BEIJING: A decade ago, when powerful clandestine factions of China’s ruling Communist Party chose Xi Jinping as a compromise candidate to lead the party to end a bitter power struggle, some people were clueless. Was that the gentle and seductive “Prince” would put himself on it. Mold the party’s founder Mao Zedong and carve your way to become the leader for a lifetime.
At the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in November 2012 to choose the successor to then-president Hu Jintao, there was a toss between then-Vice President Xi and Urban and Intellectual Deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
Xi won the race, after which Hu, who sided with Li, made a quiet exit following a strongly adhered to the rule, after which all of his predecessors handed the reins to Xi, who had been replaced by the former dominant vice. He was known as ‘Prince’ for having sons. Xi Zhongxun, Prime Minister of the Mao era.
Li, once Xi’s rival, who in the coming months became the number two-ranked leader with the rank of premier, fell in line and endorsed Xi as the main leader, which allowed him to rule the party and the country. He was made the sole leader in the matter.
Xi Jinping re-elected as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
After ten years at the 20th Congress that concluded in Beijing on Saturday, it was 69-year-old Xi’s turn to hand over the reins to a successor as per the old rule, but the CPC turned the page on its change of leadership to allow for his continuation. For a record third term and onwards.
Xi’s efforts to strengthen CPC’s leadership
Xi’s rise to power and the rapid consolidation of the party’s own leadership coincided with a shocking anti-corruption campaign to achieve the title of “chief leader” of the party, in fact the party It forced its rivals into submission and grabbed the attention of the world.
Xi’s term as president: crackdown on corruption
From the first day of assuming power, Xi launched a brutal campaign against corruption that, in addition to striking a chord with the people, helped him systematically oust political opponents, especially top generals, who challenged him. Was.
“If there was only one lens to explain Xi Jinping’s remarkable growth over the past decade, it would be his signature anti-corruption campaign,” said former Hong Kong-based editor-in-chief Wang Jiangwei. South China Morning Post.
Since coming to power in late 2012, Xi and his supporters have cleverly combined this brutal effort with a relentless ideological campaign aimed at crushing political rivals and consolidating control at all levels of society, Wang wrote in his recent column in the Post. ,
“Xi has examined and disciplined nearly five million high-ranking and grassroots officials, or tigers and flies, over the past decade,” Wang said.
According to Xinhua, more than 400 officials of ministerial level or above have been punished or investigated in the past nine years, including a former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and two former vice-presidents of the Centre. military commission.
“The facts prove that if corruption is allowed to spread, it will eventually lead to the destruction of a party and the collapse of the government,” Xi said in a stern warning.
Xi’s father was persecuted by Mao for his liberal views
Unlike many communist leaders, Xi, born in 1953, followed closely to power as his father, Xi Zhongxun, a revolutionary hero, was appointed by Mao as Minister of Propaganda and Education. At a very young age, Xi and his family went through a painful period of suffering when his father was persecuted by Mao for his liberal views.
According to one account, Xi spent his childhood close to Mao in Zhongnanhai, the official residential complex of the party leadership in Beijing.
But at the same time, Xi sees his father being dishonest with Mao and losing all privileges after being exiled. At the age of 13, Xi had to drop out of school to go to the countryside
Mao’s period of the Cultural Revolution, enduring hardships.
Xi joined the CPC in 1974
After repeated attempts, Xi was able to join the CPC in 1974. Years later, Xi was quoted as saying that there were attempts to prevent him from entering the CPC, citing his father’s alleged wrongdoings.
“When there is a mistake, the judgment is there. But where is my father against? Who do you think I am? What have I done? Have I written or spoken revolutionary slogans? I am a youth who wants It’s to build a career. What’s the problem with that??,” Xi asked.
He was just 15 years old when he arrived in Liangjiahe in Shaanxi as an “educated youth” in 1969, as a recent article in the state-run Xinhua news agency highlighted his early life. “38 years and multiple postings at different levels of the party’s hierarchy will take him time to reach the top position,” Xinhua news agency wrote in the write-up.
From 1975 to 1979, Xi studied chemical engineering at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University.
Xi Jinping’s Family: Married to Folk Singer, Daughter Harvard Graduate
Xi is married to the famous Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan. They have a daughter named Xi Mingze, who pursued a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Harvard and later returned to Beijing after Xi emerged as the country’s top leader.
Observers say that the analysis of Xi’s ten years in power, his systematic accumulation of power and the contemptuous treatment of some top officials, including military generals, was born out of the pain he and his family, especially his father. had to endure.
Author of the book ‘Xi sought power, not money’: Inside the mind of Xi Jinping.
Francois Bogan wrote in his book ‘Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping’, “Xi Jinping, who grew up in a Beijing neighborhood inhabited by senior officials, did not seek wealth. It was power that attracted.”
“According to statements from a former acquaintance collected by the US Embassy (in Beijing) between 2007 and 2009, Xi was always ‘extraordinarily ambitious’ and ‘never lost track of his goal’ which was to reach the highest echelons. ” wrote.
During his decade in power, Xi’s critics within the CPC have grown. One such critic was Cai Xia, who was a professor at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China from 1998 to 2012.
Xi was the principal of the party’s prestigious ideological school when he was the vice-president.
Cai said that if growing resentment among some of the party’s elite meant that his bid would not go completely unopposed, he would probably be successful.
Will Xi tighten his grip on the CCP?
“But that success will bring more unrest down the road,” Kai, who later became a bitter critic of Xi and managed to emigrate to the US, wrote in his recent article on Xi’s more than 10 years in power overseas. Wrote in the journal of affairs. tenure.
Buoyed by the unprecedented additional stint, Xi will likely further strengthen his hold at the domestic level and expand his ambitions at the international level, he wrote.
However, Xi’s supporters argue that the party and the country need him.
Without a strong leadership core, the CPC will find it difficult to unify the will of the entire party or to build solidarity and unity among people of all ethnic groups, said Wang Junwei, a research fellow at the CPC Central Committee’s Institute for Party History and Literature. .
He added that it would not be able to achieve anything or carry out “its great struggle with many new historical features”.
For China and the Chinese people, Xi’s stay in power heralds a new era with the trappings of the Mao era. But to the world, Xi is by now a familiar figure, said a senior diplomat, who prefers to remain anonymous. “Xi is China’s new normal. Continuity is kind of good because the world has seen his ten years of rule. We know each other,” he said.
But the zero-COVID policy could pose a major challenge to the Chinese leader as he basks in his long reign, the unnamed diplomat said.
Dismantling the zero-COVID policy could be a moral, ethical and political dilemma for Xi as he blamed world leaders for neglecting his people while China cared for them.
He said that such policies can make or break any system, no matter how strong it is, as livelihood for people is as important as their life.