Organized Loyalty

This book analyses the ideology that China's leader Xi Jinping has crafted during his decade in power. Chinas political system and domestic and foreign policies have, between 2012 and 2022, become more defined by the political thought of Xi Jinping, the most powerful leader of the Chinese Communist Party since the time of Mao Zedong. Today, Xis China is embroiled in superpower rivalry with the United States and its allies. Therefore, ongoing ideological transformation in the Peoples Republic is destined to have global repercussions. Yet surprisingly, the ideological mission of Xi Jinping is poorly understood. Based on analysis of Xi Jinpings collected speeches, the book argues that Chinas new state ideology is constructed around the three key concepts of loyalty, discipline, and greatness. Xis mission is about ideological re-orientation and re-activation, as well as organizational innovation, seeking to frame Chinas national self as a collective unit under one political banner and one leader. However, despite the monumental Party-state effort to boost the new ideology and state-scripted moral careers, the book contends that Xi Jinping cannot take for granted that political and patriotic loyalty will forever trump the formation of disloyal moral careers in society.