As Xi Jinping is set to take a third term in power
Many are wondering
Is Xi the next Mao Zedong?
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Tomorrow is the 20th Party Congress,
a major meeting of the Chinese Communist Party held every five years.
By the way, you can celebrate with your very own General Hostility t-shirt. It’s
the People’s favorite communist soap opera. Get yours at chinauncensored.tv/merchandise,
but hurry! It’s only available for a limited time.
At the last Party Congress five years ago, Chinese leader Xi Jinping literally
got himself written into the Party’s constitution. Or at least his thought.
That’s insane. That would be like if Joe Biden wrote his own new amendment into
the US constitution. If I had to guess, that amendment would be “Mandatory naps after lunch!”
Actually, I could get behind that.
Now back in the day, the whole “adding his thought to the constitution” thing
led some to say Xi had achieved Mao-like power.
But now, Xi is going to be even more Mao-like—at least according to some China analysts.
This Party Congress, Xi is expected to take another five year term as general secretary
of the Communist Party, which paves the way for him to become leader for life.
And not because he’s expected to only live for
another five years. General Hostility can get intense.
According to a New York Times opinion columnist, this means Xi is the second coming of Mao Zedong.
Now pay attention, because you’re going to start to see some major problems with that concept.
That opinion piece says, “The implicit bargain in modern China is that its leaders
will deliver prosperity and, in exchange, the people will deliver their unwavering
support. But Xi’s policies jeopardize that bargain by threatening China’s prosperity.”
Xi’s actions threatened China’s prosperity? Wow… he really *is* like Mao.
The Atlantic Council also compares Xi to Mao,
While praising so-called reformers like Deng Xiaoping.
You know, the guy who ordered the Tiananmen Square Massacre?
That’s like people who blindly hated Trump so much they started to look fondly back
on George W. Bush. Yeah, he failed to prevent 9/11, invaded Iraq on a lie,
and made a mess of Afghanistan… but at least he didn’t write mean tweets!
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd writes
that Xi Jinping brought back Marxist-Leninist ideology.
He also praises former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin , for “rapidly expanding the
role of the market in the Chinese domestic economy and embracing a foreign policy that
maximized China’s participation in a global economic order led by the United States.”
Odd way to describe Jiang Zemin, , considering he
built much of the Orwellian police state and surveillance system China has today,
And implemented a giant state-backed organ harvesting scheme that’s still killing people now.
But hey, who cares about crimes against humanity when he expanded the market?
Specifically the black market, which is full of even more organs, thanks to him.
I hope you’re seeing the problem.
All these people are talking about Xi Jinping as if he is some kind of unique evil.
That’s ridiculous. Xi Jinping’s crimes are a very normal type of evil—at least among
communist leaders. Xi’s predecessors also committed massive crimes against humanity.
But it used to be easier to ignore previous leaders’ crimes. Why? Because those leaders
made it much easier for Westerners to make money in China. That’s it. That’s why they keep
talking about the economy under former Chinese leaders. That’s all that matters to some people.
Which is stupid considering that even if you just look at the economic situation
bac\k then, the Chinese Communist Party was constantly ripping off Western technology,
driving Western manufacturers out of business with cheap Chinese knockoffs,
and waging economic warfare through the World Trade Organization.
I’m starting to think that if Pol Pot made Westerners money,
they wouldn’t mind any of his crimes.
They’d even think it was an ingenious cost-saving measure to make Nikes out of human remains.
Sweet new pair of Hair Jordans you got there.
So the idea that suddenly Xi has brought back Marxist-Lenninist ideology,
is ludicrous. Marxism-Leninism has been China’s official ideology since 1949.
That’s not me saying that. It’s what they say.
It’s literally been in China’s constitution the whole time! Can’t you read, Kevin Rudd?!
They also openly talk about spreading international Communism.
Xi Jinping is not a good guy. But he’s a symptom. Communism is the disease.
So now that we’ve established that this analysis of China is very wrong,
we can actually talk about what a third term means for Xi Jinping.
Is he really the next Mao? Does he have total unlimited power?
We’ll dive into that right after this quick commercial break.
Welcome back.
Xi Jinping is set to grab a third term in power.
Some are saying he’s the next Mao Zedong. But is that true?
