China’s tilt to a totalitarian state from an authoritarian one began on Sunday with the general secretary of the Chinese Communist party, Xi Jinping, retaining his status for an unprecedented third term. Mr Xi’s elevation to Mao-like status comes as no surprise as the party had been deifying him at least in the last four years since he got them to do away with the two-term limit on the presidency.
With a cohort of his favourites handpicked by him — including Shanghai party boss Li Qiyang who is likely to be the next Prime Minister by March 2023 replacing the out-of-favour incumbent Li Keqiang — to take the reins of administration in Beijing, it is the world that will have to brace itself for dealing with one of the strongest men on the planet in charge of the second biggest economy and heading the People’s Liberation Army that is to be modernised and weaponised in being vested with greater power.
Mr Xi’s treatment of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, whose forced departure was deliberately played out in front of the cameras during the closing session of the party congress, symbolised the message the general secretary wishes to convey with his utter ruthlessness. He is the “emperor” who will be presiding over a new China era while the old one of a consultative regime with a bit of openness and double-digit economic growth is long over.
A culture of hero worship, cultivated by men like Mao Zedong, may not sit too well in these post-modern times but Mr Xi has retrofitted China into a time in which the “chairman of everything” might be aiming at spending the rest of his active life as the “core” whose political vision will be central to China’s future. Mr Xi’s rise in the last 10 years has also taken the world back to an atavistic bipolar state with China’s support for another totalitarian, Vladimir Putin, ruling Russia being key to sealing the new alignment.
With Taiwan as an immediate bargaining chip that Mr Xi could cash at any time, a polarised world may be in for tenser times even as the Ukraine war rages. Of course, Mr Xi may be preoccupied for a while more with internal conditions marked by slower economic growth while China is still in the grip of Mr Xi’s “Zero Covid” policy, which may be spreading a bit of disaffection. The people’s will may, however, be subservient to the State’s wishes even as Mr Xi propounds Jiang Zemin’s theory of China’s socialist market economy based on Karl Marx’s historical materialism for the common good.
It must be a source of wonder for the rest of the world that 1.4 billion people, or a fifth of the global population, should be willing to be subjugated in this continuing redefinition of Communism in which they are willing to surrender some of their basic rights for social security and a chance at prosperity while having living in a country with a stringent surveillance system aided by modern high technology driven by artificial intelligence.
There may be no significance to how India reacts to events confirming Mr Xi as the supreme leader. The last time they met — their 18th meeting in eight years — Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping did not shake hands though they stood together for the formal photo opportunity at the SCO summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The effect of the Galwan skirmish of May 2020 may not be erased any time soon but trade ties remain strong and there is hope China’s territorial expansionist ambitions will remain muted while Mr Xi looks elsewhere to signal his abrasive approach to the West.
