Chinese Dream

The Chinese Dream () is a term closely associated with Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and China's paramount leader. Xi began promoting the phrase as a slogan during a high-profile tour of an exhibit at the National Museum of China in November 2012, shortly after he became leader of the CCP."Xi Jinping and the Chinese Dream,
''The Economist'' 4 May 2013, p 11 (editorial)
/ref> The exhibit at that time was called the "Road to National Rejuvenation", and Xi said that the Chinese Dream is the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" ().

Since then, use of the phrase has become widespread in official announcements and as the embodiment of the leadership's political ideology under Xi Jinping. Xi said that young people should "dare to dream, work assiduously to fulfill the dreams and contribute to the revitalization of the nation." There are various connotations and interpretations of the term.

History

Chinese literature

The phrase "Chinese Dream" () corresponds with the associated idea of a hope for restoring earlier dynasties lost national greatness and has ancient origins in Chinese literary and intellectual history.Ryan Mitchell
"Clearing Up Some Misconceptions About Xi Jinping's ‘China Dream'"
''HuffPost'', 20 August 2015 In the Classic of Poetry (''Shi Jing''), the poem "Flowing Spring" () describes a poet waking up in despair after dreaming of the former Western Zhou dynasty. During the troubled Southern Song dynasty, the poet Zheng Sixiao wrote a poem in which he coined the phrase "Heart full of heChinese Dream (中国梦), the ancient poem 'Flowing Spring'" (), referring back to the classical poem. It should be noted, however, that the concept of "China" did not exist in the Southern Song Dynasty and is actually a 16th-century European invention. The word "中国" , literally "Middle" or
"Central Kingdom", referred actually to the capital region (see ). Popular patriotic literary and theatrical works in early 20th century China also made reference to a "China Dream."

Western literature

In 2008, architect Neville Mars, author Adrian Hornsby, and the Dynamic City Foundation published ''The Chinese Dream – a society under construction''. The book investigates China's initial wave of rapid urbanization as it transitions to a socialist market economy. Maps of the emerging spatial forms and analysis of the economic development processes that have originated within the extreme conditions of the 1980s and 1990s are combined with progressive planning concepts and personal portraits of a rapidly changing society. As such it synthesizes a body of research to tackle the main paradoxes at the heart of China's struggle for change and a more equitable and sustainable future.

According to Mars, "The present is so all-consuming that fast realities threaten to eclipse the slow dream of tomorrow." The overarching premise of the book is that China reveals a direct correlation between its shifting urban forms and its waning societal objectives. Written eight years ahead of the 12th FYP that holds the same thematic title "The Chinese Dream" (), it introduces the notion that China's highly fragmented, unchanging urban patterns determine a path of increasing inefficiency and energy-dependence. Mars introduces the term "MUD," or Market-driven Unintentional Development to describe this new hybrid urban condition, and suggests that planning itself needs to be radically redefined to be effective and not contribute to ex-urbanization. The conclusion of the book is "No New Cities" (), and a call for models of upgrading existing urban centers and suburbs.

In 2010, author Helen H. Wang published her first book ''The Chinese Dream''. The book is based on over 100 interviews of the new members of the middle class in China. In the book, Wang did not define the Chinese Dream; rather, she conveyed the hopes and dreams of the Chinese people through intimate portraits of this growing demographic.

''The Chinese Dream'' was translated into Chinese (中国梦) and published in China in 2011. In 2012, the second edition of ''The Chinese Dream'' with a foreword by Lord Wei was published. In the foreword, Wei wrote:

''The New York Times''

The British publication ''The Economist'' credits a column written by the American journalist Thomas Friedman for popularizing the term in China. A translation of Friedman's article, "China Needs Its Own Dream," published in ''The New York Times'' (October 2012) was widely popular in China. Friedman attributes the phrase to Peggy Liu, the founder of the environmentalist NGO JUCCCE. According to Isaac Stone Fish, former Asia editor for the magazine ''Foreign Policy'', Friedman said, "I only deserve part credit... ensuing the concept of 'China Dream' was promoted by my friend Peggy Liu, as the motto for her NGO about how to introduce Chinese to the concept of sustainability."

