Paper short abstract:

CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping follows in a long line of Chinese leaders who have invoked fear of conspiracies to attack critics and destroy enemies. This paper examines whether Hoftstadter's 1965 thesis about a paranoid style in politics, formulated in light of U.S. history, is relevant in China.

Paper long abstract:

When CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping attacked an alleged conspiracy by a 'handful of senior officials pursuing selfish interests' in November 2016, he was not only alluding to yet another conspiracy against the Party, but also following in a long line of Chinese leaders who have invoked fear of such events to attack critics and destroy enemies, both real or perceived. The rise of social media including Weibo and WeChat has also allowed the rapid dissemination of other forms of conspiracy theories, most recently, that China is under threat from its Muslim citizens or dilution of the Chinese race from miscegenation with Africans. In light of such ubiquity, it would seem timely to examine whether Hoftstadter's 1965 thesis about a paranoid style in politics, formulated in light of American history, is relevant in China.