Great, glorious, and correct

伟光正 (wěi guāng zhèng): great, glorious and correct

The phrase, “great, glorious and correct” (伟大光荣正确) has been used to describe the Communist Party for over forty years. For example, the title of an English article in the People’s Daily reads (with characteristic lack of irony), “The Communist Party of China is historically proved great, glorious and correct.” Recently, however, netizens have turned this term on its head and used it to sarcastically refer to the Party and the Party’s stubborn insistence on always being “great, glorious and correct.”

Netizens use the phrase in a number of ways:

1. As an adjective. For example, “When the country remains underdeveloped it is because the quality of the citizens is too low. When the country develops it is completely because they are ‘great, glorious and correct.'” ( 国家发展不起来，是因为国民素质太低，国情太复杂。国家发展起来，全是因为他们伟光正了。)

2. As a reference to the Party. “Great, glorious and correct cadres.” (伟光正的干部)

3. As a sarcastic personal name for the Party. (The term sounds like it could be a person’s name.) There is a fictional account (Chinese | English ) of comrade Wei Guangzheng (great, glorious, correct) who considers himself to always be right even though he clearly is not.

A 1960s Western cartoon picked up by a contemporary netizen is labeled in Chinese: "After the famine, the Party continues to be great, glorious and correct."