Industrial Party (China)

In China, Industrial Party (simplified Chinese: 工业党; traditional Chinese: 工業黨; pinyin: gōngyè dǎng, also translated as Industrialist or Technologist^[1]) refers to a group of Chinese thinkers and Chinese people who support scientific thinking, advanced technology, techno-nationalism, and economic growth,^[2] but reject liberalism, universal values, and free market.^[3] In a narrow sense, it could also refer to the fan culture of Illumine Lingao, a Chinese time-travel novel.

In the 1990s, a great debate erupted in Chinese intellectual circles between the New Left, liberal, and neoconservative schools in the face of China's rapidly changing economic situation. As the debate spread to the Internet and as a reaction to the liberalism tendency, Chinese cybernationalists with science and engineering academic backgrounds gathered in online forums.^[4] A debate progressed in late 2004 and early 2005 by Chinese thinkers Chen Jing and Zhong Qing and marked a precursor to the term.^[4]

Regarded as a "tabletop role-playing game novel" covering repeated descriptions and analysis of the possibilities of industrial development, Illumine Lingao further paved the path for the rise of the Industrial Party.^[5]

In 2011, a number of Chinese nationalistic thinkers, including Wang Xiaodong and Song Xiaojun, argued only an improvement in means of production and industrial technology could transcend differences between political parties and ideologies.^[4] In one post of Wang's blog, "China's Industrialization Will Determine the Fate of China and the World: The 'Industrial Party' versus the 'Sentimental Party'" (Chinese: 中国的工业化将决定中国与世界的命运——兼论“工业党”对决“情怀党”, later published on a magazine), he analyzed that:

Here, I would like to introduce another dimension: the Industrial Party and the Sentimental Party. [...] The present situation in China requires understanding this other dimension—the Industrial Party and the Sentimental Party. According to Song Xiaojun, these terms were invented by a lady reporter at a major newspaper. Members of the Industrial Party, as the name implies, are inclined toward further industrialization. In terms of their intellect, they are more suited to work in industry. That does not mean that everyone in the Industrial Party is an engineer, since I consider myself a member but do not work in industry. People in the Industrial Party are similar to scientists or engineers in the way they think about things. That is not to say that they are without emotion. They have their own sentimentality. When I saw the fourth-generation fighter take flight, I did not break down and sob as some young people did, but a tear did come to my eye. That is emotion, but it is the emotion of the Industrial Party.^[6]

Wang's essay is often considered to have formally introduced the term "Industrial Party", although Wang himself said that "this expression was invented by a female reporter of a mainstream newspaper".^[7] One year later, "Ma Qianzu" (a pen name) and four other people born in the 80s co-authored and published The Big Goal: Our Political Negotiation with this World (Chinese: 《大目标：我们与这个世界的政治协商》), which is regarded as the manifesto of the Industrial Party.^[8] The same year, Ma and some other industrialists joined guancha.cn, and tried to use the website as a platform for the spread of the idea.^[4]

The Industrial Party tendency continued to rise in the 2010s.^[9] Both Liu Di's commentary on Radio Free Asia and the Initium Media have linked Liu Cixin, a famous Chinese author, and his novels to the Industrial Party.^[10]

Members of the Industrial Party generally agree:^[11]

• Technology determines social structure.
• Technology first.
• Socialist planned economy
• Technocracy.
• Chinese nationalism.
• Pragmatism.

A reaction to liberalism, Industrialists don't focus on political participation and democracy. Instead, they focus more on effectiveness and academic knowledge. Thus they oppose:^[12]

• Agrarianism (which they regard as musty)
• Capitalism (especially free market economics)
• Universal values (which they regard as "Western cultural infiltration")

• All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
• Industrial Party Affair
• Rise of the Red Engineers
• Saint-Simonianism
• Technocracy movement

• Li, Long; Liu, Hanneng (2020). "舆论爱国：爱国粉丝社群的社交化与集体协同" [Patriotism by Public Opinion: Socialization and Collecctive Synergy of Patriotic Fans Community]. 中国青年研究 [China Youth Study] (4): 54, 95–101. doi:10.19633/j.cnki.11-2579/d.2020.0059. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
• Li, Qiang (24 March 2018). ""集体智慧"的多重变奏——由《临高启明》看网文生产机制与意识形态之关系" [The Multiple Variations of "Collective Wisdom" - The Relationship between Online Production Mechanism and Ideology from Illumine Lingao]. 文艺理论与批评 [Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art] (2): 130–137. doi:10.16532/j.cnki.1002-9583.2018.02.012. ISSN 1002-9583. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
• Lin, Ling (2020). "工业党的穿越之梦及其文学追求——以齐橙小说为例" [The Industrial Party's Dream of Time Travel and Its Literary Pursuit: Taking Qi Cheng's Novels as Examples]. 文艺理论与批评 [Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art] (2): 54–66. doi:10.16532/j.cnki.1002-9583.2020.02.008. ISSN 1002-9583. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
• Liu, Di (30 April 2019). "刘荻："工业党"真懂科学吗？" [Liu Di: Does the "Industrial Party" really understand science?]. Radio Free Asia (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 15 August 2022.
• Lu, Nanfeng; Wu, Jing (2018). "历史转折中的宏大叙事:"工业党"网络思潮的政治分析" [Grand Narrative at History's Turning Point: A Political Analysis of the Internet Ideology of China's "Industrial Party"]. 东方学刊 [Dongfang Journal] (in Simplified Chinese) (1): 49–60. ISSN 2096-5966. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  • An English translation: "Lu Nanfeng and Wu Jing on the Industrial Party". Reading the China Dream. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
• Shan, Shi; Yan, Yuan, eds. (31 May 2021). ""工业党"的叙事方式及借鉴价值——第56期"青年空间"工作分享会举行" [The narrative of "Industrial Party" and its value of reference - The 56th "Youth Space" work sharing session was held]. Peking University News (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 13 May 2022.
• Wang, Xiaodong (2011). "中国的工业化将决定中国与世界的命运" [China's Industrialization Will Determine the Fate of China and the World]. 绿叶 [Green Leaf] (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  • An English translation: Wang, Xiaodong. "A Study of the "Industrial Party" and the "Sentimental Party"". The Center for Strategic Translation. Translated by King, Dylan Levi. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
• Wang, Xiuying (22 October 2020). "China after Covid". London Review of Books. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
• Wang, Yan (28 December 2020). "2020，左、右意識形態徹底過時的一年？" [2020, the year when left and right ideologies become completely obsolete?]. Initium Media (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved 9 August 2022.
• Shi-Kupfer, Kristin; Ohlberg, Mareike; Lang, Simon; Lang, Bertram (2017). Ideas and Ideologies Competing For China's Political Future (PDF) (Report). Mercator Institute for China Studies. Retrieved 7 August 2022.