James Fallows of ''The Atlantic'' has pointed out that the phrase has frequently been used in the past by journalists. He mentions Deborah Fallow's book ''Dreaming in Chinese'', his own article "What Is the Chinese Dream?," and Gerald Lemos' book ''The End of the Chinese Dream'' as examples. In response to Fallows, ''The Economist'' cites an article in the ''Xinhua Daily Telegraph'' that directly credits Friedman.

''The Economist'' writes that references to Friedman's article have also appeared in other Chinese media outlets, including a translation in ''The References News'', in an article written for China's State Council Information Office, on the cover of the magazine ''Oriental Outlook'' as the main caption, in a magazine article published by ''Frontline'', and in an article for a local newspaper written by China's ambassador to Romania, Huo Yuzhen. In the preface of the ''Oriental Outlook'' "Chinese Dream" issue, the editor states that "the 18th national congress of the Chinese Communist Party convened November 8th. "Does the next generation of Chinese leaders have a 'Chinese Dream' that is different from the "American Dream"?.... This was a question raised by one of America's most influential media figures, Thomas Friedman."

Xi Jinping

Just after becoming General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in late 2012, Xi announced a political slogan that would become the hallmark of his administration. "The Chinese Dream," he said, is "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." Formulated by Wang Huning, Xi's Chinese Dream is described as achieving the Two Centenaries: the material goal of China becoming a "moderately well-off society" by 2021, the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, and the modernization goal of China becoming a fully developed nation by about 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic.

In May 2013, Xi Jinping called upon young people "to dare to dream, work assiduously to fulfill the dreams and contribute to the revitalization of the nation." He called upon all levels of the Party and the government to facilitate favorable conditions for their career development. Xi told young people to "cherish the glorious youth, strive with pioneer spirit and contribute their wisdom and energy to the realization of the Chinese dream."

According to an opinion piece by Robert Lawrence Kuhn, published by China's state-controlled newspaper ''China Daily'', the Chinese Dream has four parts: "strong China", "civilized China", "harmonious China", and "beautiful China". Khun states, "the Chinese dream is described as achieving the ' Two 100s'", a concept promoted by Xi Jinping, adding, "The material goal of China becoming a 'moderately well-off society' by about 2020" and "The modernization goal of China becoming a fully developed nation by about 2050".

''The Economist'' reported that Xi "had seen the American dream up close, having spent a couple of weeks in 1985 with a rural family in Iowa. (He revisited them during a trip to America last year as leader-in-waiting.)" Since the idea was put forward by Xi in November 2012 and repeated by him on numerous important occasions, the CCP's propaganda chief, Liu Yunshan, has directed that the concept of the Chinese Dream be incorporated into school textbooks.

In an article for the ''Huffington Post'', French sinologist David Gosset () presented the idea that the so-called "Liyuan Style" is an illustration of the China Dream. Gosset said that China's new First Lady Peng Liyuan is at the intersection of what he labeled "Modern China," "Civilizational China", and "Global China".

Interpretations

The Chinese Dream is vaguely defined, and has led to multiple interpretations describing the phrase's meaning.

Compared to the American Dream

Author Helen H. Wang was one of the first to connect the Chinese Dream with the American Dream. In her book ''The Chinese Dream'', Wang wrote: "The Chinese Dream, taking its title from the American Dream, alluding to an easily identifiable concept..." Wang attempts to demonstrate that the Chinese people have similar dreams as those of the American people. "This new hinesemiddle class," Wang wrote, "which barely existed a decade ago, will reach the size of more than two Americas in a decade or two. They number in the hundreds of millions, with the same hopes and dreams that you and I have: to have a better life, to give our children an even better life...." Wang has also claimed that "Chinese people must define their own dream."

According to Shi Yuzhi, a professor at the National University of Singapore, the Chinese Dream is about Chinese prosperity, collective effort, socialism, and national glory. Shi compared the relationship between the phrase and the American Dream.

