Continuity and Change
It became commonplace during former U.S. President Donald Trump’s tenure to hear the Communist Party of China (CPC) maligned in Cold War-style rhetoric, with the emphasis on “communist” and Marxist as the dirtiest of words, which were then stretched into alarmist fantasies alleging China’s efforts to impose a communist vision globally.
One of the great problems many have when it comes to understanding the CPC is discerning its continuities and changes. On the one hand, in many respects, it is still the Party that Mao Zedong helped build, and indeed, many of Mao’s concepts and values are still embraced positively.
On the other hand, both the Party and China have undergone dramatic changes since the Party’s founding in 1921. If we express this in
