The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has launched a new research institution aimed at studying and disseminating the economic thought of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
According to state news agency Xinhua, the “Xi Jinping Economic Thought Research Centre” (习近平经济思想研究中心) was inaugurated on July 5, when the National Development and Reform Commission convened the first plenary committee meeting of the new institution’s general assembly and council.
The committee stated that “Xi Jinping Economic Thought is an important component of socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era” (近平经济思想是习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的重要组成部分), emphasizing the Research Centre’s “great significance and glorious mission” (意义重大、使命光荣).
The Research Centre was described as “an important medium for conducting thorough studies, an important think tank for systematic research, an important platform for carrying out propaganda” (进行深入学习的重要载体、系统研究的重要智库、宣传贯彻的重要平台).
The committee further stressed the political nature of the Centre:
“We must put politics first, adhere to the correct political path, ceaselessly improve political judgement, political understanding and political implementation, making sure that every task is accomplished along the correct path” (要把讲政治作为第一要求，坚持正确政治方向，不断提高政治判断力、政治领悟力、政治执行力，确保各项工作沿着正确的方向前进).
The committee did not elaborate on the details of Xi’s “Economic Thought”.
Since taking office in 2013 Xi Jinping has amassed more power than any leader in the post-Mao era. He has tightened the regime’s grip on society by implementing strict censorship and emphasizing absolute loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The “Xi Jinping Economic Thought Research Centre” is the third centre of its kind after the “Research Centre on Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy” and the “Research Centre on Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law”.
Read: Xi Jinping Lays Out Totalitarian Vision For China on Communist Party’s 100th Anniversary
The deterioration of China’s media freedom in the Xi Jinping era
If you enjoyed this content, please consider supporting me with a donation on Ko-fi. I couldn’t do this without your support. Thank you!
Alternatively, you can check out some of my books and affiliate links below:
- Breeze of a Spring Evening and Other Stories, by Yu Dafu.
- Rags or Riches. A Hong Kong Novel, by Aris Teon.
- Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, by Patricia Buckley Ebrey.
- The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China, by Dieter Kuhn.
- The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, by Jisheng Yang.
- Craven A and other Stories, by Mu Shiying.
- The Adventure of Urashima Taro , by Aris Teon
- We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State, by Kai Strittmatter.
- How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century, by Frank Dikötter.
- The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century, by Jonathan E. Hillman.
- The Oil Vendor and the Queen of Flowers, by Feng Menglong.
- The Invention of China, by Bill Hayton.
- Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping, by Klaus Mühlhahn.
- The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State, by Elizabeth C. Economy.
china-journal.org 