New Conservatism (China)

In China, New Conservatism or neoconservatism (Chinese: 新保守主义; pinyin: xīn bǎoshǒu zhǔyì) is a school of contemporary Chinese political thought arguing for political and economic centralization and the establishment of shared moral values.[1][2] The movement originated from the "neoauthoritarian" school of the 1980s and 1990s, and has been described in the West by political scientist Joseph Fewsmith.[3] Neoconservatives are opposed to radical reform projects and argue that an authoritarian and incrementalist approach is necessary to stabilize the process of modernization.[4]

Movements in contemporary
Chinese political thought
Neoauthoritarianism
New Conservatism
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An important neoconservative document was the 1992 China Youth Daily editorial "Realistic Responses and Strategic Options for China after the Soviet Upheaval", which responded to the fall of the Soviet Union.[5] "Realistic Responses" described the end of the Soviet state as the result of "capitalist utopianism", and argued that the Communist Party of China should transform from a "revolutionary party" into a "ruling party".[6] The authors believed that the party should depart from the legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution and reformulate socialism according to China's particular national conditions.[7]

The neoconservatives enjoyed the patronage of Jiang Zemin during his term as Paramount leader and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (1989–2002), and Jiang's theory of the Three Represents has been described as a "bowdlerized form of neoconservatism".[8] Prominent neoconservative theorists include Xiao Gongqin, initially a leading neoauthoritarian who promoted "gradual reform under strong rule" after 1989,[9] and Wang Huning,[10] who became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party's highest executive body, headed by Party general secretary Xi Jinping in 2017.[11]

Other than the name, the movement has no connection with neoconservatism in the United States, though, from the standpoint of philosophy, it can be identified as a form of conservative thought, albeit ideologically different from "old conservatism" (旧保守主义).

A 2018 study of schools of political theory in contemporary China identified neoconservatism, still alternatively named neoauthoritarianism, as a continuing current of thought alongside what are now the academically more prominent Chinese New Left, New Confucianism, and Chinese liberalism.[12]

References
  1. Fewsmith 1995, pp. 637–9.
  2. Zhao 2015, p. 33.
  3. Fewsmith 1995.
  4. Liu 2005.
  5. van Dongen 2019, p. 58.
  6. van Dongen 2019, p. 59.
  7. van Dongen 2019, p. 60.
  8. Moody 2007, p. 151.
  9. van Dongen 2019, p. 53.
  10. Fewsmith 1995, p. 637.
  11. Yi 2017.
  12. Cheek, Ownby & Fogel 2018, p. 112.

Sources
  • Cheek, Timothy; Ownby, David; Fogel, Joshua (March 14, 2018). "Mapping the intellectual public sphere in China today". China Information. 32 (1): 108–120. doi:10.1177/0920203X18759789.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • van Dongen, Els (2019). Realistic Revolution: Contesting Chinese History, Culture, and Politics after 1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1108421300.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Fewsmith, Joseph (July 1995). "Neoconservatism and the End of the Dengist Era". Asian Survey. 35 (7): 635–651. doi:10.2307/2645420. JSTOR 2645420.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Liu, Chang (2005). "Neo-Conservatism". In Davis, Edward L. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781134549535.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Moody, Peter (2007). Conservative Thought in Contemporary China. Plymouth: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0739120460.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Yi, Wang (November 6, 2017). "Meet the mastermind behind Xi Jinping's power". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 30, 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Zhao, Suisheng (2015) [2000]. "'We are Patriots First and Democrats Second': The Rise of Chinese Nationalism in the 1990s". In McCormick, Barrett L.; Friedman, Edward (eds.). What if China Doesn't Democratize?: Implications for War and Peace. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 21–48. ISBN 9781317452218.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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