Here
and
Now

opinions

How power and ideology define Xi's rise in China

6 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


6 Comments
Login to comment

Xi's definitely taking the CPC in some interesting directions that are probably ultimately smart, even if I don't necessarily agree with all of them. The CPC has almost seemed more of a "state capitalist" economy at times rather than a fully realised communist one, but that has given them a kind of leeway and independence that protects them against the kind of undermining and opposition other communist countries have had to deal with. Cuba or Vietnam can definitely attest to those kinds of difficulties.

Now they have a degree of established economic independence, there seems to be a gradual trend towards a more communist style economy; increased state control over various services and making something of an example out of private enterprises like Evergrande. They don't have to worry about the kind of economic sanctions countries like Cuba have had to deal with moving forward.

I'll be honest, I would have liked to see them not take such a capitalist path to get where they are, I have worried for years that the revolution would have ultimately been for nothing. However if the model works in the end it could provide a plan for a lot of other nations moving forward.

It is definitely a long-term plan that has probably been in motion since he stepped into power, and I am very interested to see howit pans out over the next 10-15 years or so.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

A despot by any other name is still a despot. He calls himself a president, but at this point he could call himself The Highest Mucky Muck of All Time, and no one could dispute him.

The rest of the world is left with the practical problem of dealing with him, since there is nothing anyone can do to limit him to two terms. We can hope that he doesn't decide that destroying the world is in his best interests.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Technology and medicine are advancing such that it may soon be possible to extend a person's life well past the century mark. Will we then have to put up with despots who are not just dictator-for-life, but dictator for longer than a normal life? The interests of such despots will be in securing their own power, and the welfare of the population will be a far distant second to the goal of staying in power.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

1glennToday  12:01 pm JST

A despot by any other name is still a despot. He calls himself a president, but at this point he could call himself The Highest Mucky Muck of All Time, and no one could dispute him.

The rest of the world is left with the practical problem of dealing with him, since there is nothing anyone can do to limit him to two terms. We can hope that he doesn't decide that destroying the world is in his best interests.

The factor that many people don't realize is, he's still a dictator with a personality cult. Marx explicitly condemned that in his writings, but then since when has 'Communism' ever been true to his utopian theory? It wasn't with Lenin, it wasn't with Stalin, it wasn't with Mao, it wasn't with Pol Pot, it wasn't with Ceascescu, it ain't with Kim and it ain't with Xi. And a 'President' of a Communist Party like the CCP is still an Orwellian despotic scumbag. After all, Mao and his stupid 'Cutural Revolution' *(I'm more Commie than you, comrade!*) cost the lives of millions of Chinese. And seeing Xi on those huge video screens talking all that ideology crap - *Lord, it makes me ***SICK! **

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@Addfwyn, I think Baby Ping Ping is killing the goose that laid the golden egg and boiling the egg to boot. He is crushing the free wheeling innovation that allowed China's economy to rise the way it has. Deng ended a great deal of the crushing state control that, under Mao, led to China's near collapse. Regions were give latitude to experiment and individuals were given freedom to start profit making businesses. Xi Jinping seems intent on crushing all of that. After basically removing Jack Ma from the control of his company and imposing harsh regulatory measures on it, and other similar large Chinese tech firms he then told China's entrepreneurs to look to the inefficient, sclerotic State Owned Industries for leadership in their respective sectors. That directive if followed through on will end entrepreneurship in China. In government Xi has required regional leaders to follow detailed orders from Beijing and report back in detailed written form how they are implementing the central governments orders. The days of the different regions being innovative and competing against each other are over. I don't see the Chinese economy growing much under such circumstances. Add in their demographic problems, the working age population began to decline in 2014 and overall population is entering a period of decline that will see the proportion of aged non-working Chinese increase rapidly as the workforce to support them continues to shrink. Also consider China faces a decline in water resources as their mountain glaciers melt, aquifers are depleted and farmland is lost to desertification. Yet instead of looking for ways to minimize problems Baby Ping Ping picks internal fights with the Uyghurs, the Inner Mongolians, Hong Kong and external fights with Taiwan and the nations bordering the South China Sea. Most of the CCP membership are not Maoist true believers. Members from government came up in the freewheeling post Deng China and the rest are business owners and mostly very wealthy business owners who joined the CCP to network and possibly influence policy in business friendly ways. One has to wonder how long they will tolerate Xi's revanchist policies before they do to him what an earlier CCP did to the Gang of Four?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Baby Ping Ping makes me think of something Adam Smith wrote nearly 250 years ago:

“The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests, or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it.

He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might chuse to impress upon it. If those two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously, and is very likely to be happy and successful. If they are opposite or different, the game will go on miserably, and the society must be at all times in the highest degree of disorder.”

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites