'New Contradiction' keeps pace with times

Everyone who followed the report of General Secretary Xi Jinping at the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China got the message loud and clear: A new era has begun.

Central to Xi's declaration that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era was his statement that "the principal contradiction" facing Chinese society, a maxim that has stood for 36 years, has changed. It is a shift that "affects the whole landscape".

The principal contradiction is a term most Chinese have grown up with since grade school. But only a small number of foreigners, those who are experts in Sinicized Marxism, will know this seemingly obscure piece of political jargon.