The Middle Kingdom and the Narrative of China’s Rejuvenation
From Marxism to National Rejuvenation
When Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he did so in the name of Marxism and socialist revolution. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) presented itself as part of an international movement whose goal was to liberate humanity from capitalism. In today’s China, the situation is different. Marxism remains part of the official rhetoric, but the narrative that in practice legitimises the CCP’s rule is increasingly focused not on class struggle but on national rejuvenation.
There is nothing particularly unique about a communist regime replacing a universal Marxist narrative with a national one. If anything, it is more the rule than the exception. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was already speaking of the “Great Patriotic War”, while in North Korea Kim Il-sung transformed Juche into an intensely nationalist ideology.
When Western observers seek to understand contemporary China, they often focus on economics, military modernisation, or great-power rivalry with the United States. Yet understanding long-term ambitions of the People’s Republic requires more than studying its growing material capabilities; it demands an understanding of the story through which China understands itself.
In recent years, the concept of the “Chinese Dream” (中国梦) has become central to Chinese political rhetoric. Since becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012, Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasised the goal of the “Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation” (Zhonghua Minzu Weida Fuxing, 中华民族伟大复兴) as the historic mission of his generation. Behind these formulations lies not merely a set of political objectives but a strategic and legitimising narrative that gives meaning to China’s modern history and justifies the Communist Party’s continued monopoly on power.
Although Zhonghua Minzu Weida Fuxing is commonly translated as “the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation”, the term Zhonghua minzu refers to a broader historical and cultural community than the word “nation” usually does in a European context.
The Century of Humiliation
The narrative begins with what is commonly known in China as the “Century of Humiliation”. This period is usually dated from the First Opium War in 1839 to the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. During these years, China suffered repeated military defeats, unequal treaties, territorial losses, and foreign domination. British, French, Russian, German, and Japanese encroachments steadily undermined the Chinese state’s control over its own territory. The Opium Wars came to symbolise this process and continue to occupy a central place in Chinese historical memory.
China’s defeat in the First Opium War led to the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. The treaty became the first of the so-called unequal treaties through which China was compelled to accept terms that were perceived as deeply disadvantageous and externally imposed. In the Chinese narrative, these treaties are not merely diplomatic documents but symbols of an international order in which foreign powers dictated the rules.
In Chinese historiography, the entire period from 1839 to 1949 is portrayed as an era of national decline. It is not only foreign powers that bear responsibility for China’s humiliation. China’s own rulers are also depicted as having failed. Neither the Qing dynasty nor the republic established after the Revolution of 1911 succeeded in restoring China’s strength and independence. Only the Communist Party, according to the narrative, succeeded in ending the humiliation.
The Communist Party as National Restorer
This is where the narrative acquires its legitimising function. The Chinese Communist Party is presented not primarily as the custodian of Marxism but as the force that restored China’s dignity, unity, and sovereignty. Through this story, the CCP justifies its position as the governing – and only permitted – party of the People’s Republic of China.
The end of the Century of Humiliation coincided not only with the Communist Party’s assumption of power but also with a profound transformation of the international order after the Second World War. The decline of the European colonial empires and Japan’s defeat created conditions for China’s recovery and eventual return to great-power status regardless of which regime governed the country. In the official Chinese narrative, however, the Communist Party is portrayed as the decisive actor behind this restoration and thus as the force that brought the Century of Humiliation to an end.
From Class Struggle to a Civilisational Narrative
At the same time, the narrative has evolved over time. Under Mao Zedong, class struggle and socialist revolution stood at the centre of the story. Communism was presented as the future of humanity. In today’s China, Marxism still plays an important symbolic role, but the vision of the future has changed. The focus is no longer on a classless society but on national strength, technological development, economic prosperity, and international respect.
One might say that the Chinese narrative has retained the Marxist interpretation of the past while replacing the Marxist vision of the future with a nationalist and civilisational one. Anti-imperialism remains, even as class struggle has given way to national rejuvenation. Chinese officials frequently portray China as a country that has risen from colonial oppression and therefore understands the experiences of countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East better than the West does. The narrative of a century of national humiliation makes it possible to present China as a victim of imperialism rather than as a great power among others.
Yet a tension emerges here. In Mao’s era, imperialism was understood, according to Leninist theory, as the highest stage of capitalism, an epoch in which monopoly capital in the wealthy Western countries systematically exploited colonies and impoverished peoples. Today’s state-capitalist China is no longer a poor developing country but one of the world’s leading economic and military powers.
Nevertheless, parts of the Marxist vocabulary have survived, and the CCP still refers to Vladimir Lenin’s doctrine. Concepts such as “imperialism” and “anti-imperialism” continue to feature prominently in Chinese rhetoric. Yet whereas Lenin described imperialism as a global economic system rooted in monopoly capitalism, the term today is often used to describe American and Western dominance.
While anti-imperialist rhetoric continues to be employed in criticism of Western dominance, Chinese officials speak far less about the power ambitions that follow from China’s own growing strength. Anti-imperialism has therefore partly shifted from being a critique of capitalism and great-power behaviour in general to functioning primarily as a critique of Western influence.
The narrative thus contains a certain tension. While Japan, which occupied parts of China between 1931 and 1945, long played the role of the principal external enemy in Chinese historiography, American hegemony has gradually become the central obstacle in today’s narrative of rejuvenation. At the same time, China’s economic rise has taken place largely within the global economic order created and maintained by the very Western powers that the narrative frequently portrays as adversaries.
The very idea of the nation is itself largely a Western concept with which China has been compelled to engage in the modern era. The Chinese Dream is not simply about nationalism in the ordinary sense. For many Chinese, it is as much about civilisation as it is about nationhood. Historically, China has not primarily seen itself as a nation-state among others but as a civilisation occupying a central position in the world. The Chinese name for China itself, Zhongguo (中国), roughly means “the Middle Kingdom”. In the traditional Chinese worldview, China represented the centre of civilisation rather than one state among many.
The Political Programme of Rejuvenation
Seen from this perspective, China’s contemporary ambitions take on a different meaning. The Belt and Road Initiative can be interpreted as more than an economic project. It symbolises the restoration of trade routes and connections that once made China a centre of exchange between East and West. The pursuit of technological self-sufficiency is not merely about competitiveness but also about avoiding the dependency that, in the official narrative, made China’s humiliation during the nineteenth century possible.
The ambition to achieve complete incorporation, including Taiwan, is similarly presented as a step towards a still unfinished rejuvenation. In this perspective, Taiwan is not merely a territorial issue but also a symbolic one. As long as Taiwan remains outside the People’s Republic, the story of China’s full rejuvenation cannot be considered complete. As a result, “reunification” (tongyi, 统一) remains a central component of the narrative through which the Communist Party legitimises its historical role.
The narrative is directed not only at the Chinese people but also at the outside world. Internationally, the People’s Republic of China frequently emphasises multipolarity, national sovereignty, and resistance to Western dominance or American hegemony. In many parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, this rhetoric has found a receptive audience. China presents itself as a country that has risen from colonial oppression and therefore understands the experiences of developing countries better than the West does, even though China was never fully colonised and was instead subjected to the dictates of the colonial powers. Two centuries after the Opium Wars, China’s story about itself thus appears not merely as a historical interpretation but as a political programme.
Under Mao Zedong, the Communist Party legitimised its rule through the promise of socialist revolution. Under Xi Jinping, legitimacy is increasingly derived from the promise of China’s rejuvenation. Within this framing, the CCP is not merely the party that governs the People’s Republic. It is above all the force that ended the Century of Humiliation and is leading the Middle Kingdom towards its historic restoration.