Is China Taking a Maoist Turn? An Incendiary Essay Ignites Discussion.

For years, Li Guangman, a retired Chinese newspaper editor, wrote in obscurity, firing off attack after attack at chic celebrities and celebrated tycoons whom he accused of betraying the sturdy socialist values of Mao. Few outside China’s fervent but narrow world of Maoist leftists read them.

Until now.

Mr. Li leapt to prominence recently after an essay he wrote railing at celebrity culture and misbehaving corporations ricocheted across China’s internet, spreading on far-left-wing websites and then on at least five major Communist Party-run news websites, including People’s Daily, suggesting support from at least some top leaders.

The official boost for Mr. Li’s polemic startled Chinese political and business circles when doubt had already been rising about the growing role of the Communist Party in the economy. Among some, the essay left the impression that the party could intensify its crackdown on private corporations, tighten its grip on culture and hound the rich. Some critics pointed ominously to echoes of Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, which had also emerged from attacks on the cultural elite by polemicists who were previously little known.

Perhaps surprised by the response, party officials and news outlets have tried to calm the waters without explicitly disavowing Mr. Li or removing his essay, and that has let confusion linger. On Wednesday, People’s Daily — one of the party news sites that shared Mr. Li’s essay — published a front-page editorial that said the government remained committed to market forces.

There is no evidence that China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, or other senior officials pushed Mr. Li’s essay, and China is unlikely to tip into the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution era. But the uproar has thrown a bright light on the ideological tensions and unease building as Mr. Xi assembles his agenda for a likely third term.

“Underlying this Li Guangman episode is deep anxiety and uncertainty about where Xi is taking politics and policy,” Jude Blanchette, the author of a study of China’s Maoist revivalists and the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in an interview. “It’s an anxiety based on uncertainty about this question: How far does all this go?”

In the essay, Mr. Li celebrates reports of wealthy stars being detained on accusations of sexual assault or fined for tax avoidance. He cheers the investigations and fines of some of China’s biggest private companies accused of abusing their market power, including Alibaba and Didi.

A “profound revolution” is close at hand, Mr. Li declared, as Mr. Xi cleanses the country of moral and political rot, clearing the way for socialist revival under the slogan of “common prosperity.”

“This transformation will wipe away all the dust,” Mr. Li wrote in his essay, first published on Aug. 27 on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform. “Capital markets will no longer be a heaven where capitalists can make a fortune overnight. The cultural marketplace will no longer be a heaven for sissy-boy celebrities.”

Two days later, a succession of party news sites republished a…