How the Chinese Communist Party Stays in Power

How the Chinese Communist Party Stays in Power

From Pekingology by Center for Strategic and International Studies

April 2, 2026 · 42 min

About this episode

The episode explores how the Chinese Communist Party has maintained its power through various strategies and phases of China's development.

In this episode of Pekingology, CSIS Senior Fellow Henrietta Levin is joined by Ben Hillman, Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World at Australian National University and co-editor of the new book, The Communist Party of China: Understanding the Durability of the World's Most Powerful Political Organization. Ben explains how the Party has managed to stay in power, becoming the world's second-longest ruling party (barely losing out to North Korea's communist party) and maintaining an iron grip on power across vastly different phases in China's development. Ben addresses the role of ideology in Party governance, the utility of linguistic engineering and patriotic symbols in bolstering political legitimacy, the role of the United Front Work Department in manufacturing buy-in, and the Party's tremendous capacity for coercion.

People in this episode

Host: Henrietta Levin

Guest: Ben Hillman

Topics covered

  • Chinese Communist Party
  • Political power
  • Governance
  • Ideology
  • Political legitimacy
  • Coercion

Keywords

  • Chinese Communist Party
  • political power
  • governance
  • ideology
  • political legitimacy
  • coercion
  • United Front Work Department

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Australian National University

Books & works: The Communist Party of China: Understanding the Durability of the World's Most Powerful Political Organization

Places: China, North Korea

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