Xi Jinping dreams of world power for himself and China

President Xi Jinping of China has played his boldest political card yet, maneuvering to extend his rule indefinitely so that he can maintain control of the country’s complex system long enough to achieve the dream of great-power status, asserting economic and political influence across the globe.

Since China began to open to the West in the late 1970s, the United States and its allies have tried to integrate it into the political and economic system they built after World War II, hoping that economic progress would lead eventually to political liberalization.

Mr. Xi’s move proves that policy has failed and that China will set its own path, challenging the liberal order based on the rule of law, human rights, open debate, free-market economics and a preference for elected leaders who leave office peacefully after a fixed period. Despite increasing concerns about China’s evolution, the West has yet to come to grips with this threat.

Since taking office in 2013, Mr. Xi has amassed power assiduously, taking control of not just the government but also of the Chinese Communist Party, the military and the press. He has imposed his views on the educational system and culture, hardening

an already authoritarian system that ruthlessly controls social media and wields law enforcement to crush dissent. The obsession with control hints at a deeply insecure state, not a global power.

Nevertheless, he has persuaded the party to effectively make him emperor for life by announcing plans to amend the Constitution to abolish term limits, which would have ended his presidency in 2023.

The changes seem to ensure that Mr. Xi will continue pursuing his agenda, which has begun to lift millions of people out of poverty, reformed state-owned enterprises, protected the environment and built strategic industries. If all goes according to plan, he could preside over the transition when China eclipses the United States as the world’s largest economy in absolute terms within two decades.

Diverging from the free-market path, Mr. Xi has involved his government more deeply in economic affairs, reining in China’s private companies and insisting on more market access abroad for Chinese businesses while limiting opportunities for foreign companies in China. That’s a major reason the Trump administration formally declared China a strategic competitor and is preparing to impose tariffs on some Chinese imports and to limit Chinese technology investments in the United States. The two sides will have a chance to discuss the matter when China’s top economic strategist, Liu He, visits Washington this week.

In a break from his predecessors, Mr. Xi is also pushing a more aggressive foreign policy that includes establishing military bases in the Western Pacific and Africa, modernizing the military and starting a $1 trillion program to develop roads, bridges and power networks across Asia, Europe and Africa. He has worked to dilute international norms on human rights and interfered to an alarming extent in Australia’s political and economic life.

Mr. Xi has also been touting China as an alternative model to politically strained democracies like the United States, and such ideas, fueled by Beijing’s checkbook diplomacy, have found resonance in places like Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand.

But doubling down on the strongman model is risky. By moving from an autocratic collective to one-man rule, Mr. Xi has upset the political norms that were put in place to erase the personality cult of Mao and make political transitions more predictable.

The system Mr. Xi has created also makes it less likely he will receive sound policy advice or be challenged on decisions in ways that could avoid mistakes. That’s because he solidified his power base during the first term by waging an aggressive campaign against corruption and dissent, silencing political rivals and stacking the ruling Politburo with loyalists reluctant to speak up.

But not all are happy. Despite the risk, a well-known political commentator and a prominent businesswoman have penned open letters urging lawmakers to reject a plan that would allow Mr. Xi’s power grab.

One has to wonder what such control will do to innovation, a driver of progress in successful economies. Or whether knowing he has a job for life, Mr. Xi – who has presented himself as a benign father figure overseeing China’s peaceful rise – may be tempted by other risks, including in foreign policy.

By consolidating unfettered power, Mr. Xi now owns it all. If he fails, there is no one to blame but himself. And there are many daunting problems facing China, including an aging population, a need to maintain high growth rates, and heavily indebted state-owned and private businesses.

Whether Mr. Xi succeeds or fails at this experiment in dictatorship matters not just to China but the rest of the world as well. He is increasingly dominating the international space as President Trump cedes America’s traditional leadership role, including its defense of democratic norms.

The American counterbalance must be more creative and comprehensive than just starting a trade war, as Mr. Trump is inclined to do. In this regard, the White House’s response to Mr. Xi’s power grab was not encouraging. “That’s a decision that would be up to China,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Monday.