SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article investigates the increasing reliance on ideological campaigns by the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping as part of an unfolding party-building project. Analyzing five campaigns conducted from 2013 to 2021, the study shows that they aimed to re-establish the linkage between the party center and party members, reinforce society’s connection to the party center, and crowd out competing narratives both inside the party and outside it. The article highlights the evolution of ideological campaigns in three phases, emphasizing how they developed from focusing on party members’ social environment toward positioning the party center and Xi Jinping at its core as the source of values and norms for party members and societal actors. The development of the party’s ideological campaigns under Xi Jinping thus has significant implications for the party’s model of governance, both internally and externally.