This book reconstructs the factional-ideological conflicts surrounding socialist transformation and political reform in China that were played out through ‘factional model-making’, a norm-bound mechanism for elites of the Chinese Communist Party to contest the party line publicly. Dazhai, Anhui, Nanjie, Shekou, Shenzhen, Guangdong and Chongqing were cultivated into factional models by party elites before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. Although factional model-making undermined party discipline, it often did not threaten regime security and even contributed to regime resilience through strengthening collective leadership and other means. This follows that the suppression of factional model-making under Xi might undermine longer-term regime resilience. However, Xi believes that regime security rests on his strongman rule, not any benefits that factional model-making may contribute. It is in this spirit that he grooms Zhejiang into a party model for his policy programme of common prosperity, which is designed to legitimize his vision of socialism.

Dr Olivia Cheung is Research Fellow of the China Institute at SOAS University of London. She obtained her DPhil from the University of Oxford where she was a Swire Scholar and a Rhodes Scholar. She previously taught at the University of Warwick, where she was Course Director for the MA in International Politics and East Asia. She is the co-author of The Political Thought of Xi Jinping (2024).

Acknowledgement
Preface
Tables
Abbreviations
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Learning from Dazhai after the Great Leap Forward: Mutations of Socialism under Mao Zedong Thought, 1964–1978
Chapter 3 Decollectivizing Anhui: The Emergence of Market-oriented Socialism in the Countryside, 1979–1980
Chapter 4 Recollectivizing Nanjie: Building a ‘Small Zone of Communism’ in the Post-Mao Era of Market Reform, 1984–2012
Chapter 5 Shekou and Shenzhen: Blurring the Line between Special Economic Zone and Special Political Zone, 1979–1989
Chapter 6 Guangdong versus Chongqing: Competing Models of Governance in the Run-up to the 18th Party Congress, 2008–2012
Chapter 7 China under Xi Jinping: The End of Factional Model-making and the Pursuit of Common Prosperity in Zhejiang since 2021
Chapter 8 Conclusion
Bibliography
Index