What will the upcoming 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) bring, and what will the next decade of CPC rule look like? Who will rule China and what future do they envision for the Party and China? In this volume, the East Asian Institute in Singapore brings together an exceptional team of world-leading China experts from Asia, the United States, Europe and Australia to set out the future implications of trends in CPC politics and governance in CPC General Party Secretary Xi Jinping’s “New Era.”

The essays collected in this volume bring together cutting-edge research and insights into China’s economy, society, politics, military and international relations targeted at a professional audience in government, business, the media, NGOs and universities. The book is distributed Open Access under a Creative Commons license, and sold in print editions in Asia.

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Introduction Download

by Frank N. Pieke and Bert Hofman

The 20th Party Congress in the fall of 2022 will be a pivotal moment for the Communist Party of China (CPC). The decisions at the Congress are relevant not only to China, but also for the global economy and for the shape of the world order as well. Inner-party politics is complex and opaque for most outside observers, but some key trends have become clear in the months leading up to the 20th Congress.

Section 1: Chinese Politics with Xi Jinping at the Core

What are the most important developments and challenges that the Chinese leadership will have to confront, at the Party Congress and for the next ten years? What will be the composition of the next Politburo and its standing committee, and what could be the policy implications?

Section 2 : Ideology and Legitimacy

Under Xi Jinping, ideological renewal again occupies centre-stage in Chinese politics. The leadership insists that grand concepts like socialism and cultural and national greatness are not mere slogans, but concrete aims What is role does ideology play in Xi’s tremendous efforts in party building?

Section 3: Building the Party-state’s Governing Capacity

Under Xi Jinping, the party’s presence, leadership and direct governance across the government, military, business and society have been further expanded. The CPC has made systematic efforts at building and upgrading its own membership, organisation and governing capacity. The CPC has never been a mere “governing party”, but is an organisation with a mission to create a “new China” able to take its rightful place among the world’s nations.

Section 4: Development, Security and the CPC

The CPC has recently even more firmly taken the reigns of the economy, emphasising both greater equity and fairness, and greater self-reliance for China. What are the implications of the CPC’s strategising, regulating and disciplining for China’s businesses and market development? Is this the end of China’s type of free-ranging market socialism? If so, what will take its place and what will be the implications for the CPC’s rule and its claim of the lasting significance of socialism?

Section 5: Comprehensive National Security

As a rising superpower, China increasingly perceives both domestic and international issues through the lens of national security. The CPC’s “comprehensive national security outlook” is deliberately inclusive. Disasters, pandemics, food security and civil unrest are as much a part of national security as defence, cybersecurity and intelligence. China’s civil-military fusion policy also infuses a security dimension into government-business relations, whereas economic security plays a critical role in China’s five-year plan.

Section 6: The CPC, China’s Rise and Geopolitical Shifts

China’s globalisation has entered a fundamentally new phase, in which China seeks to set the terms and degree of its engagement with the world, rather than being content to ride in the slipstream of an international order determined by other, mostly Western powers.