Representation as the Centerpiece of the Contemporary Chinese Regime

There are multiple reasons to believe that it is meaningless, or at least unjustified, to align the term ‘representation’ with the contemporary Chinese regime. The former usually entails credible election and mandate from the people, while the latter is considered either as authoritarian or totalitarian. It seems that, in order for them to be compatible with each other, both the concept ‘representation’ and the people have to be understood differently. “Representation as embodiment” is a prominent option, as indicated by many scholars. This concept of representation, if to be used on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s rule over China, has an obvious ‘totalitarian’ connotation, as it also does in the context of Nazi Germany. However, the ruling party’s first self-conscious presentation of itself as ‘the representative’ of the Chinese people—in the “Three Represents” propaganda—happened in the year 2000, way beyond the hype-Maoist Cultural Revolution era, and almost twenty years into the more or less ‘liberal’ Open and Reform policy implementation. As a matter of fact, only by peeling off part of its Marxist, totalitarian, outfit could the party perceive itself as the ‘representative’ of the Chinese people. This article argues that the metamorphosis of the meaning of political representation here is the key to understand the post-Cultural Revolution Chinese regime.