Members of the Politburo are rarely praised for their dancing skills, but consider Xi Jinping’s almost flawless execution of a political two-step: first casting himself as the voice of liberal moderation in the face of Bo Xilai’s mass propaganda, and then draping himself in the mantle of Maoist China and the Communist Revolution once his position was secure. The changes are enough to prompt anyone to ask: How exactly did this happen and does it even make sense?
Today on Sinica we take a look at the political movement that some academics are calling neo-Maoism, a group composed of the traditionally conservative politicians and Communist Party members whose influence began eroding with market reforms in the 1980s but who have arguably witnessed a comeback in the last two years.
In a conversation with Jude Blanchette, the former assistant director of the 21st Century China Program at the University of California San Diego and currently the associate engagement director at The Conference Board’s China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing, Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn take a look at the history of the movement, its major players and how it is treated in the Chinese media.
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