UDC 316.3-058.3(510)
DOI 10.20339/AM.04-26.099
Li Zhoru, PhD student at the Department of Sociology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia) and Deputy Secretary General of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for State Security Studies, Nankai University (China), e-mail: liz@my.msu.ru
Part II identifies and empirically tests the strategy for shaping the political elites of the PRC’s party-state complex, as presented in Part I, which is linked to two factors of China’s modernization: namely, the material and technical base and the scientific, technological, and digital revolution, as well as with the transformation of the superstructure and spiritual socialist culture. A procedural reconstruction of the sequence of reforms, combined with official statistics and empirical evidence, makes it possible to identify the mechanisms underlying elite formation, including institutionalized rotation, professionalized selection, institutional adaptation and innovation, network resources, and scientifically sound management procedures — as intermediary links through which elites link industrialization, innovation policy, and data management to the tasks of social stability, redistribution, and risk management. In the material-technical sphere, strategic planning, institutional design, and the “development — security” nexus translate scientific and technological shifts into an institutionalized path of modernization, establishing a sustainable framework for the management and support of innovation. Within the superstructural framework, ideological production, anti-corruption and disciplinary practices, as well as cultural and value-based integration, shape institutional legitimacy and sustain the reproduction of spiritual socialist culture culture.
Keywords: China’s political elites, material and technical base, scientific, technological, and digital revolution, superstructure and ideological production, socialist spiritual culture
References
1. Meghji, A. (2024) From Public Sociology to Sociological Publics: The Importance of Reverse Tutelage to Social Theory. Sociological Theory, 42, Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/07352751241227429
2. Agarwala, R., & Roychowdhury, P. (2025) The Perils and Promises of Unequal Democracy: Insights from the Sociology of India. Annual Review of Sociology, 51. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090324-022910; Thornton, J. Classmates or Colleagues? How Elite Students Learn to Manage One Another. Qual Sociol, 48, 121–149 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-024-09585-7.
3. World Bank Group. Lifting 800 Million People Out of Poverty — New Report Looks at Lessons from China’s Experience. URL: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/04/01/lifting-800-m...
4. Yelishov, S.O. “The Role of the Mass Media and Propaganda in Social and Political Processes”. Vestnik of Moscow University. Series 18. Sociology and Political Science. 2025. No. 31 (4). Pp. 29–50. https://doi.org/10.24290/1029-3736-2025-31-4-29-5
5. Source: “Government Data” database of the General Administration of State Statistics of China. URL: https://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=C01&zb=A0A0G&sj=2024
6. Lenin, V.I. Collected Works. Vol. 38. Moscow: Publishing House of Political Literature, 1969.
7. Marx, K., and Engels, F. To Joseph Bloch, September 21–22, 1890. In: Collected Works. 2nd ed. Vol. 37. Moscow: State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1965.
8. Marx, K., and Engels, F. Anti-Dühring. Collected Works. 2nd ed. Vol. 20. Moscow: State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1961.
9. Marx, K., and Engels, F. On the Critique of Political Economy. In: Collected Works. 2nd ed. Vol. 13. Moscow: State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1959.
10. Osipova, N.G. The Role of Social Stereotypes in Regulating Individual Behavior (Continued). Vestnik of Moscow University. Series 18. Sociology and Political Science. 2025. No. 31 (4). Pp. 7–28. https://doi.org/10.24290/1029-3736-2025-31-4-7-28
11. Contemporary Ideology of the PRC. Xi Jinping’s Ideas as the Foundation of Chinese Policy / ed. by K.V. Babaev. https://doi.org/10.48647/ICCA.2025.12.10.002. Moscow: IKSAN RAS, 2025.











.png)






