How to Read a Party Congress Report
An Insider’s Analysis of the 20th Congress Political Report
One year ago this month the Communist Party of China held its 20th National Congress. Held only once every five years, one of the chief aims of any congress is to lay out a statement of party policy and doctrine authoritative and comprehensive enough to bind and guide the behavior of party members across the globe. This is the function of the Congress’s “political report” [政治报告], delivered by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in a publicly televised opening address. A political report is presented as the guiding consensus of China’s entire leadership class. It is intended to serve as the ur-text that all subsequent plans and policies must be premised upon. There is no more authoritative statement of the Party’s governing priorities.
Authoritative does not always mean easily digested. Shifting priorities are often communicated through subtle differences in wording, emphasis, or structure that distinguish a new political report from those that came before it. Even many Chinese communists find it difficult to catch all of these changes or fully grasp their intended significance. Therefore in the months following a new political report party affiliated experts write explainers of the policy changes and policy priorities showcased in the report. For foreign observers of Chinese politics primers like these are a valuable guide to reading party documents the way party insiders do.
The Center for Strategic Translation published a translation and analysis of one such primer in August. Originally published in the “theory section” of People’s Daily Online, this piece is a brief commentary on the section of the political report devoted to state security. The author of the explainer, Chen Xiangyang, is the director for the Center for Research on the Total National Security Paradigm, a quasi-academic research center funded and staffed by officers from China’s premier intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security. Chen’s basic argument is that the 20th Congress has elevated the importance of his field to the work of the CPC as a whole. Never before, Chen maintains, has regime security been so central to the party’s long term strategic planning.
Some of Chen’s arguments follow from the structure of the report itself. The 20th Congress report introduces three sections not previously included in any political report: a section on science and technology policy, a section on legal reform, and a section on state security. Previous political reports discussed national security only as a subcomponent national defense, political reform, or party building. By elevating national security to its own section, the report’s contents “fully reflects the weight, important status, and critical mission of national security work in the New Era.”
Most of Chen’s exegesis, however, involves minute analysis of the slogans deployed in the political report, such as its injunction to “integrate development and security” [统筹发展和安全]. Chen locates key formulations of party doctrine like these and then traces the origins of these statements to their original statement in plenum read outs, planning documents, or speeches by Xi Jinping. He carefully notes when any changes to these slogans have occurred, drawing meaning from slight alterations in phrasing. He both celebrates continuity in party security theory where it occurs and hails new ideas as they are injected into party doctrine. By balancing linguistic continuity against change Chen methodologically pieces together the priorities of China’s central leadership.
CST’s complete translation of Chen’s exegesis is thus a useful summary of the initiatives currently guiding state security work in China—the “five elements” [五大要素] and “five integrations” [五个统筹] of the Total National Security Paradigm [总体国家安全观], the invention of a “new security pattern” [新安全格局] to match the “new development pattern” [新发展格局], and the command to “integrate development and security” are all discussed in Chen’s piece. But more important than any individual slogan Chen analyzes is the way he analyzes them. This translation is a brief education thinking about party documents the way that party experts do.
Beyond the translation, CST publishes a glossary of key terms in the PRC political writing. Each entry is an essay that summarizes the meaning and traces the history of key concepts invoked by the translated authors. Many are relevant for understanding the 20th Congress Report, including:
Coming soon: This month the Center for Strategic Translation will begin a series of translations centered on the relationship between technological advance and national power. This is an object of dispute among Chinese intellectuals and party theorists. Our series of translations will cover their debates, starting with an essay by prominent public intellectual Wang Xiaodong and selections from the books of Wang Huning, member of the Politburo Standing Committee.