ABSTRACT
Post-Mao economic reforms and pragmatism have led many analysts to declare that the communist ideology is no longer relevant in post-Mao China. It seems to them that market reform has led towards de-ideologization. Indeed, many Chinese are now open to market change and engaging in money making. Also, greater openness to the outside world has brought in some new ideas, concepts, and values which have clashed with old ideological claims. These new ideas, concepts, and values have in many ways undermined the official ideology and threatened the base of party legitimacy. Moreover, there is more freedom of expression and more open talk about the “shortcomings” of the communist regime, as long as critics avoid crossing the party line and ideological taboos, and as long as such voices are strictly individual and do not aspire to organized support or collective action.1
