Xi Jinping dusts off Mao Zedong's manual for 21st century China

In China, President Xi Jinping’s word is like an engine that immediately activates the gigantic propaganda machine. The latest fashionable concept in Beijing is that of “the new productive forces.” An idea with echoes of the past, directly connected to Mao Zedong’s socialist script, but launched to navigate the technological waters of the future: it is linked to the new engines of growth, to advances in science and technology, to emerging industries . The term, launched at the end of 2023, has been repeated ad nauseam these weeks of intense political activity; It has filled the front pages of the highly controlled state press and filled the mouths of the Communist Party cadres who wandered through the Great Hall of the People during the plenary session of the National Popular Assembly. At the moment it is somewhat ethereal, although several analysts consulted predict that it will set the political guidelines of the second economic power on the planet.

“The new productive forces mean advanced productivity freed from traditional models of economic growth,” defined the top leader. “Xi believes that to develop new quality productive forces, it is imperative to deepen reforms to promote innovation in science and technology,” reported the official Xinhua agency in an extensive hagiographic profile about the president published this week. “Born and raised in Chinese society, these new forces draw on China’s stellar achievements in pioneering scientific research, seamless coordination and green initiatives,” read another article in recent days with the usual bombastic tone.

Prime Minister Li Qiang also referred to them in the Government’s work report presented last week at the opening of the plenary session of the Chinese Legislature. Among the “master lines” for 2024, the first: “Strive to modernize the industrial system and develop new quality productive forces at a faster pace.” The intention, he added, is to “promote a new leap forward,” as he said, using an expression reminiscent of the Great Leap Forwardthe policy that Mao launched in 1958 to turn China into an industrial power in record time, but which ended in catastrophe.

First of all, the classic definition: the productive forces “are the means of production and the man who, endowed with knowledge, productive experience and work habits, makes them work” (Dictionary of Political Economy, Progreso Moscow Publishing House, printed in the USSR, 1985). That of “new productive forces,” adds Max Zenglein, chief economist of the think tank Merics, “it’s a Mao term [Zedong]. “It’s something the Communist Party has used for a long time.” What Xi has done, he adds, is to give it “a new twist” and accommodate it to the “new technological approach that he has prioritized.” If for Mao it was about moving from agriculture to industries such as steel, the current concept reflects that, for Beijing, technology is the big bet, says Zenglein.

With the growth of the Asian giant in a slowing phase, and far from the meteoric figures of previous decades, the mantra of recent years has focused on accelerating the reconversion towards leading industries. Beijing seeks to increase the cachet of its exports, moving from cheap manufacturing to an economic model driven by sectors ranging from electric cars and solar panels to artificial intelligence. The shift also suggests a prolonged commercial, technological and geopolitical battle with the West, in the style of what has happened with the recent challenge from the United States, which threatens to ban the Chinese application TikTok, or the European Union’s investigation into subsidies. to the Chinese production of new energy automobiles.

Often, concepts like this are aired as part of “propaganda,” and are nothing more than the way a policy is enunciated and little else, says Cory Combs of the analyst house Trivium. “But in this case,” he continues, “he’s saying something substantive.” “In part, Xi is trying to really signal to the bureaucracy that it has to change its approach to economic planning.” If high-quality development is “the ultimate goal,” what this new premise indicates is that technological and industrial innovation cannot advance slowly. It is no longer “a simple policy”, but “a fundamental theory of Government”, in which “the State has to be involved” and “make sure it happens”. The message, according to Combs: “This is our industrial policy priority. Get in line effectively.”

In a country where Xi’s thought is inscribed in the Constitution, studied from childhood to university and composes a doctrinal body to which everyone owes maximum obedience, theorists have already begun to unravel the profound meaning of the “new forces.” productive.” The concept “inherits the basic visions of Marxism and gives it new connotations of our time. It is an important theoretical innovation,” Chen Yuehua and Li Qinghong, doctoral students at the School of Marxism at Southeast University and Wuhan University, respectively, pointed out in a recent article. “As Chinese modernization advances, the meaning of science and technology is no longer limited to traditional industry,” they added in a text published in Xinhua Dailynewspaper from the province of Jiangsu, which looks back at the different Chinese leaders, and their vision of the productive forces, from Mao to Xi.

The delegates that make up the Assembly, a legislature without true supervisory power and subject to Party control, were completely in favor of politics these days. “I think it is the line we must follow to move towards innovation,” said Gou Xinglong, representative of the province of Sichuan, last Monday in the lobby of the Great Hall of the People in the minutes before the closing of the sessions. In his opinion, it is a “very original” concept. “The new productive forces have been very present in the discussions these days,” added Tan Lin, member of the Assembly’s Standing Committee. “In the new era, it is necessary to improve our technological capacity and commit to research and development,” she insisted. According to his vision, “the new generations will play an indispensable role in achieving high-quality development of the country. “They have grown up in a digital environment and learn new technologies very quickly, which is why they are a key population segment,” he added before addressing the chamber, in one of the rare moments in which the press can address members of the legislature and ask directly. Although none of the answers went off script.

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