How the Chinese Communist Party Stays in Power

In this episode of Pekingology, CSIS Senior Fellow Henrietta Levin is joined by Ben Hillman, Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World at Australian National University and co-editor of the new book, The Communist Party of China: Understanding the Durability of the World's Most Powerful Political Organization. Ben explains how the Party has managed to stay in power, becoming the world's second-longest ruling party (barely losing out to North Korea's communist party) and maintaining an iron grip on power across vastly different phases in China's development. Ben addresses the role of ideology in Party governance, the utility of linguistic engineering and patriotic symbols in bolstering political legitimacy, the role of the United Front Work Department in manufacturing buy-in, and the Party's tremendous capacity for coercion.