Thinking About China
Opinion

Xi Jinping’s Revolution vs. Mao’s Cultural Revolution

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Xi Jinping’s Revolution vs. Mao’s Cultural Revolution
Military delegates from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) walk towards the Great Hall of the People for a plenary meeting of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 4, 2014. Feng Li/Getty Images
Stu Cvrk
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Commentary

Xi Jinping is orchestrating a deliberate, decade-long, multi-domain campaign of ideological and political reconsolidation, drawing conscious inspiration from Mao Zedong’s methods while adapting them to a modern surveillance state. The comparison is imperfect but illuminating, and the trend lines are unmistakably moving in one direction—tighter, deeper, and more permanent.

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Stu Cvrk
Stu Cvrk
Author
Stu Cvrk retired as a captain after serving 30 years in the U.S. Navy in a variety of active and reserve capacities, with considerable operational experience in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. Through education and experience as an oceanographer and systems analyst, Cvrk is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received a classical liberal education that serves as the key foundation for his political commentary.