Discipline the Party: From Rectification Campaigns to Intra-Party Educational Activities in China

Abstract:How were the post-Deng Xiaoping "educational activities" tied to or different from the rectification campaigns of the earlier periods? What does this mean for the future of intra-Party governance in China? Through a comparison of rectification campaigns in the 1940s–1980s and intra-Party educational activities thereafter, the author concludes that the campaign method had been institutionalised as an integral instrument of intra-Party governance, forging a three-stage procedure to fulfil the dual aims of education and deterrence. Consequently, the Communist Party of China discarded the imposition of extreme sanctions in the post-Deng era but reinforced authoritative and distributive powers through less severe forms of sanctions.