Last year, I outlined a framework on “self-revolution”, treating it as Xi and the CCP's ideological doctrine, governance mode, and constraints.

Interesting to see similar lines of analysis appearing recently in a Foreign Affairs article, Xi’s Forever Purge: The Real Goal Behind China’s “Self-Revolution”.

For reference, here’s a condensed version of how I approached it:

For Xi, purge is good. As John Garnaut argued in his 2017 speech Engineers of the Soul, CCP revolutionaries saw the purge as the antidote to the calcification and putrefaction that had destroyed every previous dynasty.

Xi enshrined it as “self-revolution” and canonized it as the second answer to reforge the Party and break the cycle of history.

Xi’s rectification reflects a coherent logic of control, rooted in historical practice, political necessity, and strategic calculation. He treats purge and forge as a recurring mode of governance that can be traced back to Mao's Yan’an Rectification Movement.

The current developments reveal the adaptations, constraints, and inherent vulnerabilities of elite politics evolving under continuous purge. Under high-pressure governance, bureaucracies easily fall into stagnation, vacillation, and paralysis.

Success is never guaranteed, failure is not inevitable, and it might not be a break of the historic cycle, since the brutal struggle was a staple of China’s imperial dynasties.