Book summary: Xi - A study in power

Summary: Although Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago, he remains an enigmatic figure in the West. But with unrest stirring in Hong Kong, reports of human rights abuses taking place in the Xinjiang region and, devastatingly, the outbreak of a virus that would change the world, suddenly understanding Xi's China is more important than ever before

In this short and timely book, academic and author Kerry Brown will examine the complexities behind the man, explaining the impact that his rule is already having on the West. But who is Xi really, and what is his vision for China's future? And, crucially, what does that mean for the rest of the world?

Xi's role in China

Xi’s power also exists to serve a purpose. This is not about his own individual aims. It is about the great objective of the CCP to build a strong, rich country. This transcends specific leaders and particular eras. The CCP is an atheist organisation. But this doesn’t mean it has no faith

Making this China powerful, strong and central in world affairs once more, as it had been in the distant past, is the key mission.

Xi is a servant of that greater mission, almost in the same way the Pope leads the Catholic church in its mission to deliver humanity to the Kingdom of Heaven. The main difference is that for Xi’s faith, that kingdom will be found on this earth.

To succeed in it at any level means adhering to this pre-determined set of rules and customs. You become as the party wants you, rather than you making the party become like you. As Zheng Yongnian pointed out,

contemporary China does indeed have an emperor, but it is in the form of the organisation of the CCP, rather than a human individual

Xi vs his predecessors

Unlike Hu, whose stint in power was reportedly blighted by the persistent interference of the man he had succeeded, Jiang Zemin, Xi seemed to have his hands on all the levers of power from the word go.

He was head of the party and the military from November 2012 and became president in March 2013 – things Hu had to wait for a year or two.

He has an obedient and capable group of colleagues around him, people such as Li Keqiang and the formidable Wang Qishan, who have offered no distraction from the leadership persona that he had wanted to construct.

By focusing on anti-corruption and building up rule of law to protect commercial rights while ceding no ground to political opponents,

Xi was able to discipline the greatest threat to him – contenders in the party and its high level leadership who felt they, not Xi, should have the top spot.

Xi has been able to craft a narrative that grants meaning and purpose to the context of his leadership and explains how it serves in delivering the great overarching political vision described above – the creation of a powerful, great China.

At the right time and the right place?

Xi may well be the lucky man who found himself in the right place at the right time, when the country not only has a nationalist vision, but also the means to make this a reality as never before. He is a supreme opportunist, a convertor of chances into goals,

what differentiates him from other contemporary national leaders is the sheer scale of the opportunity he has been given.

The Maoist phrase that power that comes from the barrel of a gun has become a cliché in modern China. It is also imprecise.

Power is not about the gun, but what is in the mind of the person holding that gun.

What is the real China?

Before one becomes too comfortably ensconced in the story of China as the human rights hell, there is the irrefutable fact that, materially, the vast majority of Chinese people have never been better off.

A country that experienced mass famine in the early 1960s, which caused the deaths of possibly as many as 36m people, has long since solved its food supply challenges.

At the 2021 annual gathering of the country’s parliamenet, the NPC, the Chinese government declared that it had abolished 'absolute poverty’ (People living on <$2.3 a day).

Never before have more Chinese travelled abroad, with a staggering 169m overseas trips taking place in 2019. More young people attend university, either domestically or outside the country, than at any point in the nation’s history.

The middle class have secured stronger poverty rights and more opportunities at work and in education as well as in their daily lives.

Understanding Xi

History is not necessarily shaped by the figures with the most ability, nor by the brightest, but by the people with the strongest faith.

Xi is a man of faith and that it was the quality and intensity of his faith that has taken him to where he is today. The greatest mistake the rest of the world makes about Xi is to not take this faith seriously.

The hardship of his early years, his long period in the political wilderness outside of Beijing, his air of confidence and ambition despite the setbacks he experienced, are important evidence for seeing this faith in action.

The beginning of the Xi's era

At the 17th Party Congress in October 2007, after only 7 months in Shanghai, the curtains leading to the main stage of the Great Hall of the People parted to show him emerge as number five in the nine-strong hierarchy. More important than his rank was the detail that the five figures that preceded him would all be over retirement age by the next congress.

And crucially, he was place ahead of his main rival by then, Li Keqiang, which meant he was higher in the pecking order. The Xi era began in 2012. However, the road to it started in October 2007

Bo Xilai

At the centre was the palpable ambition of a fellow member of the historic elite, Bo Xilai. Bo was in many ways, the great alternative to Xi. He was urbane and handsome, with a decent command of English.

For many who met him, Bo was the real deal.

He also gained public support by implementing very popular affordable housing policies, examining how to address inequality and by speaking the language of sustainability every bit as fluently as Xi.

Perhaps more striking of all, he fulfilled the Xi criterion for an official: he didn’t merely speak empty words but tried to enact real change.

As a European politician who knew Bo quite well pointed out to me in 2011, around the time the Chinese official was attracting international attention: ‘Bo is the only leader in China today who appeals to people’s emotions’ This was a powerful insight.

It also pointed to the characteristic that most unsettled his colleagues: Bo seemed to be genuinely popular

Wang Qishan

A man called Wang Qishan was put in charge of the whole anti-corruption campaign. He was a formidable and widely respected operator, someone who had put out major fires in the past, such as dealing with the ruptures over misconduct and embezzlement in the build up to the 2008 Olympics when he was mayor of Beijing,

Observing him during a meeting look at party work and the corruption campaign, I could see why he was regarded with such fear.

He chose his every word carefully, with his immense self-control created an aura of power and authority around him. At that meeting, Wang spoke in a quiet, soothing voice – so that one almost had to lean towards him to hear his words.

Every phrase he used seemed laden with hidden meaning and import. That day, I left the meeting deeply relieved I was only an unimportant visiting researcher, and not someone who would never be remotely significant enough to attract Mr Wang’s very unwelcome attention

Cross-straits relations

Taiwan is the place where Chinese nationalism could get scariest. A 2014 comment Xi made to a visiting Chinese dignitary implied this was not an issue that he felt could be kicked down the road indefinitely. After all, in his view the country had been separated since 1949, a situation that should never have persisted for so many decades, the regions were meant to be inextricably welded to each other.

At some point a political resolution would be necessary, Xi demanded. For the Xi ledership, with its sense of historic importance and mission, this is indeed the one matter where it should be able secure its reputation as the great nationalist defender of a unified China.

For China, the move would pose vast challenges about how, even if their military actions were successful in physically taking the island, they would be able to govern 23 million people who would not accept their rule. Taiwan is the greatest issue where the creed of Chinese nationalism and its heightened emotions and zealous commitment might bring the country directly into conflict with the outside world.

The future of China

In 2021, despite the terrible record of outsiders trying to predict where China might be going, and what its future holds, I would still give the country a good chance of bringing about a large part of its China dream.

Even in the depths of 2022, with no immediate end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic, my faith in China, under Xi or whoever else one day replaces him, and creating its own unique version of modernity, is still strong.

And what a world that might be – where the whole of China buzzes with the energy and life of the great city of Shanghai. But by that time, Shanghai will already be well on the way to super modernity, monopolising the future, taunting the outside world to try to catch up

Like it or not, the drama the party has written, and that Xi is playing – comedy or tragedy, happy or unhappy ending – is one that, wherever we are, we will have to keep on watching.

We are all Xi’s audience now.