Last month, China’s 2300-member National People’s Congress held its annual meeting, where it unanimously ratified Xi Jinping for a third term as leader. Such longevity has not been seen since the days of Mao Zedong.
Xi secured his third term as China’s president, which is akin to a dictator from a western perspective. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has stamped out opposition, sidelined rivals, and cracked down on dissent. He undermined both formal and unwritten rules that his predecessors had put in place so he could move his people into top jobs and secure his position. He removed China’s constitutional limit of a two-term presidency—a rule introduced in 1982 to prevent the return of a Mao-style cult of personality. He introduced systematic surveillance of his population; and has persecuted the Uyghur minority in northwest China because they don’t adhere China’s mindset closely enough.
Xi has a difficult problem however: while centralizing authority, he is also seeking to expand the economy. Economies tend to flourish in free and open-markets, not bureaucracy and cronyism. Curbing the free flow of ideas has negative impacts on marketplaces. His assault on e-commerce and e-finance tools, and his zero-tolerance COVID, had a detrimental effect on growth. More broadly, economic stagnation has already begun to set in. China’s population is already close to the limits of effective nation-state governance, and centralizing power the way he has only further strangle decision-making. China’s government is so centralized that it will likely stagnate China’s future, at some point.
Xi is convinced that the Soviet Union collapsed due to “openness” and has vowed not to let it happen in China. He uses the oxymoron “democratic centralism” to describe his approach. Central, certainly; democratic, hardly. In addition to a unanimous ratification of Xi’s third term, the Congress also unanimously approved work reports and amended the party charter to give Xi more power. When was the last time 23 people unanimously agreed on anything—let alone 2300?
Source:
“Withering Heights: Another Five-year Term for Mr. Xi Portends a Hard Era for China and the World, Washington Post, editorial, 16 October 2022; A28.
Jennifer Jett and Megan Lebowitz, “Xi Jinping Secures Historica Third Term as Leader of China, NBC News, 23 October 2022, accessed from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/xi-jinping-china-third-term-rcna53539
Photo: Ng Han Guan, AP