Let Putin be our lesson: Xi is the tyrant of the East
THe significance of Xi Jinping’s ‘re-election’ to another five years as leader of China’s ruling Communist Party can be measured by the calibre of those who rushed to congratulate him.
Step forward, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who has been in power since 2000, and North Korea’s hereditary Communist ruler, Kim Jong-un.
Washington, London and the rest of the West have remained silent. But we shouldn’t let our own political and economic crisis blind us to what is happening on the other side of the world. President Xi’s cementing of his absolute power over China has global implications.
He is the most dominant Communist leader of China since Mao. But unlike the verbose and flamboyant Mao, Xi is a coldly quiet dictator. He shares characteristics with another tyrant, Stalin; he is a control-freak rather than a demagogue stirring up crowds.
And, like Putin in Ukraine, he is prepared to risk conflict with the West. Taiwan is in his sights. Wrenching that island democracy back under Beijing’s rule is his proclaimed goal. Any Chinese invasion would spark a crisis with Taiwan’s friends, America and Japan, probably Britain too.
Growing Western support for Taiwan could persuade Xi to strike sooner rather than later – he’s an old man in a hurry and determined to leave a lasting legacy of Chinese supremacy. Xi’s obsession with achieving Zero Covid no doubt saved many Chinese lives but it condemned umpteen millions to home imprisonment for months on end, often hungry and despairing, in repeated draconian lockdowns. It also precipitated China’s economic slowdown that has – and continues to – weaken world trade.
INSTEAD of joining the rest of the world in trying to escape the grip of Covid, Xi seems to see the global economic crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an opportunity for China to throw
its weight around. A war over Taiwan would further disrupt, even shatter global supply chains. It is indicative of Xi’s mindset that he has made the Communist Party boss of Shanghai his second in command – a man who has been blamed for crippling China’s export capital with repeated lockdowns.
Li Qiang is an ultra-loyalist, an attribute prized more highly than competence, and he joins a team of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee – including Xi – handpicked for their service to their leader’s mania for domination. It can only get worse.
On Saturday, the regimented delegates in the Great Hall of the People sat like robots applauding dutifully and remaining utterly impassive even when their previous leader, Hu Jintao, 79, was suddenly hustled from the front row.
The official line is that he was ill, but his attempt to speak to Xi as he passed the president’s chair – he was waved away – was noteworthy. Two of Hu’s proteges had just been sacked by Xi.