President for Life

  By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

The twentieth congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that opened Oct. 16 in Beijing makes Xi Jinping, the party’s general secretary and country’s president, effectively in charge for life. It seems to have completed his elevation to uncontested paramount leader of China.

But as he begins his third term, he must contend with a severe economic slowdown, tensions with the United States over the contested island of Taiwan and China’s militarization of disputed atolls in the South China Sea, and his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as war rages in Ukraine.

COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS

Xi addressed the “Zero-covid” policy, which has crushed consumption, bankrupting thousands of small businesses and dragging down growth this year to three per cent, the lowest figure in four decades. In September alone, a month of only minor COVID-19 outbreaks, Xi’s COVID-19 lockdowns kept 313 million people indoors.

He told the 2,300 delegates that there would be no loosening of restrictions. “Zero-covid” was a “people’s war to stop the spread of the virus.” Xi commended the policy saying it helped protect “the people's life safety and physical health to the greatest extent.”

He added that the country “achieved major positive results in the overall prevention and control of the epidemic” but refrained from indicating if the stringent policy was coming to an end anytime soon. While the policy has saved lives, it has also exacted a punishing toll on the Chinese people and economy. There is increasing public fatigue over lockdowns and travel restrictions.

But it has also been a pretext to reinforce the already constant surveillance of everyday life, the all-pervading censorship and suppression of dissent. The security apparatus keeps a lid on popular unrest, though discontent is beginning to burgeon over mounting environmental scandals. Xi promised the continuation of an “energy revolution” and promotion of clean use of coal, while addressing soil, air and water pollution.

POLITICAL VULNERABILITY

Does the presence of invasive surveillance systems indicate a broader political vulnerability that the Chinese Communist Party is papering over? There was even a rare protest in Beijing Oct. 13. Two banners hung on an overpass of a major thoroughfare, protesting against Xi’s authoritarian rule.

“Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” read one banner. “Go on strike, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping,” read the other.

Xi also addressed the issue of Taiwan. He declared Beijing would “never promise to renounce the use of force” and that “complete reunification of our country must and will be realised.” He said that “the resolution of the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese themselves to decide.”

On Hong Kong, Xi maintained that, by imposing a sweeping national security law on the territory after prodemocracy demonstrations in 2019, he had turned the situation from “chaos to governance.” He has also launched crackdowns on the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

EMPHASIS ON GROWTH

Xi urged faster military and technological growth, in order to further the “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” He added that the People's Liberation Army must “safeguard China's dignity and basic interests.” China is at odds with the governments of the United States, Japan,

India, and other Southeast Asian nations over its territorial claims in the region.

Xi also claimed that the Communist Party “has won the largest battle against poverty in human history” with Beijing’s domestic policies prioritizing the advancement of shared prosperity. The government aims to speed up the creation of a housing system and enhance the system of wealth distribution.

“The CCP’S political legitimacy lies in socioeconomic delivery,” remarked Collin Koh of Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. “The average Chinese citizen will feel that things are not going very well, so there’s a need to reinvigorate the kind of growth China has been more used to in recent decades.”

Xi Jinping is somebody who has spent years declaring “that the party only works with him as leader, and only his way of thinking about things is accurate,” asserted Joseph Torigian, a China historian at American University in Washington.

We shall see whether this holds true.