The True Face of Authoritarianism Behind the Socialist Core Values
The True Face of Authoritarianism Behind the Socialist Core Values
By Carl J Chan
At the heart of the CCP ideological framework lies a deep and disturbing contradiction: it proclaims “socialist core values” such as democracy, freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law, while systematically punishing those who dare to embody or demand these very principles. These so-called values are not ethical guidelines for the people—they are political camouflage for the regime.
The Language of Power, Not Liberation
In China’s political reality, “democracy” is redefined as obedience to the Party; “freedom” means freedom to praise the Party; “justice” is justice for the Party, not for the people. These terms are stripped of their universal meaning and refashioned as tools of ideological control. The state’s propaganda promotes them to suggest moral legitimacy and modernity, but when citizens act on these values, they are crushed with surgical precision.
This is the dark genius of authoritarianism in the post-totalitarian age: to cloak repression in the language of human rights and enlightenment. It is not a rejection of democracy and freedom—it is their co-optation, their corruption into instruments of control.
Ren Zhiqiang: A Loyal Insider Becomes an Enemy of the State
A powerful illustration of this contradiction is the case of Ren Zhiqiang, a princeling, a successful real estate tycoon, and a long-time member of the Chinese Communist Party. Ren was no dissident in the traditional sense. He was wealthy, well-connected, and ideologically within the system.Ren was once regarded as a prominent figure within the party. But when he wrote an essay during the COVID-19 pandemic indirectly criticizing Xi Jinping—calling him a “clown stripped naked who insisted on being emperor”—he crossed the invisible red line.
Ren was sentenced to 18 years in prison for alleged corruption, but it was clear to all observers that his true crime was voicing the socialist core values the Party pretends to uphold: the right to speak freely, the demand for transparency, and the moral courage to criticize power.
His persecution is not an exception—it is a pattern. Whether it is journalists, lawyers, feminists, religious leaders, students, or even Party elites like Ren, the moment someone genuinely exercises “freedom” or calls for “justice,” they become an “enemy of stability.” In such a system, loyalty to truth is betrayal of the Party.
The Logic of Political Theater
Why, then, does the CCP continue to promote these values? The answer is psychological and strategic. To maintain legitimacy in the eyes of its people and the international community, the Party must speak the global language of human rights and civic virtue. It must pretend to be evolving, modernizing, even democratizing. This performance is necessary not to empower citizens, but to disarm them morally—to confuse, pacify, and isolate those who might rebel.
It is easier to control people not by telling them they are slaves, but by telling them they are free—and punishing them when they act like it.
Autocracy in Socialist Clothing
At its core, this is not socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is autocracy with socialist decoration. The Party’s manipulation of these core values reveals not its commitment to them, but its fear of them. The more it suppresses voices like Ren Zhiqiang’s, the more it proves that it rules not through truth, but through terror disguised as virtue.
The lesson is clear: in the People’s Republic of China, the only right you have is the right to remain silent—unless your words serve the Party. Behind the banner of socialist values is a regime that defines any true expression of democracy, freedom, or justice as a threat to its survival. And that, more than anything, reveals the true face of the autocracy.