Editing Three Represents (section)

== Influence and reception ==
Jiang's theory was the subject of significant internal debate.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Dittmer |first=Lowell |date=2003 |title=Chinese Factional Politics Under Jiang Zemin |url= |journal=[[Journal of East Asian Studies]] |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=97–128 |doi=10.1017/S1598240800001132 |issn=1598-2408 |jstor=23417742|s2cid=155266344 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Lin |first=Chun |title=The Transformation of Chinese Socialism |date=2006 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-3785-0 |location=Durham [N.C.] |pages=258 |doi=10.1515/9780822388364 |oclc=63178961}}</ref> Supporters viewed it as a further development of [[socialism with Chinese characteristics]]<ref name=":4" /> or a mechanism to incorporate [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] elements into the discipline of the party.<ref name=":322">{{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=Ken |title=China's Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future |publisher=1804 Books |year=2023 |isbn=9781736850084 |location=New York, NY |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=76}} Certain segments within the CCP criticized the Three Represents as being un-[[Marxism|Marxist]] and a betrayal of basic Marxist values.<ref name=":4" /> Criticism originated on all ideological sides of the party.<ref name=":1" />

Three Represents was officially described by [[Li Changchun]], a member of the [[Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP Politburo Standing Committee]], as the "Marxism for contemporary China".<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 September 2003 |title='Three Represents' is Marxism for contemporary China: official |url=http://en.people.cn/200309/24/eng20030924_124797.shtml |access-date=2 March 2025 |work=[[People's Daily]]}}</ref> The theory officially is continuation and development of [[Marxism–Leninism]], [[Maoism|Mao Zedong Thought]] and [[Deng Xiaoping Theory]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 May 2021 |title=The Theory of Three Represents |url=https://en.theorychina.org.cn/c/2021-05-04/1393245.shtml |access-date=2025-03-02 |website=Theory China}}</ref>

Jiang said that by representing Chinese people in three levels, the party used the interests and demands of the overwhelming majority of the people to replace the specific interests of people from different quarters, especially the class nature of the working class. As Xiao Gongqin argues, the innovation of the "Three Represents" theory was meant to complete the historical ideology transformation of CCP from a revolutionary party to a ruling party. The CCP can keep its legitimacy under the 'socialist market economy' or any system that is conducive to the development of advanced productive forces, without promoting any revolutionary movement or keeping the ideal of egalitarianism.<ref name="改革开放以来意识形态创新的历史考察 - 中国知网" />

Jiang disagreed with the assertion that his theories were not Marxist, and concluded that attaining the communist [[mode of production]] (as formulated by earlier communists) was more complex than had been realized; it was useless to try to force a change, as it had to develop naturally by following the [[Historical materialism|economic laws of history]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Kuhn |first=Robert Lawrence |url= |title=The Man who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin |title-link=The Man Who Changed China |date=2004 |publisher=[[Crown Publishers]] |isbn=978-1-4000-5474-9 |pages=107–110 |language=en |author-link=Robert Lawrence Kuhn}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=December 2022}} The theory is most notable for allowing [[Capitalism|capitalists]], officially referred to as the "new [[Social stratification|social strata]]", to join the party on the grounds that they engaged in "honest labour and work" and through their labour contributed "to build[ing] socialism with Chinese characteristics."<ref name=":5" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=December 2022}} Jiang's decision to allow capitalists into the CCP was criticized{{By whom|date=April 2024}} as "political misconduct" and "ideological confusions".<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Scott |title=China's Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China's Rise and the World's Future |date=2022 |isbn=978-0-19-760401-4 |location=New York, NY |pages=17 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197603994.001.0001 |oclc=1316703008}}</ref> These critiques helped fuel the rise of the [[Chinese New Left]] movement.<ref name=":2" />

[[Zheng Bijian]], the executive vice president of the [[Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party|Central Party School]] who has been active in helping to create the Three Represents, argued that a party of the whole people would be a catch-all party that would include diverse and conflicting interests. To include all of the broad mass of contemporary Chinese intellectuals, science and technology workers, cultural workers, and economic managers, in the category of the so-called 'middle class' would weaken or even obliterate the working class.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Fewsmith |first=Joseph |date=December 2001 |title=Rethinking the Role of the CCP: Explicating Jiang Zemin's Party Anniversary Speech |url=https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/clm2_JF.pdf |journal=China Leadership Monitor |volume=1 Part 2 |pages=5}}</ref>

At the time Jiang announced the theory, most entrepreneurs who were members of the CCP had been party members before starting their businesses.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last1=Marquis |first1=Christopher |title=Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise |last2=Qiao |first2=Kunyuan |date=2022 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-26883-6 |location=New Haven |pages=13–14 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv3006z6k |jstor=j.ctv3006z6k |oclc=1348572572 |author-link=Christopher Marquis |s2cid=253067190}}</ref> This change allowed for a new cohort of party members who could join after having had success in business.<ref name=":6" /> The greatest jump in the numbers of party members who are also entrepreneurs came in 2001, not long after the announcement of the Three Represents.<ref name=":6" /> In recent years (as of 2022), around 30-35% of Chinese entrepreneurs have been party members.<ref name=":6" />

Academic Lin Chun writes that while "nothing was politically incorrect in this banal statement" of the Three Represents, "it simply signaled that the party no longer even pretended to be the vanguard of the working class."<ref name=":1" />

Academics [[Steve Tsang]] and Olivia Cheung observe that the Three Represents helped co-opt economic elites and extend the party's reach into the growing private sector.<ref name=":Tsang&Cheung">{{Cite book |last1=Tsang |first1=Steve |author-link=Steve Chang |title=The Political Thought of Xi Jinping |last2=Cheung |first2=Olivia |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2024 |isbn=9780197689363}}</ref>{{Rp|page=79}} Academic Pang Laikwan describes the Three Represents as legitimating privately-owned enterprises in the context of the socialist market economy.<ref name=":Laikwan">{{Cite book |last=Laikwan |first=Pang |title=One and All: The Logic of Chinese Sovereignty |date=2024 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=9781503638815 |location=Stanford, CA |pages=170 |doi=10.1515/9781503638822}}</ref>