Noah Feldman, Bloomberg: China Now Faces the Downsides of Dictatorship
The period of term-limited presidents corresponded with unprecedented growth. Now Xi Jinping is changing the rules.
China’s nearly 30-year experiment with time-limited government is officially coming to an end. The Chinese Communist Party has suggested amending China’s constitution to allow President Xi Jinping to serve more than two five-year terms. Considering that the party rules the country, and Xi rules the party, that means two things: The constitution will be amended. And Xi is going to be president for life, much like Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping.
From the standpoint of communism, this result isn’t terribly surprising. From Lenin to Stalin to Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov, the Soviet Union was never out of the hands of a dictator-like ruler until Gorbachev presided over its collapse.
Nor is Xi’s ascent surprising in the light of China’s traditional norm of imperial rule, which effectively carried over into communism.
Read more ....
Update #1: Xi Won’t Go: A China File Conversation (China File)
Update #2: In China, the Dawn of the Xi Dynasty? (Ashish Kumar Sen)
WNU Editor: There are three events that have always stuck with me when it comes to Chinese President Xi ....
Chinese President Xi Jinping Wants To Now Be Referred As 'The Core Leader' (February 5, 2016)
Chinese President Xi Visits State Newsrooms. Demands Total Loyalty (February 19, 2016)
Chinese President Xi Wants The Chinese Military To Address Him As 'Chairman' (July 12, 2017)
The red flags were always there.
As for the future .... it is going to get worse on multiple levels. Since the adoption of a consensual political system at the top starting in the 1980s, China has enjoyed the greatest growth in its history. The provinces felt that their concerns were being addressed, and the growing entrepreneur class felt secure. No more now. The power in China is now going to be concentrated in the hands of President Xi, his cadre of supporters, and the Beijing bureaucracy. President Xi is a man driven more by ego rather than ideology .... and for modern day China this is going to be a new experience.
That's a bad news for China, but a good one for us. A country driven by bureaucracy is always rigid on everything and slowing it a lot.
ReplyDeleteJac,
ReplyDeleteYou may well be right. The Chinese model had been working. Now having changed this, who knows what will happen.
Bureaucracy is generally bad. This is one of the things POTUS has been trying to change with the streamlining of regulations. Much progress has been made but much work still needs to be done.
@WNU, I would add to the list
ReplyDelete4. Xi asks soldiers to swear loyalty to him and "not fear death"