{"title":"Vanguard to Periphery: The CPC’s Changing Narrative on the Labour Question","authors":"Anand P. Krishnan","doi":"10.1177/00094455221074247","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"With the ideological undergirding of Marxism–Leninism, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has claimed representation of peasants and workers in its vanguard role in actualising the socialist revolution. However, as China has developed economically over the past four decades, there has been an erosion in the status of workers and peasants as legitimate stakeholders in governance and ruling practices. This article attempts to map how labour, once a critical component of the CPC’s political–ideological invocation, has become peripheral as China transitioned to a market economy with an emphasis on economic rationale for growth and reforms. It examines the changing contours of the CPC’s discourse and practice over the past 100 years on the labour question, sandwiched as it is between the need for continued economic growth as a legitimating tool and the continued reiteration of being representative of the working class.","PeriodicalId":44314,"journal":{"name":"中国报道","volume":"58 1","pages":"60 - 74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"中国报道","FirstCategoryId":"1092","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00094455221074247","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
With the ideological undergirding of Marxism–Leninism, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has claimed representation of peasants and workers in its vanguard role in actualising the socialist revolution. However, as China has developed economically over the past four decades, there has been an erosion in the status of workers and peasants as legitimate stakeholders in governance and ruling practices. This article attempts to map how labour, once a critical component of the CPC’s political–ideological invocation, has become peripheral as China transitioned to a market economy with an emphasis on economic rationale for growth and reforms. It examines the changing contours of the CPC’s discourse and practice over the past 100 years on the labour question, sandwiched as it is between the need for continued economic growth as a legitimating tool and the continued reiteration of being representative of the working class.
期刊介绍:
China Report promotes the free expression and discussion of different ideas, approaches and viewpoints which assist a better understanding of China and its East Asian neighbours. A quarterly journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies, it attempts to provide a fresh approach which goes beyond the strictly utilitarian area studies without becoming antiquarian. Launched in 1964, China Report has, over the years, widened its interests and aims and transformed itself into a scholarly journal that seeks a better understanding of China and its East Asian neighbours - particularly their cultures, their development and their relations with China. It is an indispensable source of information on China, its society and culture.