capitalist roader

English

WOTD – 20 April 2023

From capitalist +‎ road (figurative) +‎ -er (suffix denoting a person associated with or supporting a particular doctrine, theory, or political movement), as a calque of Chinese 走資派 / 走资派 (zǒuzīpài, literally “one who takes the road of capital”), a contraction of 走資本主義道路(的)當權派 / 走资本主义道路(的)当权派 (zǒu zīběnzhǔyì dàolù (de) dāngquánpài, “those in power who take the capitalist road”), first used in Chinese Communist Party literature in 1965.^[1]^[2]

capitalist roader (plural capitalist roaders)

(China, Maoism, chiefly historical, derogatory) One (especially a Chinese Communist Party official) who bows to pressure from bourgeois forces and attempts to pull the Cultural Revolution in a capitalist direction. [from 1960s]
- 1976 February 26 [1976 February 25], “Shansi County Criticism Aids Tachai Emulation”, in Daily Report: People's Republic of China, volume I, number 39, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Taiyuan Shansi Provincial Service, translation of original in Mandarin, →ISSN, →OCLC, People's Republic of China: North Region, page K 2:
  Hsiangfen County CCP Committee has launched the cadres and masses to study Chairman Mao's teachings and criticize the revisionist program of "taking the three instructions as the key link" pushed by the unrepentant capitalist roaders in the party.

The term is generally associated with the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s.