ABSTRACT
The class discourse of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was a core component of its meta-discourse – the Chinese Revolution. It continues to have a critical impact on the identities and subject positions of the Party as well as the course of events in its history. The chapter is concerned with the meaning of class as articulated by the Chinese Communists since they burst onto China’s political scene. It concentrates on three overlapping questions: What has class meant to the CCP and what is its utility to the Party at different times? How and why has the meaning changed? How has the Party used Marxist class concepts and theories when pursuing the goals of its political projects? The chapter demonstrates that, while class has in varying degrees retained its centrality, its meaning has been re-articulated following sporadic shifts. Examination of the discourse is roughly divided into three phases: 1921–1949, 1949–1978, and 1978 to the present. During the first phase, the CCP treated class primarily as an ideological-political tool, claiming that class affiliation gave the Party a leading role in the ‘new democratic revolution’ and the Chinese Revolution, and treating class as a criterion by which the Party separated their friends from enemies. The utility of class to the CCP during the second phase was mostly normative in that classes represented values that the Party promoted and condemned. During the current phase, class has become an empty signifier, which, retained to maintain a semblance of ideological consistency, constrains the Party’s articulation of alternative discourses.