Sustainable development

The China Dream has been defined as sustainable development. Peggy Liu and the NGO JUCCCE coined the phrase "China Dream" as a movement based on sustainability, which was later popularized in China through a ''New York Times'' article and adopted by Xi Jinping. Pollution and food safety are popular concerns in China. Cities are frequently covered by smog and the country's rivers are polluted with industrial waste. China's rising middle class is expected to increase by 500 million people by 2025 and will continue to put a strain on the country's dwindling resources. According to Liu, the Chinese Dream of sustainability can be achieved through the promotion of green technologies and the reduction of widespread conspicuous consumption. China's high growth has caused widespread environmental damage, and without environmental reforms, the deterioration could threaten the legitimacy of the Communist Party. The Chinese Dream is a dream of a prosperous lifestyle reconciled with a sustainable lifestyle.

Ethnic nationalist revival

The Chinese Dream has been viewed as a call for China's rising international influence. Xi Jinping refers to the dream as a form of national rejuvenation. Young Chinese are envious of America's cultural influence and hope that China could one day rival the US as a cultural exporter. Members of the Chinese military support China's military development, opining that the "strong-nation dream of a great revival of the Chinese people" can only result from a "strong-army dream." Former United States Secretary of State John Kerry has promoted the idea of a "Pacific Dream" to accommodate China's rise through regional collaboration over shared interests like the environment and economic growth.

The Chinese Dream is also a process to promote national rejuvenation through domestic ethnic policy. In 2012, when Xi Jinping first proposed the "Chinese Dream" during his visit to the "Road to Rejuvenation" exhibition, he suggested that "realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the greatest dream of the Chinese nation in modern times." In the next few years, Xi formulated new ethnic policies to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The goal of achieving national rejuvenation is to create an ethnically homogeneous "nation-state" and replace identities of ethnic minorities by a ( Han) Chinese cultural identity. The Central Government aims to strengthen control over ethnic minorities through an assimilation project and to subject ethnic minorities to the exclusive rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

The phrase is used in local propaganda. In August 2014, local authorities in Cherchen County (Qiemo County) announced, " Incentive Measures Encouraging Uighur-Chinese Intermarriage," including a 10,000 CNY (US$1,450) cash reward per annum for the first five years to such intermarried couples as well as preferential treatment in employment and housing plus free education for the couples, their parents and offspring. County CCP Secretary Zhu Xin remarked:

Second-generation ''minzu'' policy in 2012

The purpose of the second-generation ethnic policy is to cooperate with the ethnic assimilation project as part of the "national rejuvenation" to create a whole "Chinese nation-state." Some scholars suggest the first-generation of policy focuses on the recognition of 56 nationality (''minzu'') and on keeping the national unity while developing all groups. The second-generation ethnic policy was originally introduced in line with Xi Jinping's "national rejuvenation" theory of the Chinese dream. It was first proposed in 2011 by two Chinese scholars of National Conditions Institute of Tsinghua University, Hu Lianhe and Hu An’gang.胡联合和胡鞍钢：国外是怎么处理民族问题的
/ref> Hu and Hu suggest that the proof of multiculturalism in the US, Brazil, and India adopting the model of the "ethnic melting pot" can prove the correctness of second-generation ethnic policies in China. Hu and Hu published their second paper of 2012 to deepen research on the relationship between national rejuvenation and the second-generation ''minzu'' policy. They suggest that the realization of the Chinese dream must rely on the integration of the peoples of China into a single nation-race (''guo zu''). Deepening the ethnic minorities’ adoption of the identity of the Chinese nation is the main thrust of the second-generation ethnic policy. The purpose is to cultivate a unified national identity under the Communist regime. Therefore, the second-generation ethnic policy is the enlightenment of the ethnic policy in Xi's era.

"Ethnic mingling" after 2014

The new policy of "ethnic mingling"(''jiao rong'') proposed by Xi in 2014 is an assimilation policy based on "national integration" and "national unity." Xi attended the Second Xinjiang Work Forum, and stressed that,

The Forum's full set of document have not been made public. In his speech, Xi emphasized the term "national integration" many times. His goal is to establish a unified national identity between each ethnic group and to replace ethnic identities with the "Chinese race" (''Zhonghua minzu''). The substance of the "ethnic mingling" policy is a step in addition to the theory of the "melting pot" of the second-generation ethnic policy. For Xi's regime, the creation of the unified identity of the Chinese nation is a key factor in realizing the great rejuvenation of Chinese Dream; however, some scholars argue that the national revival campaign will make China lose cultural diversity and "indigeneity" (''tuzhuxing'').

