From Suffering to Sovereignty: The Historical Process used to Justify CCP Legitimacy

How does the CCP use history to justify the continuation of their one-party rule to their students?

Francis Fukuyama in his article The End of History? (1989) declared the “unabashed victory of economic and political social liberalism [...] The triumph of the West, of the Western idea [...].” He wrote at a time when the Soviet Union was weakening. In his discussion of China, a Communist nation that seemed to be thriving given an incredible 11% growth in GDP per annum in 1987 and 1988, he argued that the “pull of the liberal idea continues to be very strong,” evidenced by the “20,000 Chinese students studying in the US and other Western countries.” He concluded that, it is “hard to believe that when they return home to run the country, they will be content for China to be the only country in Asia unaffected by the larger democratising trend.” And he was right. While he was writing the article in 1989, student protests calling for democratisation occurred in Tiananmen Square. After the uprising was crushed, the CCP continued to thrive despite becoming more dictatorial, with Xi Jinping becoming “president for life” when he removed the two-term limit in 2018.

This essay argues that the reason the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to maintain control, foster legitimacy and national unity is, partly due to its effort to build on a distinct historical narrative. Focusing on the CCP’s narrative use of the ‘Century of Humiliation’ from 1839 to 1949, this essay argues that the CCP has formed a story of victimhood and suffering and applied it through a Marxist-historicist lens to present itself as the culmination of China’s struggles against internal and foreign oppression. By understanding the history used by the CCP to justify their rule, this essay will contend that it is through this sense of historical process culminating in the CCP’s founding in 1921 and victory in 1949 that the CCP communicates its role as the rulers of historical destiny.

Essay:

A survey was held between June and July of 2020 (during the COVID-19 Pandemic) by Doctor Ho Wing-Chung, a sociologist at the City University of Hong Kong, in collaboration with a third-party think tank in Beijing with networks to universities in 31 regions in China. Three questions were created to measure “political trust”: “China’s centralised strategy to ‘mobilise all means to deal with big issues’ is advantageous”; “The government has the right to expropriate personal property in case of epidemic emergency”; and “The government has the right to use and disclose people’s personal information during the epidemic outbreak” Of these, a majority “agreed all along,” but more significantly an even higher majority “agreed less before, but agree more strongly now.” This survey underscores a rise in trust for the CCP despite its dictatorial government which became more evident to its people at this time, with the imposition of the strictest and most extensive lockdowns worldwide. Thus arises the question: how does a dictatorial state justify itself to the youth in an era of liberal democracies? And the argument is made that the answer lies in CCP conviction that via history education, “students can establish a correct view of nation, country and culture, enhance their sense of responsibility and social responsibility and become socialist builders.” The CCP’s use of history echoes what R.G. Collingwood suggested “What the Philosophy of History Is Not”. Specifically, Collingwood mocked a CCP-style approach because they see, "history as the unfolding of a cosmic drama[...]conceived as the deciphering of a plan which is working itself out in the historical process.” The CCP produces a historical process laying ‘cosmically’ outside of human control. The CCP is thus able, according to Fred Eidlin, become the “natural fulfillment of the nation state’s history." Akin to the “cyclical story of victimhood” of Timothy Snyder’s “Politics of Eternity,” the CCP concludes that this historical process was caused by the perpetual suffering of the Chinese people and nation under imperialism, warlordism, capitalism and feudalism. Framing it within the ‘Century of Humiliation’ from 1839 to 1949, this suffering resulted in a Marxist “class struggle,” which drove the historical process. Thus, the answer as to how the CCP uses history – or misuses - to add legitimacy to its needs is through a “cosmic drama” in which it is the “natural fulfillment of the nation-state's history.”

The Chinese history that the CCP teaches is foremost a narrative of victimhood: that the Chinese people and nation had been suffering for the last century. According to Doctor Zheng Wang, a Professor in the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, “the official Maoist ‘victor narrative’ was superseded by a new ‘victimisation narrative.’ ‘China as a victor” has slowly been replaced by ‘China as a victim’ in nationalist discourse.” This aligns with the “Politics of Eternity”, which Timothy Snyder wrote about in The Road to Unfreedom (2018). The politics of eternity comes from the failures of the “Politics of Inevitability[...] that the future was just more of the present[...]”, what Zheng Wang identifies as the “victor narrative.” Snyder argues that the failure of the Politics of Inevitability, “ushers in another experience of time, the politics of eternity[...] plac[ing] one nation at the centre of a cyclical story of victimhood.” The Chinese historical narrative has clearly gone down this path as evident in its new “victimisation narrative,” present throughout the entirety of the 1839-1949 period . This narrative can be identified in the compulsory education textbooks introduced in 2018, as well as in museums and sites designated “National Patriotic Education Demonstration Bases,” by the CCP. All Chinese students are, therefore, exposed to this victim narrative. By analysing these and how they corroborate to form one history, China’s narrative and the CCP’s role in fulfilling the mandate of the “cosmic drama” becomes evident, as does the way in which this conception of history lends legitimacy.

