Three Represents

The Three Represents, officially the Theory of Three Represents, is a political doctrine that defines the role of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Chinese society. It legitimized the entry of private business owners and bourgeois elements into the CCP.

The theory was first introduced by Jiang Zemin—then the General Secretary of the CCP—on 25 February 2000, while he was on the inspection tour in Gaozhou, Guangdong. During Jiang's leadership, the Three Represents was officially described as the "Marxism for contemporary China" and the development of Marxism–Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory. The theory was ratified by the party at the 16th Party Congress in November 2002. It was also written to the Chinese Constitution on March 14, 2004.

Following the tenure of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin articulated a new theory to define the new relationship between the party and the people, which is named Three Represents. The Three Represents was devised by a small team including the political theorist Wang Huning. Jiang first delivered a speech about the Three Represents on 25 February 2000 during a symposium on party building in Guangzhou. It brought wide attention and many interpretations of the meaning of the speech.

The Three Represents results from Jiang Zemin's efforts to grapple with the diverse class backgrounds of party members and their sometimes conflicting material interests. Based on Mao's premise that the Communist Party should serve the people, it became important as China's private sector grew to bring "worthy people from all sectors who are loyal to the motherland and to socialism" into the Party.

In Jiang's speech on the Three Represents on the 80th anniversary of the founding of the CCP in 2001, he claimed that the expansion of "working class" would help the party remain advanced as the vanguard of the working class by expanding its popular support and increasing its social influence. Jiang made a statement on the concept of the working class that it includes intellectuals:

"With intellectuals being part of the working class, the scientific, technical and educational level of the working class has been raised considerably... Consequently some workers have changed their jobs. But this has not changed the status of the Chinese working class. On the contrary, this will serve to improve the overall quality of the working class and give play to its advantages as a group in the long run. The Chinese working class has always been the basic force for promoting the advanced productive forces in China. Our Party must remain the vanguard of the working class and unswervingly and wholeheartedly rely on the working class."

The Three Represents were written into the CCP constitution to be part of CCP's guiding ideology during the 16th Party National Congress in November 2002. It was also written to the Chinese Constitution on March 14, 2004.

The theory requires the CCP to: