“Make the past serve the present”: cultural confidence and Chinese nationalism in Xi Jinping thought

For nearly a decade, Chinese president Xi Jinping has appeared to be a paradox. On the one hand he attempted to restore legitimacy to the Communist Party’s Marxist and Maoist foundations and has celebrated the Party’s role in modernizing China. On the other hand, Xi has overseen the strongest push the CPC has ever made to revive traditional culture as a critical element of Chinese national identity and to link the Party to China’s millennia of history. This dual effort to promote modernization and traditionalism, however, is not as self-contradictory as it might seem; it is instead a consequence of the Party’s recent decision to embrace cultural nationalism unreservedly. By portraying the Party’s own legacy as the fulfillment of China’s long search for identity and sovereignty, Xi can claim a historical and cultural mandate for the CPC’s crackdown on dissent at home and its new ambitions abroad.