World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues
Year : 2014, Volume : 18, Issue : 3
First page : ( 56) Last page : ( 79)
Print ISSN : 0971-8052. Online ISSN : 0974-0937.

“After Dengism”: The Post-Globalist Imperative in Indo–Pacific Relations

Thornton William H, Thornton Songok Han

Online published on 1 November, 2014.

Abstract

The seeming departure of President Xi Jinping from Deng Xiaoping's “pragmatic” moderation owes much to a highly tendentious misrepresentation of Deng's core objectives. For 35 years, Dengism has been viewed through a globalist lens that flatly contrasts it with Maoist authoritarianism. From a post-globalist vantage however, it appears that Deng's reforms reconfi gured rather than ended statist oppression. Dengism was born out of the recognition that capitalism and authoritarianism were fully compatible and together were crucial for the survival of the CCP. “Opening” China was Deng's ironic mechanism for safeguarding against the party's political closure. Western globalism's complicity belied its democratic claims, which mandate a liberal corrective that Xi fears more than any other international contest. What he and other CCP elites dread most is a liberal post-globalisation that could foment a grassroots “China Spring”.

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