ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Ruairidh Brown conducts hermeneutic inquiry into narratives and ideas of Political Obligation in China’s ‘New Era’. Brown’s central focus is on the ‘Report’ President Xi Jinping delivered to the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2017. Brown analytically interprets Xi’s Report to identify the key arguments of Political Obligation – the arguments as to why Chinese citizens should feel obliged to obey and follow the Party-State – and thus the central claims of political legitimacy and ethos of state–society relations which will underpin politics in the ‘Xi Era’. The chapter in particular highlights the key themes of ‘revival and confidence in traditional culture’, a continuity from Xi’s predecessors, and renewed emphasis on Marxist ideology, a change from previous political practice and an innovative hallmark of the Xi era. Brown’s study uncovers the narrative that the citizens of China ought to be obliged to the Marxist Party-State as the revival of China, especially its cultural ‘soul’, is only possible with the guidance of Marxism. The chapter first introduces the concept of Political Obligation. Section two discusses theories of obligation as they have emerged in contemporary Chinese academia. Section three then presents Brown’s hermeneutical analysis of Xi’s keynote ‘Report’ to the 19th Congress. Finally, the chapter concludes by stressing the central role Marxism is allocated in spearheading the politics of China’s ‘New Era’ and predicting the central position it will have in articulating state–society relations in the age of Xi.
