How can this be true? There’s a supposedly “new” branch of Xi Jinping Thought that “stresses governing the party with discipline and unified leadership.” As opposed to, what, the relaxed and decentralized approach of the Mao era (South China Morning Post, June 16, 2026)?
During a national conference on party building on Monday, the concept of “Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building” was hailed as “a milestone in the history of Marxist theory on party building and in the history of Chinese Communist Party building”, according to a report from state broadcaster CCTV.
The new phrase was officially coined at a meeting chaired by Cai Qi, the party’s ideology chief and the fifth-ranking member of the party’s top decision-making body, the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. The meeting was also attended by officials in charge of discipline, personnel and other key matters.
Xi has developed the concept since the 18th National Party Congress in 2012 and it represents an answer to major questions, including how to build a “Marxist party with long-term governance”, according to the CCTV report, which added that the concept would serve “as the fundamental guideline for strengthening party building in the new era”.
The report said “Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building” put forth “14 insists”, which included insistence on “a centralised, unified leadership of the party Central Committee”, insistence on “full and rigorous party self-governance” and insistence on an organisational system that is cohesive across different levels.
We cannot understand the claim to novelty, at least not if it is thought to apply to anything more than the adding of some new phrase to the propaganda boilerplate. We can understand why right around now the CCP or Xi would place special stress on being disciplined in obeying the CCP and on the need for unified Party leadership.
For a year or two, there have been reports and rumors, mostly rumors, of power struggles within the Party. One leader of the opposition was said to be top military man General Zhang Youxia. Even if Zhang was not about to lead a coup against Xi or even really thinking about it, the rumors alone might have been enough to make Xi nervous enough to act.
In January of this year, Xi took Zhang and another member of the Central Military Commission, General Liu Zhenli, off the board; two of a great many military men who have been purged in recent years in the name of fighting corruption and/or disunity.
Also see:
StoptheCCP.org: “The Useful Disorder of Xi Jinping”
