China’s communist party has survived where others have failed - a testament to its capacity to adapt and reinvent itself with the times. Mao’s successors put ideology aside and focussed instead on economic growth.  Yet today, under Xi Jinping’s leadership, there is much lip-service paid to the ideology of the communist past, even while key communist principles like collectivism are actively undermined. With a slowing down economy, communist propaganda and nationalist fervour are Xi’s attempts at distraction from China’s reality, writes Niranjan Sahoo.