From Confucius to Xi Jinping: The DNA of Chinese Politics

by Willy Lam

Overview

This book analyzes Chinese politics, particularly the rule of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, through an examination of the country’s political ideology.

This book succinctly covers the DNA of Chinese politics through the philosophies of sages in China’s first liberalization period during the Warring States epoch, principally those of Confucius, Mencius, Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, Shang Yang and Han Fei. With an appreciation of these traditional ideologies, this book displays how Chinese political philosophy (which incorporates elements of Confucianist and especially Legalist thinking) has influenced ideas and policies from as early as the Qin and Han dynasties through to the Qing dynasty and even to the current day. Highlighting the controversies revolving around the flowering and contention of beliefs and isms during China’s second liberalization in the Republican Period (1912-1949), this book reveals how and why this led to the repression of the CCP era under dictators ranging from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping.

Revealing how Chinese political and philosophical legacies impact the development of ideology and policies of CCP leadership, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Chinese politics, Chinese history, and international relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032951362
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/11/2025
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Willy Lam is a Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, Washington, DC, and a research affiliate with several academic institutions in North America. Previously, he taught Chinese politics and foreign policy for 15 years at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lam has 40 years of experience writing about China. His books include China in the Era of Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping: The Hidden Agendas of China’s Ruler for Life, and The Fight for China’s Future (all published by Routledge).

Table of Contents

1. The legacy of Liberalization in the Warring States Era  2. Dynastic China and the Nurturing of the Chinese DNA  3. The curse of the “dynastic cycle” and the Chinese DNA  4. How Thought Liberation in the Republican Period led to Communist Rule  5. How the Dynastic DNA underpins the policies of Mao and Xi  6. China into the late 2020’s: The Future in light of the Past

Editorial Reviews

Where do premodern Chinese political thinking and contemporary governance come together? Drawing on philosophy, history and a profound knowledge of China’s elite politics, Willy Lam puts together ideas that are thoughtful, provocative and stimulating about the DNA of today’s China.”

Rana Mitter, author of China’s Good War

“Willy Lam’s From Confucius to Xi Jinping: The DNA of Chinese Politics is another intellectual tour de force. It provides an original and insightful examination of the ideological tenets and political instruments of tyranny in both ancient and contemporary China. Composed with unrivalled elegance and lucidity, this book will be a standard text for those interested to gain a deep understanding of the core ideas and practices that have sustained autocracy in China for millennia.”

Minxin Pei, author of The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China

“A major contribution in which leading China analyst Willy Lam reverses the CCP strategy of “making the ancient serve the present” and reveals the 'Chinese DNA' that underpins the nation’s dynastic cycle”

Guoguang Wu, Senior Researcher Scholar, Stanford University

“From Confucius to Xi Jinping is a broad-ranging and erudite tour that illuminates politics, economy, religion, technology, and more. It spans Chinese history from the earliest times to the present day. The tour guide is Willy Lam, who loves China but is also unafraid to look squarely at the suffering the Chinese people have been through and the difficult future that they face in present times.”

Perry Link, Professor emeritus of East Asian Studies, Princeton University

From the Publisher