ABSTRACT
Building on recent work analysing two subtypes of populist attitudes in mainland China—pro- and anti-system—this chapter seeks to map the mindsets of each through analysis of attaching “host ideologies”. We hypothesize that pro-system “party populism” is rooted in cultural populism that regards perceived threats to the Chinese nation with fear and anger. Anti-system “critical populism”, in contrast, is a socio-economic populism anchored in discontent with the social side effects of economic reforms, social inequality more generally, and corruption. We tested these claims using an original online survey data set (n=2,136) collected in 2018. The findings largely support our expectations about the ideological correlates of critical populism, suggesting a family resemblance to socialist-leaning populisms in Europe and the Americas. The results for party populism are more inconclusive, partly due to the difficulties of reaching older males through online surveys. The Xi Jinping administration’s recent embrace of “common prosperity” may be an effort to address critical populists’ discontent.
