ON the 105th anniversary of the Communist Party of China, the Party has again “articulated” an “ideational” and “normative” framework often described as an “embedded political spirituality” or civic ethos that orients the Party, its members, the citizenry and the state toward enduring values: equality, social justice, rule of law, positive-sum development, productivity, participatory governance, responsiveness, transparency and people-centred public policy. Within this narrative, the CPC is advanced as a “paradigmatic” example of modern governance, combining ideational cohesion with performance-based legitimacy. A historically informed analysis emphasizes that more than a century ago, young revolutionaries crossed snow-capped mountains and vast grasslands, mobilizing dispersed communities in pursuit of national sovereignty, social harmony and self-determination.
This formative experience later institutionalized as the Long March spirit became closely associated with the second centenary goal of national rejuvenation and popular well-being. It gradually consolidated a distinctive governance architecture characterized by people-centric policy design, intra-party discipline, accountability, transparency, grassroots consultative mechanisms and coordinated political participation. This is frequently framed as a new form of democracy or whole-process people’s democracy, one that remains adaptive, consultative and solution-oriented.
Analytically, the Party’s early revolutionary determination supplied the ideational capital for subsequent state-building. It evolved into a national discourse of construction and sustainable development, structural reform and opening-up, poverty eradication and scientific-technological innovation. In economic terms, this approximates a developmental-state model: state capacity, industrial policy, infrastructure investment and human capital formation are deployed to achieve economic resilience, technological upgrading and social protection. Chinese socialism, in this framing, guarantees fundamental human rights and basic necessities while grounding legitimacy in tangible improvements in living standards and human development.
The legacy of the Long March has also been re-signified as a normative resource for contemporary governance. It informs rural revitalization, women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming, respect for the elderly, ethnic pluralism and ecological stewardship. These priorities project a multicultural polity with strong social capital, intergenerational solidarity and a humanistic orientation toward public service. In social-science terms, the Party’s mass-line tradition functions as a mechanism of political socialization, grievance absorption and social cohesion transforming local discontent into policy feedback and developmental outcomes.
Moreover, the practice of traveling among communities and engaging citizens directly a form of social therapy rooted in the mass-line tradition conveyed values of sacrifice, public duty and responsiveness. It has helped consolidate a people-centred leadership model that contributes to social harmony, economic stability and political learning. By converting grievances and deprivations into programs for poverty reduction, infrastructure delivery and productivity enhancement, this model is portrayed as generating measurable gains in human welfare and social inclusion. Institutionally, the CPC has developed a governance system that combines centralized strategic planning with provincial and local execution an arrangement reflecting democratic centralism, multi-level governance and subsidiarity.
This facilitates public service delivery at the grassroots, encourages policy experimentation and enables citizens to realize qualitative improvements in livelihood. In political-science terms, it illustrates a hybrid of input legitimacy through consultative processes and output legitimacy through performance delivery, underpinned by state capacity and institutional adaptability. From an international relations and diplomatic perspective, this domestic governance narrative also informs China’s external engagement. It supports public diplomacy and soft-power strategies that emphasize sovereignty, strategic autonomy, peaceful development, South-South cooperation and global governance reform. The Party’s historical struggle is reframed as part of a broader narrative of national rejuvenation, anti-colonial self-determination and the pursuit of a more inclusive international order often articulated through concepts such as a community with a shared future for mankind.
Thus, in official discourse and sympathetic scholarship, the CPC is depicted not merely as a political organization but as an adaptive governance institution whose revolutionary origins, normative discipline, mass-line methods and centralized local coordination have underpinned sustained poverty reduction, economic modernization, social integration and a distinctive model of people-centred development. It seems that the President Thought of the building of Party has revolutionized these initial but foundational concepts into doable modern socio-economic policies, effective political manifestations and productive channels, forming the second largest economy of the world achieving numerous economic miracles and industrial wonders in the modern economics arena.
Thus, the President Xi’s Thought has become a “divine” book of economic development, exports diversity, national determination, qualitative industrialization and socio-politico harmony, gearing towards rigorous modernization, digitalization, AI, green & quantum technologies, robotic sciences, science & space exploration and economic diversity. Comparative studies reveal that after reforms and openness in 1978 successfully initiated massive industrialization in the country helping building of special economic zones, persuasion of the balanced rural & urban development, formation of the world’s largest education, health, housing and public insurance systems cementing their hopes for achieving dreams of a qualitative life.
Definitely, these are not fairy tales but real life experiences creating befitting propositions for the state, system and society alike. Moreover, these are not vague ideas written in books, but rather the spiritual strength gained by the CPC in facing difficulties and challenges in the 104 years providing a driving force for the party’s governance, the country’s development and the people’s prosperity. In summary, right from Greek Walled City Model of Governance to the Roman Political & Social Equilibrium Model, Persian Centralized Monarchy the Communist Party of China formed a unique model of governance which was based on people’s centric policies, centralized leadership, gross-root consultative & coordinated democracy, development, rule of the law and above all imprint of Xi’s Thought of building the Party.
—The writer is President, the Centre for Knowledge and Public Policy, Regional Expert: China, CPEC, BRI & World Affairs.
