The Three Represents is a socio-political ideology credited to General Secretary Jiang Zemin

Jiang Zemin

Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...

 which became a guiding ideology of the Communist Party of China

Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

 at its Sixteenth Party Congress in 2002.

Jiang Zemin first introduced his theory on February 25, 2000 while on an inspection tour in Maoming

Maoming

Maoming is located in southwestern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. Facing the South China Sea to the city's south, Maoming city neighbors Zhanjiang in the west and is from Guangzhou and from Zhanjiang. The Maoming Port is a Grade I port that handled 16.8 million tons of cargo in...

, Guangdong province. He was attempting a comprehensive summary of the party's historical experience and how to adapt to new situations and tasks when he stated:
The official statement of the ideology stipulates that the Communist Party of China should be representative to advanced social productive forces, advanced culture, and the interests of the overwhelming majority.

Synopsis

The formal statement of the theory is:
One possible interpretation of the "Three Represents":

• "Represents advanced social productive forces" = Economic production
• "Represents the progressive course of China's advanced culture" = Cultural development
• "Represents the fundamental interests of the majority" = Political consensus

One of the main goals of the Three Represents is to change the Communist Party of China

Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

 into a governmental and more democratic party, rather than a strictly communist system of government. This opens up the Party to "the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people", such as businessmen and managers. This makes for a party ("dǎng" 党) that is much more attractive for a greater number of people. The Theory of the Three Represents is another expansion to what the communist government of China would define as "allies". Over the years, the number of people that could in fact still be defined as "class enemies" kept reducing, seeing how the number of people that belonged to the "wavering middle" (people that were not allies, but could in fact not threaten the Party's regime) increased.

External links

• Three Represents - People's Daily
  People's Daily
  The People's Daily is a daily newspaper in the People's Republic of China. The paper is an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China , published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, it has editions in English,...
  
  
• On the Three Represents - International Department of Central Committee of CPC