UFWD-related mistakes aside, Ryan's is the latest in a series of rather odd articles claiming the CCP isn't particularly ideological or that our policy response shouldn't emphasize its ideology. I think this maybe stems from a misunderstanding of what ideology is to the CCP. https://twitter.com/alexjoske/status/1306352524979367936

In the Anglosphere we typically use the word "ideologue" to describe someone absolutely set on bringing about a particular set of political *ends*. So we apply the term to people who are passionately pro-choice or anti-gun or whatever, describe them pejoratively as "ideological".

People who obsess over the *means* of getting and keeping power may or may not be ideologues in this framing. Barack Obama couldn't have become president without being absolutely committed to the acquisition of power, but he's not usually thought of as super ideological.

Similarly, someone whose sole aim in democratic politics is to maintain power is not thought of as ideological. They're just power mad.

For the CCP though, the mechanics of politics and power--how power is acquired, maintained, and grown--are *part of its ideology*. To wit, the tactics and structure of the United are an important means to power, and *also* an important component of Party ideology.

(I'm using the United Front as an example here, but you can make the same argument with other components of Party state ideology like Party building.)

Put differently, the Party is ideologically committed to the use of United Front tools, tactics, and institutions to maintain unchallenged Party leadership of PRC society. This ideological commitment produces a set of behaviors that's unlikely to change.

Which is why it's not really helpful to try to describe the Party as non-ideological! Sure they have a country to run and can be flexible in what policies they implement. But while policies can come and go, the ideology of how power is acquired and maintained changes very little.

This also includes things like the Party's absolute commitment to secrecy, and, relatedly, its use of falsehoods to achieve political goals. Unseeing the unity of ends and means in Party ideology is unseeing most of the things that make its rise to global power concerning.