Political slogans of Chinese Communism

Let 100 flowers bloom (百花齐放) 1956

Dare to think, dare to act (敢想敢干) 1958

Smash the four olds (破四旧) 1966

4. Smash the gang of four (打倒四人帮) 1976

Reform and opening up (改革开放) 1978

Seek truth from facts (实事求是) 1978

"Seek truth from facts" is a good example. The phrase was deployed by Mao, possibly in the 1930s, so the new leadership could reuse it and claim legitimacy.

"Only if we emancipate our minds, seek truth from facts, proceed from reality in everything and integrate theory with practice, can we carry out our socialist modernisation programme smoothly," Deng said in a 1978 speech.

Dr Altehenger says it is a broad concept and presumes that there is an objective truth. In reality, whoever is running the show can dictate its meaning.

Have fewer children, raise more pigs (少生孩子多养猪) 1979

More graphic slogans have included: "Induce labour! Abortion! Anything but an excess baby", "If one family has an excess baby, the whole village will be sterilised" and "One more baby means one more tomb".

Three supremes (三个至上) 2007

It might sound like a Motown group, but in Hu Jintao's mind it was a way of controlling an increasingly reform-minded judiciary.

"In their work, the grand judges and grand procurators shall always regard as supreme the party's cause, the people's interest, and the constitution and law," he said.

Mr Hu effectively shut down the discussion of legal reforms by appointing as Supreme Court president Wang Shengjun, an apparatchik with no legal training.

Mr Wang set about making sure the courts obeyed the three supremes doctrine. Since then, the interests of the party have reigned supreme over the other two supremes.