The CCP's Outline of Modern Chinese History (textbook), published by members of the CCP’s People's Education Press as well as patriotic education museums which discuss the ‘Century of Humiliation’ in their history education programs have a sole purpose of exposing the suffering of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation to construct their cyclical narrative of victimhood during this period. In the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress (Memorial Hall), the nature of suffering and victimhood is introduced. The Memorial Hall claims on an expositional plaque that China by the mid-19th Century had a “downtrodden fate”, with the Chinese people suffering, “under the triple weight of plundering Western imperialists, exploitative capitalism and corrupt warlords from day one.” This “triple weight” is the core factor which the narrative of victimhood is built on. They appear consistently as causes of suffering throughout the narrative in both the textbook and Memorial Hall, paralleling the cyclical story of victimhood. In addition, the CCP constantly uses the term “feudalism,” which acts as a negative term generally referring to anything oppressive and not Communist. Both the textbook and the Memorial Hall constantly repeat phrases such as “descent into semi-feudal society,” and, "oppressed by corrupt feudal warlords" following events such as the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 and the end of discussions of a period like the Warlord Period to hark towards the continuation of the victim narrative. The suffering caused by the “imperialists” factor comes in multiple forms. Massacres are one form, such as the Port Arthur Massacre in 1894 and the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 which are displayed in the museum through images and explained in the textbook. The casualties for both, according to the textbook, are 20,000 and 300,000, respectively. These numbers are, in fact, CCP estimates which are the highest of both events, clearly to inflate the suffering and form a stronger victim narrative. Imperial suffering also comes with the factors of robbery and exploitation to further claim the victimisation. The Memorial Hall calls this period of history “The Invasion and Plunder of China,” with the textbook once again corroborating this with examples such as the razing of the Summer Palace in 1860 by “Britain and France carry[ing] out a massive robbery,” of an “innumerable collection of art, treasures and books.” Exploitation through imperialism is also a central feature of accounts of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, underscoring the cyclical nature of Chinese suffering, with the textbook claiming that the Chinese people lived as "slaves in a conquered nation.” Before warlordism was destroyed in 1928, imperialism and warlord oppression became inextricably linked, creating the same suffering in their victim narrative during the Beiyang Warlord Era. The Memorial Hall calls this period “one of the darkest times in China's modern history.” The textbook elaborates that this was due to Yuan Shikai's acceptance of "most of the contents of Japan's ‘Twenty-One Demands’ aimed at destroying China” and the corruption of the warlords who “did not hesitate to sell out national interests and rely on imperialism.” Capitalism becomes the third factor which the CCP uses to expand the narrative of victimhood, with the Qing Dynasty's attempts to modernise and adopt capitalism, “not set[ting] China on a path to prosperity,” as a result of the modernisation's "fundamental purpose,” which, according to the textbook, “was to maintain and consolidate the Qing government's rule, coupled with its internal corruption and foreign squeeze.” The CCP narrative of Chinese victimhood due to capitalism cycles again under the Kuomintang (KMT). The textbook discusses how Chinese workers and Communists specifically were “bloodily suppressed,” under the capitalist KMT having, “openly clamoured it is better to kill thousands of people in vain than to let one person [Communist] escape the net.” KMT capitalist rule also resulted, according to the Memorial Hall, in “bureaucratic capital expand[ing], national industry and commerce were severely damaged, and hyperinflation caused prices to soar,” leaving people “of all classes... on the verge of being unable to survive,” establishing a strong narrative of victimhood as a result of capitalism. KMT war efforts are also used to paint a narrative of victimhood wherein the breaking of the Yellow River dikes which, “drowned and starved more than 893,000 people, more than 3.91 million people fled their homes, and more than 29.943 million mu (1996200 hectares) of cultivated land were submerged.” Once again, the statistics are the highest estimates, exposing the CCP’s attempts to inflate the sense of victim need. It is therefore evident that the historical narrative presented by the CCP in its education system is inherently one of victimisation as their history has a complete focus upon the suffering imposed from the “triple weight” of imperialism, warlordism, capitalism and feudalism.

