's lives.

In a 2013 speech Xi emphasized the importance of ideology. "The aim of our public opinion and ideological work must be to consolidate the leading position of Marxism-Leninism and the common ideological foundation of the Party and the people of the whole country in our united struggle. Party members and officials must firmly believe in Marxism and Communism ..." (Xi Jinping, The Governance Of China, Chapter VI).

Xi's predecessors had paid lip service to Communist ideology, yet had done very little to bolster the faith of the people in its principles. Most Chinese were more interested in material well-being than they were in the tenets of Marx, Lenin or Mao. The Party seemed to be losing its ideological grip on society to materialism and individualism. That threatened the very legitimacy of Communist rule.

In order to strengthen the leadership of the Party, Xi launched the most severe crackdown on free speech since 1989, demanded unconditional faith in Party ideology, emphasized the importance of Mao Zedong Thought, and turned media and education into instruments of relentless propaganda.


Recently the Chinese government has launched a new campaign to revive what Xi Jinping has called the "spirit of the Long March" (é•æ征ē²¾ē„ž). Worshipping martyrs and heroes of the Chinese Communist Party is a linchpin of Xi's ideology. "A hopeful nation needs heroes," he argued in 2016.

Chinese authorities announced a series of activities aimed at promoting the Communist myth of the Long March. All over the country Party cadres as well as business people put on uniforms of the Chinese Red Army (the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army), walked the route of the Long March, and professed their loyalty to Xi Jinping. 

Party cadres at the renowned Sichuan Conservatory of Music were required to wear Red Army uniforms and take part in study sessions. Pictures of the event went viral, sparking an online controversy.  



He Weifang (č“ŗå«ę–¹) , professor at Beijing University and advocate of judicial reform in China, criticized the school's propaganda activity . "Can this country still be saved?" he asked in a post.

The Long March has always played a key role in Communist China's mythology. Between October 1934 and October 1935, the Red Army was encircled by Guomindang forces in Jiangxi. The Communists escaped to the Northwest. Out of the 80,000 troops who left Jiangxi, less than 10,000 were still with Mao at the end of the Long March.

In December 1935, Mao extolled the Long March as "the first of its kind in the annals of History." He remarked that it was "a manifesto, a propaganda force, a seeding-machine" which had "proclaimed to the world that the Red Army is an army of heroes, while the imperialists and their running dogs, Chiang Kai-shek and his like, are impotent" (Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, 1999, 402-403). 

The Long March has indeed, as Mao rightly noted, become a propaganda force. Xi Jinping seems determined to inculcate this myth into young people and punish whomever questions the Party's version of historical events. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Window Trick of Las Vegas Hotels

When I lived in Hong Kong I often passed by a residential apartment complex commonly known as the " monster building ".  " Interior of the Yick Cheong Building November 2016 " by  Nick-D  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 4.0 . _____

Living in Taiwan: Seven Reasons Why It's Good to Be Here

Chinese New Year can be a pretty boring time for a foreigner. All of my friends were celebrating with their families, and since I have no family here, nor have I a girlfriend whose family I could join, I had nothing special to do. Shops and cafes were closed - apart from big chains like McDonald's or Starbucks, which were overcrowded anyway. So I had a lot of time to think. On Saturday evening I went out to buy my dinner. While I was walking around, I heard the voices of the people inside their homes, the sounds of their New Year celebrations. Then I suddenly asked myself: "What on earth are you doing here? Why are you still in Taiwan?"  Before I came to Taiwan, some Taiwanese friends of mine had recommended me their country, highly prasing it and going so far as to say that Taiwan is a "paradise for foreigners" (bear in mind that when I say foreigners I mean 'Westerners').  "It's easy for foreigners to find a job," t

Is China's MINISO Copying Japan's MUJI, UNIQLO and Daiso?

Over the past few years Japanese retailers such as UNIQLO and MUJI have conquered foreign markets, opening shops in cities such as Paris, Berlin or New York and becoming household names in several countries. But the success of their business model seems to have inspired people with dubious intentions. As the website Daliulian recently showed, a new chain called MINISO, which claims to be a Japanese company selling ‘100% Japanese products’, seems to be nothing more than a knock-off of UNIQLO, MUJI and Daiso, copying their logos, names and even the layout of their stores. The company’s webpage proudly announces – in terrible English – that “ MINISO is a fast fashion designer brand of Japan. Headquartered in Tokyo Japan, Japanese young designer Miyake Jyunya is founder as well as the chief designer of MINISO, a pioneer in global 'Fashion & Casual Superior Products' field. ” According to the company’s homepage, MINISO advocates the philosophy of a simple,

Macau: Gambling, Corruption, Prostitution, and Fake Worlds

As I mentioned in my previous post , Macau has different faces and identities: there is the old Macau, full of colonial buildings and in which the pace of life seems to resemble a relaxed Mediterranean town rather than a bustling, hectic Chinese city, such as Hong Kong or Shanghai. On the other hand, there is the Macau of gambling, of gigantic hotel and casino resorts, and of prostitution. These two Macaus seem to be spatially separated from each other, with an intact colonial city centre and nice outskirts with small alleys on the one side, and bombastic, modern buildings on the other.  The Galaxy - one of the huge casino and hotel resorts The Importance of Gambling for Macau's Economy Dubbed the 'Monte Carlo of the East', Macau has often been portrayed as the gambling capital of China. Media reporting on Macau tend present pictures of the city's glistening, apparently luxurious skyline. But a visit in Macau suffices to realize that it is fa

Trip to Tainan

Tainan Train Station Last weekend I made a one day trip to the Southern Taiwanese city of Tainan (Chinese: č‡ŗ南, pinyin: TĆ”inĆ”n), the former capital and one of the most important centres of culture, history and architecture of the island. This blog post is also intended as a special thank to Grace, a Taiwanese friend who was so kind to show me around, and very patient, too. Since Tainan doesn't have an extensive public transport net, Grace picked me up at the train station with her motorcycle, a vehicle that, along with cars, is regarded by locals as indispensable for living comfortably in Tainan. To my great embarrassment, though, I had to admit that I cannot ride a motorcycle. That's why we had to take busses to move around. It was the first time she ever took a bus in Tainan. And now I know why: busses come more or less every half an hour, and service stops early in the evening. No wonder Tainanese snob public transport. Grace had no idea about the routes and about whe