So I've been thumbing through Xi Jinping's books on "The Governance of China", which are actually just collections of his speeches and it makes for an interesting read. Consider this speech on what "core socialist values" means:
To cultivate and disseminate the core socialist values we must take traditional Chinese culture as the base. All concrete core values are deeply rooted. So, to renounce such values is tantamount to severing our cultural lifeline. The extensive, profound and outstanding traditional Chinese culture is the foundation for us to stand firm upon in the global mingling and clashing of cultures.
The long-developed Chinese culture embraces our deepest intellectual pursuits. It is an icon of the unique Chinese nation, and has ensured the lineage, development and growth of the Chinese nation. Traditional Chinese virtues are the essence of Chinese culture, and embody rich ethical and moral resources. Only by etching these values in our minds can we forge ahead, and only by carrying forward what our ancestors have left us can we learn to be more creative.
With regard to values, perceptions and ethics handed down for generations, we should make the past serve the present, discard the dross and keep the essential, eliminate the false and retain the true, and put forth new ideas. That is to say, we should treat and inherit them with a critical approach, and cultivate and educate the people with the Chinese cultural legacy.
We need to explain clearly the historical origin, evolution and basic tendency of the outstanding traditional Chinese culture and its uniqueness, perceptions and distinctive features, so as to enhance confidence in Chinese culture and values.
We should work hard to absorb the philosophical and moral essence of traditional Chinese culture, foster and disseminate our national character with patriotism at the core and at the call of the times, highlighted by reform and innovation, and identify and explicate their essential features of benevolence, people-orientation, integrity, righteousness, concordance and common ground.
We should properly handle the relationship between inheritance and innovation, with the focus on transforming and developing the fine traditional Chinese culture in a creative way.
Thus "traditional Chinese society is the "base" for core socialist values. However, how socialist can it be if traditional Chinese society is the foundation? In truth this reads more like fascism than communism, and I don't mean "fascism" as a term of aspersion or slur, but in the technical academic sense of how the nation itself is the fundamental basis for re-orienting and re-organising economic and corporate relations.
Here's another one about "core socialist values":
Chinese civilization has formed a unique value system over several millennia. The brilliant traditional Chinese culture is the essence of the nation and has deep roots in the Chinese people's mentality, influencing their way of thinking and behavior unconsciously.
Today, we advocate and carry forward the core socialist values through absorbing the rich nourishment of Chinese culture, so as to invigorate its vitality and broaden its influence.
Here are some quotations from ancient classics that I'd like to share with you today:
"The people are the foundation of a state,"
"The harmony of Nature and man,"
"Harmony without uniformity,"
"As Heaven changes through movement, a gentleman makes unremitting efforts to perfect himself,"
"When the Great Way prevailed, a public spirit ruled all under Heaven,"
"Everyone is responsible for his country's rise or fall,"
"Govern the country with virtue and educate the people with culture,"
"A gentleman has a good knowledge of righteousness,"
"A gentleman is broad-minded,"
"A gentleman takes morality as his bedrock,"
"Be true in word and resolute in deed,"
"If a man does not keep his word, what is he good for?"
"A man of high moral quality will never feel lonely,"
"The benevolent man loves others,"
"Do things for the good of others,"
"Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you,"
"Care for each other and help one another,"
"Respect others' elders as one respects one's own, and care for others' children as one cares for one's own,"
"Help the poor and assist those in difficulty,"
"Care less about quantity and more about quality."
These thoughts and ideas all displayed and still demonstrate distinctive national features, and have the indelible values of the times. We have updated them in keeping abreast of the times, while carrying them forward in an unbroken line.
As Chinese, we should always keep our own unique inner-world spirit, uphold values that we practice every day without noticing. The core socialist values we advocate today represent the inheritance and upgrading of outstanding traditional Chinese culture.
It's also pretty interesting how much he mentions "Heaven" unironically, like:
The future belongs to the young. Innovative young people are the source of our creativity and the best hope for our scientific and technological development. "I beg Heavenly Grandfather (老天爷) to bestir himself, and send down talented people of more kinds than one."
But the concept of Heaven 天 like the concept of Tao/道 has always been a complicated theological concept. It could mean something like God, Mozi philosophy which I love to quote certainly speaks of 天 or Heaven as loving us, but it could mean also something vaguer like "the Universe" or "Cosmos" in the sense modern Westerners use today.
Still, overall, I think it would be more accurate to describe China as a fascist regime rather than a communist regime.