Make China great again
Richard Fulton
The last two weeks have been dominated by Trump squabbles, looming tax cut legislation, and North Korea. But the most important news, that will most affect America and the world for the next five to ten years has been the meeting of the 19th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Congress sets policies and priorities for the coming five years. Most important of all, however, is the choosing of its leadership. Historically this leader emerges from coalitions of influences within the society: the party structure, the military (and security officials), the government bureaucracy, and local leaders.
Five years ago this Congress elected Xi Jinxing as leader of the party. His term was five years but all recent chairs have served a second term and then reached the legal retirement age for leaders of 68.
Xi will be over that limit in five years and since Mao the Congress has picked someone who is the heir-apparent. Importantly, that did not happen this year as Xi was chosen unanimously to lead another five years without a successor on the horizon.
His main goal has been to reorganize and consolidate powers back into the hands of the Party. And he has purged top to bottom the old party of “corrupt” influences and replaced those leaders with those loyal to him.
In the process he has put the party into the center of Chinese life to an extent not seen since Mao Zedong, the revered founder of modern communist China.
Not since Mao has a Congress put the ideas and programs of its leader into the state constitution, Xi was thus honored and now in a preeminent position within the society and polity. Some fear a totalitarian dictatorship reemerging.
The only institution that could challenge Xi is the military. Xi has gone about upgrading the size and quality of the military and in the process purged key generals and replaced them with Xi supporters. The state bureaucracy is helpless to challenge Xi.
He has thus consolidated power into his hands. He has a “Chinese Dream” to revive the Chinese nation and its influence in the world. He is spending extensively on internal infrastructures and economic development which pleases many Chinese.
His theme echoes that of President Trump, he wants to make China great again. Part of this is an aggressive foreign policy. He challenges his neighbors and the U.S. on the China Sea by illegally placing military bases on man-made islands there.
China has embarked upon an ambitious foreign aid program by spending lavishly to aid developing nations build their infrastructures as a base for economic development and trade—not surprisingly, with China. Think WWII U.S. Marshall plan.
Though not trying to challenge America directly, he has traveled widely and become a significant world leader. As America withdraws from the world, Xi is trying to fill the gap. Xi, not Trump, is increasingly seen by many outside Europe as the worlds most dynamic leader.
What drives Xi is his focus on the rise of China as an economic, political and military country to be contended with. His key focus, however, remains the building and protecting of the Communist Party in China.
He has this overwhelming nightmare originating from the specter of what happened to the Soviet Union. He sees its demise as a cautionary tale: it could happen to China too. Thus the strengthening of all the strings of power into the hand of the Party. And the threads of party power are in his hands.
In his nearly three and a half hour speech opening the 19th Congress, Xi’s theme was “China Dream.” He said he wants to continue to transform China into a “mighty force” to lead the world in political, economic, military and environmental areas: a new era of Chinese global power.
Richard Fulton is an emeritus professor of political science.
