Sange daibiao

(Three Represents)

Political slogan

Jiang Zemin’s ‘Three Represents’ (sange daibiao) was first put forward in a speech in early 2000:

As long as our Party unswervingly represents the development trend of advanced productive forces, the orientation of advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China, it can remain invincible, win wholehearted support of the people of all ethnic groups, and lead the people to make steady progress.

The ‘Three Represents’ was further elaborated at the Party’s eightieth anniversary in July 2001 and adopted as an Amendment to the Constitution of the Party at the end of the 16th National Party Conference in November 2002. While insisting that workers, farmers, intellectuals and cadres are the backbone of the Party, Jiang said that it is also necessary to accept other outstanding people into the Party, including entrepreneurs from the private sector and personnel employed by foreign-funded enterprises. This new idea, which moves away from the former Constitution that the Party is the ‘vanguard of the working class’, is not without dissent from hard-line veteran revolutionaries (see Party-building).

Organized conferences and workshops from the highest-level Party School to the grassroots have been held and all sorts of speeches have been given in support of Jiang’s ‘important thought’. It sounds a theoretical legacy, and the new leadership of Hu Jintao (b. 1942) must pursue China’s modernization programme guided by the ‘Three Represents’.

Further reading

Jiang, Zemin (1 July 2001). Speech at the Rally in Celebration of the 80th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China. Beijing: New Star Publishers, 26–42.

HELEN XIAOYAN WU