Jiang Rui: The United Front Is a Powerful Magic Weapon for Rallying People's Support and Pooling Strength
The united front is a broad political alliance led by the Communist Party of China (CPC); it is a political advantage and a strategic policy for the CPC to coalesce the people’s hearts and gather strength. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The support or opposition of the people and the balance of power are the keys to determining the success or failure of the Party and the people’s cause; they constitute the greatest politics. The essential requirement of united front work is 'great unity and great solidarity' (da tuanjie da lianhe), which addresses the issues of the people's hearts and strength." The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party's Centennial Struggle identifies "upholding the united front" as one of the historical experiences of the Party’s centennial struggle, emphasizing that "the Party has always upheld great unity and great solidarity, united all forces that can be united, mobilized all positive factors that can be mobilized, promoted the harmony of party relations, ethnic relations, religious relations, social strata relations, and relations with compatriots at home and abroad, and maximized the strength for collective struggle." The Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2026–2030) proposed to "improve the grand united front work pattern and consolidate and develop the broadest patriotic united front." In the New Era and on the new journey, continuing to give full play to the important role of the united front in coalescing the people’s hearts and gathering strength—while constantly enhancing the political consensus for the united struggle of all Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad and further improving the quality and efficacy of great unity and great solidarity—holds important historical and practical significance for the comprehensive building of a modern socialist country and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Throughout its struggle of more than a century, the CPC has always placed the united front in a position of importance, continuously consolidating and developing the broadest possible united front, uniting all forces that can be united, mobilizing all positive factors that can be mobilized, and maximizing the strength for collective struggle. During the different historical periods of China’s revolution, construction, and reform, our Party has always adhered to the guidance of Marxist theory on the united front. We have successively established the National Revolutionary United Front, the Workers' and Peasants' Democratic United Front, the Anti-Japanese National United Front, the People's Democratic United Front, and the Patriotic United Front of the New Period [1]. These played important roles in securing the victory of the New Democratic Revolution, advancing socialist revolution and construction, and initiating the new situation of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has based itself on the historical experience of the united front and, in light of the profound changes in the situation and tasks of the New Era, accurately grasped the historical position and important mission of the patriotic united front in the New Era. It has formed General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thoughts on strengthening and improving the Party’s united front work, providing the fundamental follow-through for conducting united front work in the New Era. Our Party has coordinated the overall strategy for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the world’s "unseen changes in a century" [2], making comprehensive deployments for united front work from the strategic height of national governance and promoting historical achievements in such work. The connotation of the patriotic united front in the New Era is richer than at any time in the past, its coverage is broader than ever, and its targets for unity and solidarity are more diverse than ever, opening up a vast space for it to play its important role in coalescing the people’s hearts and gathering strength. In this context, how to better gather the majestic force for building a strong country and national rejuvenation, and how to continuously satisfy the people's yearning for a better life, is a major subject that must be earnestly resolved on the new journey of the New Era.
In July 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Central Conference on United Front Work: "The united front is an important magic weapon [3] for the Party to defeat the enemy and to govern and rejuvenate the country; it is an important magic weapon for uniting all Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and it must be upheld over the long term." In October 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping further emphasized at the 20th CPC National Congress: "The people’s hearts are the greatest politics; the united front is a powerful magic weapon for coalescing the people’s hearts and gathering strength. We must improve the grand united front work pattern, adhere to great unity and great solidarity, and mobilize all Chinese sons and daughters to think together and work together around the realization of the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." This important discourse positions the united front's role in coalescing hearts and gathering strength as a "powerful magic weapon," further highlighting the important strategic position of the united front in the overall cause of the Party and the state, and pointing out the direction and focus for the Party’s united front work in the New Era. The united front must give full play to its role in coordinating relations, resolving contradictions, coalescing the people’s hearts, and gathering strength. It must continue to uphold great unity and great solidarity, uniting the broad masses of the people to struggle together, ensuring social harmony, stability, and enduring peace and stability for the country.
Although the specific targets of the Party’s united front for unity and solidarity have differed across various historical periods, its essential requirement of "great unity and great solidarity" has never changed. As an important component of the Party’s general line and general policy, it has always played a role in coalescing hearts and gathering strength around the central tasks of the Party in each period. This huge political advantage of the united front has enabled our Party, regardless of how difficult or arduous the historical conditions, to unite all possible forces, mobilize all positive factors, and provide a solid foundation in the people's hearts and powerful strength for the victorious advancement of the Party and people’s cause.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Unity is a powerful force for overcoming all difficulties and an important guarantee for coalescing the people's hearts and accomplishing great undertakings." "The united front was born for unity and thrives on unity. Promoting the great unity of the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation is the historical responsibility of the patriotic united front in the New Era." These important discourses fully reflect the extreme importance of unity, revealing not only the essential requirements and objectives of the united front but also clarifying the practical path for the united front to coalesce hearts and gather strength. In the New Era, the historical position China occupies and the internal and external situations it faces have undergone great changes. We face more complex, profound, and extensive new situations and problems, and shoulder more magnificent, heavy, and arduous historical missions. Therefore, we need broad support more than at any previous period; we need to use the broadest patriotic united front to coalesce the people of all ethnic groups and Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad to strive together toward common goals. How to better play the role of the united front, expand the scope of unity, and gather positive energy is an important subject that must be well answered. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The unity pursued by the united front is a broad unity and a strong unity; it is a unity that follows the correct political direction and advances toward common goals." The patriotic united front in the New Era must coalesce hearts and strength under the banners of patriotism and socialism, find the greatest common denominator, and draw the largest possible concentric circles [4]. The great unity and great solidarity it seeks to achieve involve both quantitative requirements—broadening the scope of unity and uniting more people—and qualitative requirements—increasing the intensity of unity, deepening its degree, and strengthening its cohesion.
