On October 16, 2017, CNN's Fareed Zakaria wrote: "Meet the Most Powerful Man in the World". President Xi Jinping has consolidated his hold over China in a way not seen since Mao Zedong. In the process, he has become the world’s most powerful leader, The Economist editorializes as the country’s Communist Party prepares this week to reappoint Xi for another five-year term. That could be dangerous for China – and the world.
“The fate of the Soviet Union haunts him, and that insecurity has consequences. He mistrusts not only the enemies his purges have created but also China’s fast-growing, smartphone-wielding middle class, and the shoots of civil society that were sprouting when he took over. He seems determined to tighten control over Chinese society, not least by enhancing the state’s powers of surveillance, and to keep the commanding heights of the economy firmly under the party’s thumb,” The Economist argues. “All this will make China less rich than it should be, and a more stifling place to live. Human-rights abuses have grown worse under Mr Xi, with barely a murmur of complaint from other world leaders.”
“One-man rule is ultimately a recipe for instability in China, as it has been in the past -- think of Mao and his Cultural Revolution. It is also a recipe for arbitrary behavior abroad, which is especially worrying at a time when Mr Trump’s America is pulling back and creating a power vacuum. The world does not want an isolationist United States or a dictatorship in China. Alas, it may get both.”
“The fate of the Soviet Union haunts him, and that insecurity has consequences. He mistrusts not only the enemies his purges have created but also China’s fast-growing, smartphone-wielding middle class, and the shoots of civil society that were sprouting when he took over. He seems determined to tighten control over Chinese society, not least by enhancing the state’s powers of surveillance, and to keep the commanding heights of the economy firmly under the party’s thumb,” The Economist argues. “All this will make China less rich than it should be, and a more stifling place to live. Human-rights abuses have grown worse under Mr Xi, with barely a murmur of complaint from other world leaders.”
“One-man rule is ultimately a recipe for instability in China, as it has been in the past -- think of Mao and his Cultural Revolution. It is also a recipe for arbitrary behavior abroad, which is especially worrying at a time when Mr Trump’s America is pulling back and creating a power vacuum. The world does not want an isolationist United States or a dictatorship in China. Alas, it may get both.”
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