Having established the narrative of victimhood, the CCP is able to justify suffering as the cause of the historical process in the CCP’s historical narrative in the education system. By making the CCP the result of this historical process is ultimately how they use history in education to become the “natural fulfillment of the nation-state's history.” The CCP admits to using its historical narrative to generalise a historical process. Their syllabus states, “class struggles are the direct driving force of historical development.” Marx theorised in his 1848 The Communist Manifesto that “the whole history of mankind[...]has been a history of class struggles.” Throughout the CCP’s history, Marxist class struggle is evident. The initial founding of the CCP in their history has parallels to it as the Memorial Hall claims that "Marxists in China gradually realised the dire necessity and urgency of establishing a proletarian party,” as a result of the “sweeping awareness campaigns” such as May Fourth which saw the “unprecedented enlightenment of the Chinese public[...] in the fight against Western imperialism and the feudal establishment at home.” Both imperialism and feudalism are part of the class struggle. Imperialism was denounced as the “monopoly stage of capitalism” by Lenin in Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917) , and feudalism was something that Marx said, “had to be burst asunder,” in The Communist Manifesto (1848). The Memorial Hall’s account of struggle is corroborated in the textbook, with the May Fourth Movement being seen as a “revolutionary movement against imperialism and feudalism.” This ultimately develops a history in which the founding of the CCP as the “natural fulfillment of the nation-state's history” in their history. The claim is made in the Memorial Hall that the foundation of the CCP was “a natural consequence to the evolutionary history of modern China and the protracted struggle and practice of the Chinese people in pursuing national liberation and rejuvenation.” The textbook corroborates this, recounting that, “The birth of the CCP was not accidental, but was in response to the objective needs of China’s social progress and revolutionary development in modern times and is the inevitable result of modern historical choices.” This reveals how the founding of the CCP was an “inevitable result,” of the Marxist class struggle against the established victimhood, making their formation “a natural fulfillment of the nation-state’s history.”

The CCP’s victory in 1949 also comes off the back of the Marxist "cosmic drama” with a “plan working itself out in the historical process.” With the already established suffering of the Chinese classes under the capitalist KMT, the CCP, however, understood that “If you walk on the right path, you won’t be afraid of the vicissitudes of life,” as written in the refurbished house of Liu Changsheng, an underground Communist who operated in Shanghai. This claim is backed by the presentation of their liberation of Shanghai as preservative, presenting a field order for Shanghai to be liberated “intact.” They assert that they achieved this “miracle” as following the “liberation of Shanghai, industry and commerce operated normally, and citizens’ lives were in order.” The CCP’s war is herein painted as a Marxist class struggle, as they actively liberated the oppressed Chinese classes from the suffering of capitalist KMT rule. As a result of their upholding of the Marxist class struggle, their victory is an inevitable result of the “cosmic drama.” This is reflected in the textbook, as the Chinese people turned to the CCP’s side with acts such as Communist land reform stimulating, “the enthusiasm of the peasants for revolution[...]who enthusiastically joined the army and fought, providing important human and material resources for the victory of the People’s Liberation War.” The Memorial Hall provides evidence of the Chinese people on the side of the CCP with statistics such as the 305,000 carrying poles and 881,000 vehicles and a worker’s ballad: “A carrying pole with two bent ends, coming from thousand miles away to support the front. One end carried flour, the other carried shells. Give flour to the comrades to eat and send shells to beat the enemy,” to provide a sense of their mass support during the Civil War and paint the CCP as the consequence of the historical process stemming from the struggle against oppression. As a result, the final victory of the CCP is narrativised as pre-determined as a result of their actions of fighting against the oppressors of the Chinese people in the Marxist class struggle.

The ultimate purpose of creating a “cosmic drama” and becoming “the natural fulfillment of the nation-state's history,” is, in the case of the CCP, to justify the continuation of their dictatorial one- party rule in a world of many politically free liberal democracies. According to Xinhua News Agency, the official state news of China, in a 2019 article discussing new policy for patriotic education “in the New Era”, “Patriotism” is defined as “the national heart and soul of the Chinese nation, the most important spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation, and a powerful spiritual driving force for the Chinese people and the Chinese nation to safeguard national independence and national dignity.” As the “CCP is the most determined promoter and practitioner of the spirit of patriotism,” patriotism is identified as the most important means to justify their rule. If their history education system succeeds in inducing patriotism, then the CCP believes its continued reign is justified in the eyes of its citizens. In a study of posts that critiqued the Outline of Modern Chinese History textbooks on the popular Chinese social media app, Weibo, written by Isabella Jackson and Siyi Du, members of the history department in Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, found that 71% of posts that showed clear binary views (i.e. clear positive/negative) on Weibo accepted much of the historical narrative taught in the education system. Posts quoted in their paper included: “It is enough for me to feel angry and sad, to have teary eyes, and to be sensitive while revising the Outline of Modern History. Study of the rise of China!” Only 5% of the overall results expressed negative opinions about the textbook, including one calling it “shamelessly compiled”, rating it “a negative infinity score for the level of ass-kissing” An interview with a Chinese school student visiting the Memorial Hall. In response to the question: “What are your thoughts after going through this museum?” she said, “I feel very shocked and more patriotic and more loving of the country. For China to be where it is today, it required the hardship and sacrifice of pioneers. They paved a road to our good life. I further cherish life in China.” The author’s mother, who was born in China, educated in China, and only moved to Australia in 2010, also made a comment on the same question. She said, “I feel proud and lucky to be Chinese and it felt like tears were welling up in my eyes. All of a sudden, I feel like I love the country more and cherish my life and birth in China.” The CCP effectively produces a sense of patriotism among not only students but also adults. As the CCP sees patriotism as the most important factor in justifying its rule, it is unsurprising that history should be the means by which the CCP seeks to elevate patriotism.

