Amb. Gautam Bambawale (Symbiosis International University), Prof. Frank N. Pieke (Leiden University)

Changes in CCP dominance that are currently taking place are a fundamentally new ambition. The power of the central leadership & especially of Xi Jinping himself is felt much more directly & uniformly all across the country with the Party assuming direct responsibility for governance. The Party is imposing itself onto the whole of the Chinese nation, its culture & its civilization in ways that have been unheard of since the start of the reforms. The Party’s revamped united front policies on minorities, religions & overseas Chinese, blur belonging to the Chinese nation & loyalty to the Party. Moreover, the Party’s legitimacy is being shored up by civilizational & even religious claims intended to put its rule on a lasting, if not perpetual basis. The CCP’s new modalities of all-encompassing dominance are a way to turn it into the embodiment of the Chinese nation, whose rule can never again be questioned, let alone challenged, priming China to become the strongest power in the world.