+ Brazil...

“The past decade has proved that a system in which the top leader decides everything is riddled with problems. This has been especially true in Xi’s second term, which was marked by a great deal of centralization. Economic policy has been chaotic, and the growth rate has dropped significantly.” History is Key

Charles Burton, who served as a senior Canadian diplomat in Beijing, says the Chinese supremo will pay a costly price for his audacious treatment of Hu. “Xi is playing a dangerous game by flouting deeply held Chinese cultural norms of respect for seniors. In ancient times, the emperor of a defeated dynasty was allowed to live out his life in dignity, writing out the history of his ancestral rule. By overturning the norms of Chinese filial piety, Mr. Xi may have gone a step too far.”

Strongmen Fundamental in Communist Systems The perspicacious Gordon Chang writes

that strongmen always overstep.

And a strongman, unfortunately, is inherent in the Chinese Communist Party’s vicious system.

Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic (PRC), turned what was supposed to be a regime run by party committee into one run by a single person. Mao then nearly destroyed the CPC with alarming, half-baked campaigns like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

The Golden Era of Deng Xiaoping

Mao’s successor Deng Xiaoping regularized domestic politics by developing norms, guidelines, agreements and rules.

Sinologists were full of praise for what they called a “meritocratic” system. Especially in the first decade of this century, China experts, even regime critics, marveled at the transformation – the institutionalization of the CCP -- claiming it had solved the problem of leader succession, the one weakness or Achilles heel of all Communist and hard-line systems.

Chang is of the opinion that the CCP – like all Communist parties is not capable of reform. Oneman rule is inherent in a system that idealizes struggle and dominance. [It is a moot question to what extent the Communist parties of Nepal – including the Maoists -- have reformed themselves. In any case, the phenomenon of holding on to power and the top leadership continues unabated. At the same time, it is also the case with a supposedly ‘democratic’ party like the Nepali Congress. All these political leaders seem to believe that without them the country would go the dogs. The fact is that because of them, the country has reached the nadir of all-round development. They have come to enjoy the power, prestige and perks of office – and, of course, massive political manipulation and uncontrolled corruption. The country badly needs fresh, younger and a dynamic leadership.