Glossary

The Core Socialist Values, first presented in 2006 under the tenure of General Secretary Hu Jintao, were a response to a sense of social crisis caused by China’s growing wealth. The boom economy greased the wheels of corruption while exposing an ever larger number of Chinese to the culture of the Western world. By articulating a set of cultural ideals that all Chinese can aspire to, party leaders hope to rescue Chinese society from the moral vacuum of a marketized economy while inoculating Chinese citizens against liberal ideology.  

The Core Socialist Values are expressed as 12 distinct ideals divided into three overarching categories. First are the national values of prosperity and national strength [富强], democracy [民主], civilized behavior [文明] and harmony [和谐]; second are the social values of freedom [自由], equality [平等], justice [公正] and the rule of law [法治]; third are the the individual values of patriotism [爱国], dedication [敬业], integrity [诚信] and friendship [友善]. This list of words is ubiquitous in modern China, adorning classroom walls, public squares, highway billboards, and the speeches of high officials.

 Party leaders are open about why they must publicly articulate and endorse these values. After affirming that these “Core Socialist Values are the soul of the Chinese nation,” Hu Jintao urged cadres to “use them to guide social trends of thought and forge public consensus,” to “guide the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” to “adapt Marxism to Chinese conditions… and increase [Marxism’s] appeal to the people,” to take “theories of socialism… and make them a way of thinking,” and to “rally the people under the great banner of SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS” (Hu 2012). Implicit in these statements is the admission that Marxist dogma did not have the same moral authority that it once did, that corruption had weakened what moral authority the Party still had, and that to govern effectively the Party must reestablish this authority in a more broadly shared moral sense that could appeal to Chinese of all backgrounds.

Yet fostering the Core Socialist Values is not only a project for changing Chinese perceptions of the Party; it is just as much about changing Chinese perceptions of themselves. As Xi Jinping argued:

Without morals, a country cannot thrive, and its people cannot stand upright. Whether or not a nation or an individual has a strong sense of identity largely depends on their morals. If our people cannot uphold the moral values that have been formed and developed on our own soil, and instead indiscriminately and blindly parrot Western moral values, then it will be necessary to genuinely question whether we will lose our independent ethos as a country and a people. Without this independent ethos, our political, intellectual, cultural and institutional independence will have the rug pulled out from under it (Gow 2017, 11).

This explains why the imagery that accompanies propaganda devoted to the Core Socialist Values is drawn from the paintings, poems, and iconography of pre-socialist China: though words like “justice” and “friendship” transcend national borders, the purpose of the Core Socialist Values is to associate these values with a distinctly Chinese identity. Such an identity, party leaders hope, will fortify the Chinese people from being seduced by corrupting vices at home or subversive strains of thought abroad.  

See also: DISCURSIVE POWER; SOFT BONE DISEASE