Decoding Chinese Politispeak

In China, political discourse is ample, yet often elusive. News reports and policy documents are dense with slogans and repetition. Despite this, the system also often speaks through silence. And that silence fuels questions.

What should one look for when trying to understand China’s political language? Can anything be understood from the stodgy language of Party-state media. Can the omission of a phrase from a communiqué be mere coincidence or does it have deeper meaning? This isn’t just about decoding propaganda; it’s about understanding how contestation, consensus, and control take shape in a system that rarely shows its hand.

In this episode of The Great Power Show, I speak to Katja Drinhausen, who heads the Chinese Politics & Society research program at the Mercator Institute of China Studies or MERICS in Germany. Katja is one of the most astute observers of the politics of the Communist Party of China.

I ask her to help us navigate Chinese politispeak, and its implications for China and the world. We also deliberate the concept of ideology. Is it really making a comeback in China? Or is ideology less a driver of policy and more a reflection of it? As Xi Jinping revives the language of struggle, what are we really witnessing?

And finally, we look outward, at how China tells its story to the world. From wolf warrior diplomacy to the push to “tell China’s story well,” we examine the institutions and impulses that shape Beijing’s external messaging. What’s the story China wants the world to believe? And is anyone buying it?

About: The Great Power Show is a bi-weekly podcast featuring candid conversations and thought-provoking interviews with leading scholars, thinkers and practitioners on the geopolitical and geo-economic changes shaping our world.