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ABSTRACTOn June 25th, 2021, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China issued a white paper entitled “China’s New Political Party System.” This document argues that the political systems of Western nations are “outdated” and emphasizes the superiority of the political system of “Chinese democracy,” as promoted by Xi Jinping. However, the Chinese government’s official English translation leaves out the context of “newness” and does not emphasize the harmfulness of the West’s “outdated” system. Why was the English version rewritten with little nuance? This could be because of a desire to avoid drawing international criticism for its plan to boost China’s “international discourse power” (国际话语权 in Chinese), which President Xi Jinping has sought to shore up. This paper argues that China’s “new political party system” was implemented as a political tool to formulate Xi Jinping’s new social science theory. Thus, it did not bring about any major changes to China’s political consultation system, in which “democratic parties” can consult with the Communist Party but basically cannot oppose or disagree. Additionally, the phrase “new political party system” was created amidst conflict around discourse power with the West and was an argument with strategic significance in its connection to foreign policy. Discussion of China’s political system is likely to become all the more important amidst the current structural conflict between the US and China.

What is the structure of the political framework that defines the relationship between Japan and China? In the early 2000s, a little before the thirtieth-year anniversary of normalization of the bilateral relationship, experts from the two countries argued over the importance of issues regarding history in the framework of bilateral relations. By discussing the formation of the debate on the so-called "1972 system," and its background and subsequent development, this article indicates that China's argument is transforming from rational to more nationalistic. The two consistent features of China's strategic theory toward Japan are (1) China shares with Japan an understanding of where the issues in Sino-Japanese relations lie; and (2) China differs in many respects from Japan in its political interpretation of the issues and seeks setbacks from Japan in a manner consistent with guiding domestic public opinion in China. This implies that Japan and China can potentially share a common understanding of the issues at stake, despite political friction on the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]