History thus becomes a key factor in justifying the continuation of the CCP’s dictatorial one-party rule to its people through the education system. By painting a narrative of cyclical victimhood, Snyder’s Politics of Eternity, through the official textbook and museums, the CCP indulges in what Collingwood mocked as seeing “history as the unfolding of a cosmic drama,” using their narrative of victimhood to demonstrate the “deciphering of a plan which is working itself out in the historical process.” The CCP, therefore, becomes the “natural fulfillment of the nation-state's history” from a century of Marxist historical process.

Appendix A:

Bibliography:

Books:

Collingwood R.G. “The Nature and Aims of a Philosophy of History,” Essays in the Philosophy of History (Read Books Ltd, 2017).

Department of Education of the People’s Republic of China, General High School History Course Standard,

2020 rev. ed., (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 2017).

Qi Shirong, Outline of Modern Chinese History: Textbook 3, (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 2018). Snyder Timothy, The Road to Unfreedom, (Tim Duggan Books, 2018).

 

Journal Articles:

Eidlin Fred, “Diskussion: Uses of History for Political Legitimation by Communist Regimes: Some Reflections on Eva Schmidt-Hartmann's Article,” Bohemia, Vol.30, No. 1 (1995), 135-138.

Fukuyama Francis, “The End of History?” The National Interest, no.16 (1989), 3- 18.

Jackson Isabella, Du Siyi, “The Impact of History Textbooks on Young Chinese People’s Understanding of the Past: A Social Media Analysis,” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 51(2), (2022), 194-218.

Lary Diana, "Drowned Earth: The Strategic Breaching of the Yellow River Dyke, 1938". War in History, 8(2), 191-207.

Ma Xiaofang, “A comparative study on the selection of new characters in Chinese primary school textbooks

in mainland China and the Taiwan region,” Heliyon 10(20), (2024).

Wang Zheng, “National Humiliation, History Education, and the Politics of Historical Memory: Patriotic Education Campaign in China,” International Studies Ǫuarterly 52(4), (2008), 783-806.

Wing-Chung Ho, “The Surge of Nationalist Sentiment among Chinese Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic”,

China: An International Journal 20(4),1-22.

 

 

Museums:

Liu Changsheng Former Residence, Shanghai, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%88%98%E9%95%BF%E8%83%9C%E6%95%85%E5%B1%85/7827236,   Author visit: 12th January 2025.

Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Shanghai, https://www.zgyd1921.com/en/introduction.html, Author visit: 15th January 2025

 

Interviews:

Anonymous Student, Interview Conducted by: Jacob Mao, January 15th, 2025 Miao Ada, Interview Conducted by: Jacob Mao, January 15th, 2025

 

Websites:

Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, “The CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Outline for the Implementation of Patriotic Education in the New Era,” (12th November 2019) https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2019-11/12/content_5451352.htm.

“GDP growth (annual %) - China,” World Bank Group, (1961-2023) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=CN.

Kuang Wing, “How China’s patriotic education became one of the ‘longest successful propaganda campaigns,’ ABC News, (5th July 2021), https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-05/ccp-patriotic-education- young-people-in-australia/100260298.

Lenin Vladimir, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Marxist Internet Archive, [Accessed: 14th February 2025] https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/imperialism.pdf

Marx Karl, “Manifesto of the Communist Party” (1848), Marxists Internet Archive, [Accessed: 14th February 2025] https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/preface.htm.

McDonell Stephen, “China’s Xi allowed to remain ‘president for life’ as term limits removed,” BBC, (11th March 2018), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43361276.

Qizhang Qi, “Reexamination of the Truth of the Port Arthur Massacre,” Dongyue Tribune: Issue 1 (2001), http://www.qinghistory.cn/qsyj/ztyj/zwgx/2006-06-27/25610.shtml

Yuan Dongquan, Zhai Yuxia, Zhao Huanlin, Yin Huai, Zhu Jihua, Shu Jianmin, Zhu Chengshan, “Documents of Nanjing Massacre,” UNESCO (2014), https://media.unesco.org/sites/default/files/webform/mow001/china_nanjing_en.pdf

Author: Jacob Mao