CHina watchers were clinging to the words that CCP President Xi Jinping said in his two-hour-long speech on Monday, looking for signs of any policy signal that could mark a significant change. The speech is scrutinized for policy statements, which show no significant change from previous announcements by Xi over the past two years.
Xi has been crafting the story of a self-reliant policy in a troubled world for some time. He is the ultimate crisis manager. An ability he has honed over the years.
In the early 1980s, when Xi Jinping was the head of the county party in Hebei province, his mother, Qi Xin, wrote a Letter To the party chief of the province to take an interest in the progress of his son’s career.
Party chief Gao Yang revealed the details of Xi’s mother’s letter, which at the time was a major embarrassment to the family. But Xi has managed to avoid many such incidents and has made the crisis work for himself.
China today finds itself in a challenging international environment. Xi wants to use his fortune to again push the country to the status of a ‘leading world power’ – replacing the US.
Xi’s third term means he will remain in power until 2032. Xi has not appointed a clear successor, a deliberate move that he may do at the next party congress in 2027 and is likely to remain in the seat as chairman. By 2032 of the CCP.
His rise is marked by silently witnessing a crisis and jumping to opportunity when the time comes.
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remove rivals
a small group Of the 600 individuals, mainly from the Jiang Zemin faction, Xi was chosen around 2007 when Hu Jintao was the chairman. Despite Hu taking the reins of power, the influence of the Jiang Zemin faction has prevailed, and Xi has done everything to eliminate the influence of Jiang and his allies.
“He believed that the immaculate, low-key Xi would be more easily controlled than the flamboyant Bo, who would eventually fall after a complicated scandal in 2012. His remorse if true was only conceivable. But Jiang and Zeng Xi were hardly the only ones in the party to compromise.” wrote Deng Yuwen, a Chinese writer and scholar, in foreign policy,
When the party discussed the defeat of former Chongqing Party secretary Bo Xilai, Xi jumped to ensure that his rival monarchy would disappear from the corridors of Chinese politics forever. Xi ensured that Bo, who set an example in Chinese politics as members of the Politburo Standing Committee, was spared criminal punishment.
But Xi has a clear vision of punishing his rivals. After being accused of sexual harassment by tennis player Peng Shuai during the 20th Party Congress, the appearance of former Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli tells us that Xi protects those he considers allies.
Some elders who raised Xi to the pedestal after the Bo Xilai scandal listened to Xi’s speech at the 20th Party Congress on Monday.
But that doesn’t mean everyone who opposes Xi has been silenced. There remain silent adversaries among the Chinese elite who fear retribution for speaking out.
“Xi’s sources of support mean that even though his power has been challenged, he is not harmed. They have their own solid base of public support. As diverse and large as their opposition may be, especially among China’s elite, it is also divided, intimidated, unable to organize, and lacks a shared vision of any alternative or path to change. Xi’s enemies are many, but so are his weapons.” wrote Give in your essay.
Xi’s style of punishing his rivals draws inspiration from Chinese political theory legalism, Which makes him a feared and respected leader at the same time.
According to wall street journal, citing insiders, Xi may be the one to pack up the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) with his friends – demonstrating who will be honored or punished in Xi’s China. We will find out about personnel changes on or after Sunday when the meeting ends.
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Xi never ruin a good crisis
Xi’s success was understanding the wise of Chinese society during the transition between Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. China’s rapid economic growth through reform and opening up created an underbelly of corruption that was accepted by almost every Chinese elite as a state of affairs and was the result of the Chinese story of offering an alternative economic development model. .
But Xi saw an opportunity to crush all opposition by using his zeitgeist to tackle corruption and offer ‘shared prosperity’ as the new deal for the Chinese people.
Sources have told the author that a new brand of young bureaucrats approve of Xi’s ‘general prosperity’ campaign because fixing inequality is seen as one of the policy reforms needed to maintain internal stability in China.
19. duringth Party Congress, it was expected that Xi might appoint a successor during the 20th Party Congress. But instead, he chose to consolidate power and purify Even the security officers who helped lift him up in the first place.
20. Readingth The speech of the party congress shows that there is a lot of continuity in the policy ideas from the last 19th Party Congress. There is great continuity between the two congresses in the declarations on science and technology, Chinese-style modernization, general prosperity and national security.
But the difference can be understood in the context of how Xi plugs himself into these crises to offer a solution that has been building for a long time – even before Xi came to power.
“We must adhere to the priority development of education, self-reliance and self-improvement of science and technology, and the leadership and drive of talent, accelerate the building of a strong country in education, science and technology and talent, insists the party And for the country to focus on educating people, comprehensively improving the quality of independent training of talents, and creating top-innovative talent. The world’s talents use it,” Xi Jinping said in his speech at 20 p.m. said inth Party Congress.
The focus on promoting science and technological research shows that Xi sees China facing obstacles to national rejuvenation as it fails to advance in key industries without relying heavily on the outside world. Used to be.
Xi knows another crisis is on the way, as foreign technology is not being used on Chinese companies and wants to weather the storm with his usual style.
“Faced with drastic changes in the international landscape, especially in the face of external efforts to blackmail, prevent, blockade and exert maximum pressure on China, we have put our national interests first, focusing on internal political concerns. have done, and maintained a firm strategic determination.” Told In his speech on Monday.
Xi was once a rookie prince who used his family’s support to rise to influential party positions. Xi grows from strength to strength with each action choreographed to make his name as the ultimate crisis manager.
The author is a columnist and a freelance journalist, currently pursuing an MSc in International Politics with a focus on China from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He was previously a Chinese media reporter for the BBC World Service. He tweeted @aadilbrar. Thoughts are personal.
(edited by Prashant)