First introduced by Xi Jinping at the third session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on January 8, 2024, these nine principles are meant to encapsulate the basic means toward “self-revolution within the Party” (党的自我革命), a phrase closely linked with the fight against corruption, but ultimately exposing Xi’s anti-corruption efforts as fundamentally about the preservation o…

“Going into battle lightly equipped” is a metaphor frequently employed by Hong Kong’s political leaders and state media in the lead-up to new national security legislation known as Article 23 in early 2024. It represents the promise that further curbs on local freedoms will empower authorities to revitalize the territory’s anemic economy, which has been on the ropes since the national security …

First introduced in the 1990s by Jiang Zemin as a means of asserting the imperative of Chinese Communist Party control over public opinion through active constraint of media and culture more broadly, this phrase asserts that the CCP’s control of ideas equals prosperity for China while its loss of control equals chaos. It has been applied in varying forms under Jiang’s successors, including by Xi Jinping since 2016.