"For this reason alone, the most likely outcome of which is a much stronger, more legitimate, and more effective CCP and government at all levels."
Chen Dingding, an assistant professor of Government and Public Administration at the University of Macau, wrote that the belief that an economic slowdown will lead to political disruption is based on the belief that the Chinese government's legitimacy relies solely on economic performance.
"Unfortunately this assumption, though widely held among scholars, is no longer true. Economic growth is certainly important for most Chinese people, but education, the environment, corruption, and legal justice matter just as much as growth. As long as the Chinese government seriously tackles problems in those areas, support for the CCP will remain high," he wrote in The National Interest magazine.
Many Westerners have predicted China's collapse because they don't understand how China's political system works, thinking that only their system is democratic.
But Xie Chuntao, director of the Party History Teaching and Research Department at the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, says democracy has different expressions in different countries and regions with different cultures, traditions and levels of social development. For example, the UK's EU referendum is democratic because the decision to leave the EU was made not by the governing party, but the people. However, the Brexit decision may also cause Britain to go backward and harm the country's development.
In an interview with People's Daily, Xie said China's form of democracy is consultative. Decisions are made on the basis of consensus through consultation. "This is the characteristic of Chinese democracy. I think it's better than the simple practice of the minority subordinating to the majority," Xie told People's Daily.
Xie said the support of the masses is the main reason why the CPC has been able to be the governing party of China for 67 years. People support the Party because it represents the interest of the country and the public.
Strengthening discipline
The CPC's 95th anniversary means China only has five years left to achieve its goal of becoming a "moderately well-off society" by 2020, right ahead of the 100th anniversary of the CPC.
As China's economy enters a new era characterized by slower growth and painful restructuring, pessimistic views about China's future are rising again in the international community. Xie says the CPC faces a series of challenges in the future including fighting pollution, strengthening China's legal system and diplomatic policies. But corruption, which the CPC has taken great pains to address, remains a big problem which they believe may threaten the very survival of the Party and the state. "Strengthening Party discipline" is a must for the CPC to survive.
This year, in addition to its anti-corruption campaign which is targeting higher officials in the Party, the CPC Central Committee launched Party-wide campaigns to boost the discipline of its members.
In February, the CPC launched a massive campaign entitled "Two studies and one becoming," requiring all members to study the Party's constitution and speeches made by the current and former top leaders, and become qualified members of the Party.
According to its education plan, issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, the campaign aims to solve a series of problems that exist among Party members including a wavering faith in communism, low Party awareness, lack of understanding of the Party's principles and moral issues.
"The campaign is an important measure to push Party education from concentrating on just a few key members to the masses, and from concentrated education to common education," according to the document.
Apart from studying the Party constitution and speeches, the plan also encourages all Party members to learn lessons from the downfall of corrupt top officials like Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai and Ling Jihua.
The plan also outlines detailed measures, such as discussions, courses on the Party, meetings on Party committees' problems and democratic peer reviews. It also requires Party committees to celebrate the CPC's 95th anniversary by organizing courses on the Party and awarding outstanding Party members, officials and committees.
"The campaign will further unite people's thinking, close the relations between the Party and the public, and purify and strengthen the Party, providing a … strong guarantee for the Party's 95th anniversary," Chen Hongcai, vice director at the public administration department of Zhejiang's provincial Party school, told Zhejiang Daily.
