Soon after coming to power, Xi launched a series of anti-corruption campaigns, targeting political opponents and consolidating his control over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “From the beginning, he used selective anti-corruption campaigns to remove political opponents,” said Hsin-Hsien Wang, an expert on Chinese politics at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taiwan. “In addition, he also tried to institutionalize his concentration of power,” Wang told DW. “Unlike other authoritarian leaders, who achieve concentration of power through oppression, Xi established new institutions to expand the scope of his power. These moves help further institutionalize his power.”
Xi Jinping’s Thought
In addition to consolidating power, Xi has also increased efforts to promote the concept of the “China Dream,” while defining his trademark ideology of “Xi Jinping Thought” as the party’s guiding principle. “He also carried out various reforms,” Wang continued. “In terms of ideology and his own historical position, he introduced Xi Jinping’s thought and passed many laws.” The doctrine of Xi Jinping Thought is seen as a blueprint for consolidating and strengthening power at three levels: for the nation, the party, and for Xi himself. To create his own legacy within the CCP, Xi began a complex process of discarding certain paradigms from the “era of reform and opening up,” while retaining other characteristics from that particular period of Chinese history. “He follows a path that is different from Deng Xiaoping, which is emphasized by key concepts such as ‘common prosperity,’” Wang explained. “He is walking away from Deng’s legacy while creating Xi Jinping’s own legacy.” Other experts believe that Xi has used the past decade to transform the CCP’s collective leadership into personal leadership. “This is the biggest change in China’s social and political structure since Xi came to power,” said Teng Biao, a United States-based Chinese legal scholar. “While the CCP has been in control of China since 1949, reform momentum since the early 1990s has been stifled by Xi.” To further consolidate its power over the CCP, the Chinese National People’s Congress abolished presidential term limits. And after the 20th Party Congress, Xi secured an unprecedented third term as president by surrounding himself with loyalists. “Many Western countries expected China to gradually realize democracy and an open society through market-oriented reforms and integration into the international economic system, but this expectation has not been realized,” Teng told DW. “This result has prompted Western countries to move away from the policy of engagement, and the changing international environment has also deeply affected China’s political development and economy,” he added.
Biden and Xi are set to hold talks at the G20 summit
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Strengthening control in society
In addition to consolidating power around him, Xi has also tightened his control over civil society and stepped up repression of various communities over the past 10 years. In 2015, authorities arrested hundreds of human rights lawyers across China, several of whom were jailed while others had their licenses revoked for taking on sensitive cases. “The limited space that existed in civil society during the ‘reform and opening up’ period has been suffocated by Xi over the past decade,” Teng said. “Since he took power, human rights lawyers, family churches, the feminist movement and NGOs have been brutally suppressed by the Chinese authorities. Basically, any kind of civil society development has stopped.” In addition, China began placing a large number of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang in internment camps in 2017, with the United Nations estimating that more than one million Uighurs may have been targeted in this campaign. Despite repeated condemnation from human rights groups and foreign governments, China has described these camps as “vocational training centers” and claimed that the aim of these programs is “to fight extremism”. Elsewhere, after a month-long pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong in 2019, authorities and police responded by arresting and prosecuting thousands of protesters. And in July 2020, China’s legislature imposed a national security law on Hong Kong that further criminalized most civil society activities and created an exodus of people from the former British colony. The situations in Hong Kong and Xinjiang “turned out to be much worse than many of us would have predicted at the time,” Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, told DW. “I think that says a lot about how Xi and his allies see certain communities as a threat.” Some experts say that while China’s human rights record had begun to deteriorate before Xi took power, the pace of deterioration has accelerated since he became president. “Although they were already severely oppressed before Xi’s reign, people who support democracy and freedom in China still hoped that through their efforts and sacrifices, they could enlighten the people and promote the rule of law in China,” said Yaqiu Wang, a senior China official. researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But since Xi became China’s top leader, he has dampened morale in civil society and made many people feel hopeless. As a human rights worker, I think the change is profound and huge,” he told DW.
Scholz calls for China to exert influence on Russia
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Xi’s international ambition
While he has focused on consolidating his power at home over the past decade, Xi has also launched a series of ambitious international initiatives to expand China’s global influence. He launched the massive, multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, facilitated Beijing’s expansion into the South China Sea, and used China’s economic leverage to deepen its influence in the UN system. The aggressive style of diplomacy that emerged during Xi’s reign has become known as “wolf warrior diplomacy,” which is perceived very differently at home and abroad. NCCU’s Wang said Xi’s rise to power has exacerbated the rivalry between China and the US, as Beijing’s aggressive diplomatic style has sparked concern in the United States. “Chinese aggression in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait have worried the US and other neighboring countries,” he told DW. “While competition between Beijing and Washington may be difficult to avoid, Xi’s emergence has, directly and indirectly, accelerated the pace of competition. While Western countries led by the US are trying to adjust their attitudes towards China, Beijing sees these moves as part of “national revitalization”. China believes the US is trying to contain its rise by working with neighboring countries,” he added. Across the Taiwan Strait, analysts believe the biggest change Xi has introduced is to further the political ambiguity of Beijing’s position on unification with Taiwan. “In the speech he gave on January 2, 2019, Xi clearly stated that the condition for China and Taiwan to reach a consensus is to agree on unification,” Wang told DW.
Outgoing UN human rights chief defends legacy defends legacy
To view this video, please enable JavaScript and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video “In that speech, Xi clearly said that Beijing will actively explore the option of completing unification with Taiwan through the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ model, and all political parties or individuals who support unification are welcome to carry out “democratic negotiations” with Beijing. that speech, all public statements from Beijing on Taiwan focused on fulfilling the goal,” he added. And with US policies towards Taiwan having changed significantly in recent years, with US President Joe Biden repeatedly saying Washington would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, Wang says this fundamental shift is prompting Beijing to preached against foreign intervention and against independence as the two main goals for unification.
There is no democratic optimism in sight
As China enters another five years under Xi’s rule, Chinese scholar Teng Biao does not believe Xi will loosen his grip on society, nor does he believe there will be any effort to improve the human rights or rule of law situation in the country. China. “He [Xi] would categorically reject any possibility or suggestion that China would move towards constitutional democracy,” Biao told DW. “However, it also faces the dilemma of finding the balance between economic and political stability. The Chinese economy has already been in great difficulty due to some of the policies it has implemented, including the zero COVID strategies and the crackdown on private entrepreneurs.” As a result, there could be “political instability” on the horizon, according to Teng. But “when it comes time to choose between the two, both Xi and top CCP leaders will prioritize regime stability,” he said. Edited by John Silk
