China’s People’s Daily Ties Culture to Statecraft
China’s flagship Communist Party newspaper published a front-page commentary on Friday framing “cultural subjectivity” as a governing principle that cuts across ideology, economics, politics and social management, in the latest articulation of the country’s emphasis on cultural confidence and national identity.
The piece, signed under the collective byline “Ren Ping” — shorthand for People’s Daily Commentary and a marker of the paper’s authoritative editorial voice — was carried on Page 1 of the People’s Daily on October 9. It argues that culture is “the soul of a country and a nation” and that cultural subjectivity is an “original and signature concept” of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.
Anchoring Concept
The commentary quotes Xi as saying that “any culture, to stand firm and travel far, to have leading, cohesive, shaping and radiating power, must have its own subjectivity.” It then structures its argument through four lenses: ideological guidance, economic development, political construction and social governance.
The article ties together several recent milestones into a single narrative of civilizational confidence. It notes that the first and second volumes of the Selected Cultural Works of Xi Jinping were published in August 2026, compiling 78 pieces from November 2012 to February 2026, some released for the first time. According to the official State Council portal, the collection was edited by the Party History and Literature Research Institute of the CPC Central Committee. The party’s theoretical journal Qiushi confirmed the volumes were issued nationwide by the Central Party Literature Press.
Culture as Economic Engine
The economic perspective holds that culture “comprehensively empowers” growth and that cultural soft power strengthens “new quality productive forces.” The commentary cites Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital, where the “handmade porcelain industrial heritage” was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2026. As Xinhua reported, the listing brought China’s total World Heritage sites to 61 and filled a gap in the list’s “porcelain” theme. The commentary states that in 2025 Jingdezhen’s ceramic industry output value broke the 100-billion-yuan mark for the first time, with advanced ceramics accounting for 34 percent.
A separate interview with Weng Yanjun, director of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum, published by China News Service, detailed how the site’s “binary formula” of porcelain stone and kaolin influenced high-temperature hard-paste porcelain techniques in Europe. State broadcaster CCTV noted that the heritage spans raw-material and fuel sites, kilns, workshops and transport networks across five zones — the first World Heritage listing centered on a full handmade porcelain production chain.
The commentary also invokes “humanistic economics,” a proposition Xi raised in 2023. A discussion published by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference describes it as the integration of culture and the economy, ultimately emphasizing “people.”
Politics and Governance
The commentary says culture provides “deep soil” for political construction, citing whole-process people’s democracy. It points to the Ecological Environment Code, which took effect on August 15, 2026, and notes that Shanghai’s Hongqiao Subdistrict, a grassroots legislative contact point, held six consultation sessions on the code, collecting more than 600 opinions. It also mentions public consultation for the 15th Five-Year Plan.
On governance, the piece highlights the “Six-Foot Alley Mediation Method” in Anqing, Anhui, which adapts the cultural essence of a Qing-dynasty anecdote about neighbors yielding over a wall boundary. Anhui media reported that the method has contributed to a 99.1 percent dispute mediation success rate in recent years, according to Anhui News.
Analysis
The commentary is not breaking news but a deliberate act of ideological framing. Its news value lies in consolidating “cultural subjectivity” as a pillar of official discourse and binding a cluster of policy and cultural milestones into one narrative.
The four-perspective structure positions culture as foundational to all domains of statecraft — a rhetorical move that elevates cultural work beyond a single policy portfolio. The invocation of Xi’s local governance history, from a 2005 Zhejiang provincial plenum deploying “Eight Projects” for cultural development to his tenures in Zhengding, Fuzhou and Shanghai, traces a lineage intended to present the current emphasis as the culmination of decades, not a sudden turn.
The reference to breaking the “myth that modernization equals Westernization” situates the argument in broader debates about development models and the “two combinations” framework — integrating Marxism with China’s realities and fine traditional culture. The timing, ahead of the 15th Five-Year Plan, suggests cultural confidence will remain central to the country’s next policy cycle.
What to Watch
Observers will watch how the concept is operationalized beyond commentary: whether it shapes cultural-industry budgets, education curricula and heritage protection under the forthcoming five-year plan. For external audiences, the key question is how the identity-focused framing shapes China’s cultural diplomacy and its international narrative in the years ahead.