ABSTRACT
The left-leaning leaders of China groomed Nanjie village of Henan province into a model of Maoist recollectivization in the early 1990s. Thanks to their patronage, Nanjie became the country’s first ‘red billionaire village’. As the village became rich, the local leaders joined the Party’s Left to criticize the Party for betraying socialism. Nanjie’s reputation plummeted in the 2000s under the effect of local scandals and new national policies. Nonetheless, the princelings and Maoists defended Nanjie as a genuine socialist model, in order to assert themselves as the true heirs of the Party. It was not until Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 that Nanjie was rebranded as a party model or a model that is compliant with the party line.
