EVENTS

The characterisation of China as an emerging superpower attempting to challenge the American ‘rules-based international order’ (at least in Asia), is in sharp contrast to the domestic debates – especially in politico-ideological terms – where the CPC appears to be caught in the crosshairs of a ‘struggle between two lines’. This ongoing ‘struggle’ could be a possible explanation for the unprecedented delay in the convening of the customary Third Plenum. In the run up to the plenary session, the buzz from within was that the delay was due to significant problems confronting the Xi Jinping regime with regard to the direction of the economy. Barely a few days after the plenary concluded, a well-known newspaper editor in mainland China claimed that the “Decision” document released following the plenum omitted a key expression, i.e., “public ownership.” This reportedly led to an immediate “silencing” of the journalist and the publication of a front-page commentary a week later in the party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, asserting that China’s basic stand on the state and private sectors “hasn’t changed and won’t change in the future.” Both controversies reminded analysts and experts of the ideological “two-line struggle” between ‘capitalist roaders’ and ‘left militant revolutionaries’ during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. This presentation argues that the ongoing ‘two-line struggle’ between the two lines is qualitatively different from the ‘left-right’ contestation that prevailed during the Mao era.

About the Speaker

Hemant Adlakha teaches Chinese at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is also Vice Chairperson and an Honorary Fellow, ICS, Delhi. He regularly writes on China’s domestic and foreign affairs. He contributes to, and edits ICS Translations. His recent writings in popular media include 'Xi’s Well-calculated European Visit: What Was the Agenda,' EPW, August 10, 2024; 'An Expert Explains: View from China on Kamala Harris Replacing Biden, the Possibility of Trump 2.0,' Indian Express, August 9, 2024; and 'What Did Chinese Analysts Think of the Kim-Putin Summit in Pyongyang,' July 3, 2024.

About the Chair

Alka Acharya is the Honorary Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies and Professor and Chairperson at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she has been teaching and guiding doctoral research since 1993. From April 2012 to March 2017, she was full-time Director and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies. She was Editor of the quarterly journal China Report (New Delhi) from 2005-2013. She was nominated by the Indian government as a member of the India-China Eminent Persons Group (2006-2008) and was a member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India for two terms (2006-2008) and (2011-2012). Her publications include, Crossing a Bridge of Dreams: 50 years of India-China (co-edited, 2001) China & India: Politics of Incremental Engagement, (2008) and most recently, Boundaries and Borderlands: A Century after the 1914 Simla Convention (edited, Routledge, New York 2023). Her current research focuses on India-China-Russia Trilateral Cooperation.

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