ABSTRACT
By design, China’s political system of ‘democratic centralism’ makes it relatively easy for the senior leadership to implement policies, as a strong state can shorten the policy formulation–implementation loop. In fact, China’s current political system can be considered a hybrid of Communism and traditional meritocratic thinking, rather than a Western-style division between political and bureaucratic actors. A part of Mao’s pragmatism had always involved the strategic use of ideology to eliminate competitors for power, notably via violent purges. As time progressed, and Mao was pushed towards ‘grand old man’ status within the party leadership, this tendency among the membership increasingly took on a life of its own. While the slogan ‘seek truth from facts’ was first popularised by Mao, it was Deng who used the term to connect Mao’s era with his own, allowing the leadership to ‘de-Mao’ the party without necessarily repudiating everything that Mao had done and stood for.
