1. The Left and Right in Contemporary China
Chu Ran
Department of Political Science

2. Index Meaning of Left and Right in China
What does the left and right really mean in China?
Difference between China and the West
Why Chinese conceptions of the left and right differ from the west?
Empirical Study
Ideological Spectrum (意识形态光谱) in China

3. Left and Right in Contemporary China
Instead of liberals on the left and conservatives on the right, Chinese public discourse places conservatives on the left and liberals on the right.

4. Left and Right in Contemporary China
The word conservatism is not as commonly used as liberalism because the left in China today aims to conserve the socialist system and the dominance of the Communist Party.

5. Left and Right in Contemporary China
To improve these socialist values, traditional values and symbols such as Confucianism have been co-opted by the party in recent years in an effort to rebuild a sense of national identity.

6. Left and Right in Contemporary China

7. Difference: Comparison of China and the West
Promotion of a free market economy, which is considered conservative in the context of the west, is on the liberal right in China because it is the most significant rejection of the radicalism in Mao’s China.

8. Difference: Comparison of China and the West
The most central ideological issue in China seems to be political : upholding a socialist state versus advocating for a liberal constitutional democracy

9. Difference: Comparison of China and the West
Political ideology in the U.S. and Western Europe tend to be variation on classic liberalism rooted in the ideas of political theorists such as John Locke , and Adam Smith.

10. Difference: Comparison of China and the West
Parties in these regimes differ on how best to achieve these targets, through more competition or more protection, but the ideological debate does not question the values such as democracy and civil liberties.

11. China’s Ideological Spectrum
← This study tries to determine whether ordinary individuals fall along a coherent ideological spectrum, and whether there are regional and inter-group variations in ideological orientation.

12. China’s Ideological Spectrum
Respondents in China who are politically liberal are also much more likely to be economically and socially liberal ; and vise versa.

13. China’s Ideological Spectrum
At the provincial level, liberal ideology is highly correlated with modernization, measured by the level of economic development, trade openness, and the urbanization.

14. Conclusion
The ideological spectrum in China places conservatives on the left and liberals on the right.
The most central issue is about upholding a socialist state versus advocating for a liberal constitutional democracy.
Ideology in China is strongly uni-dimensional.

15. Reference
Jennifer Pan and Yiqing Xu “China's Ideological Spectrum.” MIT Political Science Department Research Paper No
方可成:《中国的左派与右派》.
秦晖:《当代中国的左与右》.
陈子明:《左右两派可以达成的七点共识》.

16. THANKS