From admission to assertion: democracy rhetoric and citizenship education in post-socialist China

Contrary to its authoritarian governance, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime trumpets democracy as a “core socialist value” to be taught in and beyond schools. This article addresses the division between rhetoric and practice in the ideological construction of post-socialist China, where the CCP can no longer depend on socialism alone for regime legitimacy. Seeing democracy as a discourse connecting value, ideology and practice, the article deconstructs the discursive construal of democracy in Chinese citizenship or ideopolitical education. By analysing and comparing official documents and school textbooks before and after 2012, when Xi Jinping took power, the article reveals, inter alia, the shift from admitting deficiencies to asserting novelty and superiority in the official narrative of socialist democracy. It situates the party-state’s construal of democracy in contemporary sociopolitical circumstances before drawing implications for democratic citizenship education that promotes political liberty and equality amid the global retreat of democracy.