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Neoauthoritarianism (Chinese: 新权威主义; pinyin: xīn quánwēi zhǔyì), also known as Chinese Neoconservativism or New Conservatism (Chinese: 新保守主义; pinyin: xīn bǎoshǒu zhǔyì) since the 1990s,[1][2] is a current of political thought within the People's Republic of China (PRC), and to some extent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that advocates a powerful state to facilitate market reforms.[3] It has been described as right-wing,[4][5][6] classically conservative even if elaborated in self-proclaimed "Marxist" theory.[7]
Initially gaining many supporters in China's intellectual world,[8] the failure to develop democracy led to intense debate between democratic advocates and those of Neoauthoritarianism[1] in the late 1980s before the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.[9] Neoauthoritarianism remains relevant to contemporary Chinese politics, and is discussed by both exiled intellectuals and students as an alternative to the immediate implementation of liberal democracy, similar to the strengthened leadership of Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.[7]
Its origin was based in reworked ideas of Samuel Huntington, advising the post-Communist East European elite take a gradualist approach to market economics and multiparty reform; hence, "new authoritarianism". A rejection of the prevalent more optimistic modernization theories,[10] but nonetheless offering faster reform than the socialist market economy, policy makers close to Premier Zhao Ziyang would be taken by the idea.[11] The doctrine may be typified as being close to him ideologically as well as organizationally.[10] In early March 1989, Zhao presented Wu's idea of neoauthoritarianism as a foreign idea in the development of a backward country to Deng Xiaoping, who compared it to his own ideology.[12]
As such, it is also consistent with the right-wing ideology of neo-authoritarianism, limiting itself to championing China's national self-interests in a neoliberal global order.
Consequently, the CCP's transformation into a right-wing elitist party occurred during the 1990s under Jiang Zeming's reign.