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.

[4] 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.

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.

[10][11] Supporters viewed it as a further development of socialism with Chinese characteristics[10] or a mechanism to incorporate bourgeois elements into the discipline of the party.

[13][better source needed] The theory is most notable for allowing capitalists, officially referred to as the "new social strata", to join the party on the grounds that they engaged in "honest labour and work" and through their labour contributed "to build[ing] socialism with Chinese characteristics.

[16] Academic Lin Chun writes that while "nothing was politically incorrect in this banal statement" of the Three Represents, "it simply signaled that the party no longer even pretended to be the vanguard of the working class.

"[11] Academics Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung observe that the Three Represents helped co-opt economic elites and extend the party's reach into the growing private sector.

[17]: 79  Academic Pang Laikwan describes the Three Represents as legitimating privately-owned enterprises in the context of the socialist market economy.