Long Ling

The first course contains ten hours of lectures, and the other eleven between three to six hours each. Where do I start? I click on the first course, which deals with the most important subject: Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Since each general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC creates a ‘theory’ while in power and enters it into the constitution, the constitution’s second paragraph – the guide to action – gets longer and longer. Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought are followed by Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Three Represents of Jiang Zemin, the Scientific Outlook on Development (by Hu Jintao) and now Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era (习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想, or Xi Jin Ping Xin Shi Dai Zhong Guo Te Se She Hui Zhu Yi Si Xiang, abbreviated as ‘XJPXSDZGTSSHZYSX’). Whether or not Xi has surpassed his predecessors in the quality of his theory, he has certainly surpassed them in the number of characters needed to describe it.