Defending Hierarchy in the Name of Equality: Statist Turn of China’s New Left

• In Event: Outsider Ideas and Elite Policymaking

Abstract

A significant voice in discussions of Chinese politics since the 1990s, New Left intellectuals have been largely characterized by their rejection of “linking up” (jiegui) with globalization and their criticism of social inequality caused by capitalist developments. This paper analyzes the development and transformation of the New Left in the new century. Instead of reading the ideological debate per se, this paper argues that the ideological discourse of the New Left changes with the target audience and media of communication. After the 1990s, as the influence of the New Left extends beyond the intellectual circle into the realms of both political elites and mass culture (especially digital mass media), the mainstream of New Leftism turned from neo-Marxism towards statism and nationalism. This paper observes three major trends in this development. First, (coercive) state capacity develops from a means to social equality to an end in itself, partially reflecting the state’s interest in maintaining stability and enforcing social control. Second, while the New Left have been critical of “depoliticization,” their proposed antidote has shifted from the political participation of the people to the ideologization of the ruling party, thus chanting for top-down (rather than bottom-up) mobilization. Third, although the New Left gained fame through criticizing capitalism, their target of criticism has shifted from the institutional system of capitalism to a “civilizational” concept of “the West.” This caters to the mass audience by contradicting their previous goal of equality, as the discourse cries for a return to traditional values and authorities.

Author

• Clyde Yicheng Wang, Washington and Lee University