Rationale for Slogan Politics

Abstract

This chapter studies different forms of slogans politics in the eras of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping. It shows not only how the slogans can be deployed by top leaders to test loyalty of political actors, but also how those actors can manipulate the slogan by using a series of tactics including (a) crafting and promoting alternative slogans to compete with it, (b) using the slogan’s owner’s other slogans to go against it, (c) re-interpreting this slogan by inserting a new agenda, and (d) highlighting one element of the slogan while downplaying others to distort the slogan. This chapter also discusses the role of the Chinese intellectual and policy community in contemporary Chinese slogan politics and the state mechanism that steers intellectual participation in policy discussion. While this intellectual participation helps to inform policymakers, it often produces a variety of interpretations and narratives that cannot be fully regulated by the state.