Telling Stories of the Communist Party of China: Constructing the Soft Power of Model Cadres

Since ascending as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2012–2013, Xi Jinping 习近平 has emphasized the need to “tell China’s story well” [讲好中国故事 jiang hao Zhongguo gushi] to develop soft power and discourse power. Frequently featured in scholarly and official media analyses, Xi’s concept of “China’s story” includes “the story of the CPC” [中国共产党的故事 Zhongguo Gongchandang de gushi] (Xu 2020). This chapter investigates the interplay between the CPC’s promotion of strategic historical narratives of its authority and the effort to enhance China’s cultural strength, confidence, and appeal, both domestically and internationally. To do so, it takes a discursive approach to the analysis of soft power dynamics, focusing on the narrative construction of Party model cadre Jiao Yulu 焦裕禄 (1922–1964), considering it as a manifestation of “hero discourse” in its evolving historical, political, and institutional contexts. Exploring the instrumental use of exemplary historical figures as an incarnation of the Party’s heroic image, the analysis builds on the three narrative shifts in the representation of “the Jiao Yulu Spirit” [焦裕禄精神 Jiao Yulu jingshen] in the People’s Daily [人民日报 Renmin ribao] between 1966 and 2014 as identified by Chen and Sun (2016), expanding it with the examination of the crafting and recrafting of mainstream narratives of Jiao’s legacy across time and platforms. Specifically, contents drawn from official channels reporting Xi’s stories about Jiao are qualitatively analyzed, including Party- and State-affiliated news outlets, posts on the China state-controlled Facebook page Xi’s Moments, and translated materials designed for external propaganda, such as the volumes Narrating China’s Governance: Stories in Xi Jinping’s Speeches and The Governance of China.