Genocide since 2017

Scholars claim that the “ethnic mingling” policy implementation by the government evolved into cultural genocide since 2017. The period from 2017 to 2020 is the stage when the government took tough measures to implement the assimilation of ethnic minorities. The cultural genocide is a stage to deepen destruction of the group identity of ethnic minorities. Article 14 was the new regulations to lay the foundations to establish mass internment “re-education" system. Chinese government promulgated new regulations on the grounds of “de-extremification of Muslims" in Article 14.Sean R. Roberts, The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020), 211, muse.jhu.edu/book/76866 The Xinjiang internment camps aim to destroy Uyghurs’ religion and identity through a collective educational transformation. Since 2018, the government also encouraged intermarriage between Uyghurs and Han people to achieve "ethnic integration."Darren Byler, "Uyghur Love in A Time of Interethnic Marriage," SupChina, 7 August 2019, https://supchina.com/2019/08/07/uyghur-love-in-a-time-of-interethnic-marriage/ A significant percentage of young Uyghur men are in the re-education camps and have been removed from Uyghur social life; a young Uyghur woman, called Bahar, pointed out that "this absence adds to the new social pressure to marry Han men." Since 2014, the trial implementation of intermarriage project established in some places of Xinjiang. The local government of Qiemo County in Xinjiang established a new regulation in 2014, called "Regarding the Incentive Measures for Families Encouraging Intermarriage Between Ethnic Minorities and Han."新疆且末县为民汉通婚家庭每年奖励1万元
/ref> This policy is very generous with regard to ethnic-Han intermarriage families, with priority consideration and resolution in politics, housing, and children's employment, including a 10,000 yuan award each year for no more than five consecutive years and free tuition for their children from elementary school to high school, etc. James A. Millward, a scholar of Xinjiang at Georgetown University, claims that "state-sponsored efforts at ‘blending’ and ‘fusion’ will be seen by Uighurs in China or by China's critics anywhere as really aimed at assimilating Uighurs into Han culture.".

Chinese cultural nationalism under Xi Jinping’s leadership has promoted the forced assimilation of the Uyghur minority, which was condemned by international human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and UN’s official website and its human rights experts, the abusing of human rights in Xinjiang in the name of counter-terrorism with 1-2 million people or more in ‘rehabilitation camps’ who are subjected to political indoctrination, forced abortions, tortures, suppression of religious and cultural practices such as forcing the Uyghurs to eat pork and abandon Islamic prayers. The conditions of the concentration camps are horrific with daily expense less than 4.5 yuan (US$0.67) per person. The birth rate of Uyghurs has deceased and the incarceration rate in Xinjiang is 14 times higher than national average. Frequent deaths in custody have been reported in these camps due to the poor conditions. The practices of the Chinese government have been widely criticized as cultural genocide, ethnocide, or genocide.

A recent UN report has confirmed the widespread existence of slave labor in Xinjiang and Tibet, and possible enslavement. The UN also confirms that crimes against humanity might have been committed by the Chinese communist authorities. in the name of counter-terrorism against the Uyghurs.

On 30 August 2022: the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances; activists from Tibet, East Turkistan, and South Mongolia implored the UN and the world to “take urgent steps to stop disappearance and cultural genocide in China’s colonies.”

Individual dreams

Some Chinese have interpreted the Chinese dream as the pursuit of individual dreams. Evan Osnos of ''The New Yorker'' comments that "Xi Jinping has sought to inspire his people by raising the flag of the China Dream, but they have interpreted it as China ''Dreams''—plural." According to Osnos, the Chinese Dream is "the proliferation of 1.3 billion China Dreams." Sujian Guo and Baogang Guo argue, "To a great extent, the American dream has been exported to China and has become the Chinese dream." According to Shi Yuzhi, a professor at the National University of Singapore, the Chinese Dream is not about individual glory, but about collective effort. Measuring public sentiment on Sina Weibo, Christopher Marquis and Zoe Yang of CivilChina.org found that the Chinese Dream refers more to the common goods bestowed by civil society

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