Adhering to great unity and great solidarity is an important guarantee for the united front to coalesce hearts and gather strength. To do united front work well, we must extensively unite with forces outside the Party, make many and deep friends outside the Party, win the support of non-Party personages, and work together with all sectors of society with one heart and one mind. The "Five Great Relations" [5] in the united front cover important areas in the overall work of the Party and the state. Promoting harmony in party relations, ethnic relations, religious relations, social strata relations, and relations with compatriots at home and abroad can effectively regulate national political relations, enhance national cohesion, improve national governance efficacy, and form a political situation of stability and unity. We must adhere to the principles of "long-term coexistence, mutual supervision, treating each other with sincerity, and sharing weal and woe" [6], and adhere to, develop, and improve China’s new type of political party system. We must give full play to the political advantages of this system, further strengthen unity and cooperation with the democratic parties and personages without party affiliation, and support the democratic parties in better performing their functions according to the requirements for participating in the governance of Chinese-style socialism. We must take forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation [7] as the main thread of the Party's ethnic work in the New Era and as the main thread of all work in ethnic minority areas. We must adhere to the path of resolving ethnic issues with Chinese characteristics, continuously consolidate and develop socialist ethnic relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance, and harmony, comprehensively advance the cause of ethnic unity and progress, and encourage all ethnic groups to embrace each other like pomegranate seeds, struggling together for common prosperity and development. We must adhere to the direction of the Sinicization of religions in China, actively guide religions to adapt to socialist society, and give full play to the active role of religious personages and believers in promoting China’s economic and social development. We must do a good job in the ideological and political guidance of non-Party intellectuals and personages in new social strata, giving full play to their active role in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, building a "pro-business and clean" (qinqing) new type of relationship between government and business, and promoting the healthy development of the non-public sector of the economy and the healthy growth of persons in the non-public sector. We must leverage the role of united front work in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas to win people’s hearts, continuously develop and strengthen the patriotic forces that love the motherland and love Hong Kong and Macao, and ensure the steady and sustained implementation of "One Country, Two Systems." We must earnestly implement the Party’s overall strategy for resolving the Taiwan question in the New Era, develop and strengthen the patriotic united forces in Taiwan, and advance the complete reunification of the motherland. Centered on coalescing hearts and gathering strength to jointly realize and share the Chinese Dream, we must actively guide overseas Chinese, returned overseas Chinese, and their relatives to devote themselves to the motherland's modernization and the great cause of peaceful reunification. Promoting harmony in the "Five Great Relations" is conducive to continuously consolidating and developing the great unity of all ethnic groups, the great unity of the people of the whole country, and the great unity of all Chinese sons and daughters, forming a vivid situation where everyone thinks in one direction and exerts effort toward the same goal.
The people's hearts are the greatest politics, and consensus is the driving force for advancement. One of the important tasks of united front work is to coalesce consensus. As China's social structure undergoes profound changes and values become increasingly diverse, achieving great unity and great solidarity requires a greater focus on ideological guidance and the coalescing of consensus.
The united struggle must have a center; only by holding fast to the center can ten thousand people act as one. The united struggle must have ideological guidance; only by unifying thoughts can we march in step. To do united front work well in the New Era, we must master the relationship between "holding fast to the center" and "expanding consensus." So-called "holding fast to the center" means strengthening the Party's central position within this "concentric circle," ensuring the Party exercises overall leadership and coordinates all sides in united front work, and ensuring the Party's line, principles, policies, and decisions are fully implemented. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "As long as we hold fast to the center of the political bottom line, the longer the radius of inclusive diversity, the larger the concentric circle we can draw." The CPC always stays true to its original aspiration and founding mission, adheres to the principle of "people first," takes the people as the center, and is committed to realizing the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people. We must uphold the Party's leadership, strengthen ideological guidance, and ensure that the situation of great unity and great solidarity develops along the correct political direction. We should fully promote democracy, respect and tolerate differences, and through extensive consultation, enable the broad members of the united front to more universally identify with the Party's propositions and more consciously unite around the Party.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The united front is a unity of 'identity' (yizhi xing) and 'diversity' (duoyang xing); without diversity, there is only identity, or without identity, there is only diversity—in either case, the united front cannot be established or developed." This requires us to correctly handle the relationship between identity and diversity, seek the greatest common denominator, and draw the largest possible concentric circle. On the one hand, we must continuously consolidate the common ideological and political foundation and promote the formation of new consensus on the basis of existing political consensus. The consensus of the broad members of the united front is primarily expressed as a common ideological and political foundation—namely, upholding the leadership of the CPC, adhering to socialism with Chinese characteristics, supporting the complete reunification of the motherland, and jointly committing to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. A distinctive feature of the patriotic united front in the New Era is the significant development of diversity on the basis of continuously increasing identity; the internal composition of the united front has become more complex and diverse, and the coverage of united front work is broader and more granular. This feature makes the consolidation of the common ideological and political foundation more urgent and the work of coalescing consensus more taxing. For instance, the rapid development of the Internet has made the social foundation and work targets of the united front more diversified and the working fields and content more extensive. This necessitates constant improvement and innovation in the methods of united front work to build concentric circles both online and offline and coalesce the consensus of the entire society. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "In different places, different strata, different fields, and different aspects, everyone will have different ideas. We must then consider: which can be used to 'seek common ground'? Which can be formed or transformed into consensus through our work? Which can continue to 'reserve differences'? By finding the greatest common denominator and focusing on reform and opening up, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort." In this process, strengthening and improving the work of the People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is crucial. We should give full play to its role as a specialized consultative body to resolve contradictions and coalesce consensus on the basis of a common ideological and political foundation, truly allowing the united front to play its role as a powerful magic weapon for coalescing hearts and gathering strength.