Well, first of all, Mao Zedong wasn’t even the Mao Zedong that people think he was. He didn’t
effortlessly hold the reigns of power. Mao had to purge his political rivals to become
the Great Helmsman, and then he had to conduct purges again and again just to keep that power.
He was kind of like the popular girls in high school.
They weren’t popular because everyone liked them. They were popular because
they ruthlessly cut down anyone who threatened their status.
Let’s just say that General Hostility: the Mao Years, is even crazier than the current version.
The whole reason Mao launched the Cultural Revolution is because he had basically
been knocked out of power following the disastrous Great Leap Forward,
the campaign that led to massive famine and tens of millions of deaths.
So even with a third term, Xi Jinping is not going to be sitting comfortably on the throne.
Now some say, Xi will abandon the so-called collective leadership model, and become a one man
dictator. That Xi would bring back the position of Party Chairman. The Economist writes, “To
resurrect [the Party Chairman position] would be a symbolic rejection of this post-Mao consensus.”
But Xi’s position is not nearly as strong as some people think.
According to a senior analyst with SinoInsider, a China political risk consultancy,
“Despite the propaganda hyping him as an effective strongman leader, Xi has fallen
short in achieving many of the aims he set out to accomplish upon first taking office in 2012.”
For instance, it is transparently clear to
everyone that Xi’s Zero Covid Policy is wreaking havoc on the Chinese economy.
For the first time since the 90’s, China’s economy is lagging behind the rest of Asia.
And while Chinese state-run media continues to praise Zero Covid,
the reality on the ground is different. People can see it. Including top Communist Party members.
This article on the Chinese version of Voice of America features interviews with several
unnamed Party princelings and second generation reds.
“Second generation red” is what they call the children of Party elites.
I myself prefer the term “Spawn of the Party Elite” or “CCPeewees.”
Anyway, Xi is not too popular among them. Apparently there have even been
calls to replace him. I’m not surprised about that, since we’ve been covering
all the political infighting within the Chinese Communist Party for years now.
It’s just that those voices aren’t strong enough to actually topple Xi.
But you can see why when those baseless rumors
of a coup against Xi started floating around a few weeks ago,
a lot of people were hoping it was true. As if that would somehow fix China.
Like I said, he’s just a symptom. Thinking replacing him would fix China is like thinking
that McDonald’s food would taste better if you replaced Ronald McDonald with Pennywise the Clown.
Here’s another telling sign Xi Jinping doesn’t have the backing to become the next Mao.
On October 1, Xi clearly offered an olive branch to Party elites. In an article in Qiushi , the
Party’s main ideological newspaper, Xi said he won’t “take the old road of closure and rigidity”
Which is basically a way of saying he won’t go back
to the closed off economy China had under Mao.
Makes sense. After all, Xi would *never* do anything to hurt China’s economy.
He also promised not to take, “the evil road of changing the [red] flag”
but will “always adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
That basically means Xi won’t abandon Communism for a Western style democracy—changing the red
flag. Now you might be thinking, no duh Xi isn’t going to start a democracy. But
the fact that he felt it necessary “to rehash pledges he made during the 19th Party Congress
five years ago shows at once that the CCP’s ‘red’ elite lack trust in Xi and that the
leader himself has little confidence that the elites are convinced by his program.”
This would be like Joe Biden saying, “I will not replace the police with Teletubbies.”
The fact he even has to say that is a problem.
This is not painting an image of Xi Jinping as a man who has undisputed control over the
Party. This is a guy who has to constantly battle different competing interests to
maintain his grip on power. A grip that in the face of growing international
skepticism and domestic economic breakdown, is probably not as strong as some people think.
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ShanghaiFoxo asks, “Been thinking of this for a while What Would China do if Russia Actually
use any Nuclear Weapon on Ukraine Would China Respond or Not?..New member of the 50-cent army!
Welcome to the 50 Cent Army ShanghaiFoxo!
Now that’s a very interesting question.
Putin is threatening to use nukes in his war on Ukraine.
However, there currently is no sign that nuclear weapons are actually being deployed.
I think it’s very unlikely Putin will resort to nukes. However, if he did, what would China do?
Well, China is definitely supporting Russia, but only insofar as they can get away with it.
Anything that would actually put China in the crosshairs is a definite no-no. And there’s a
lot the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like about what Russia is doing. For example,
they don’t like how people are making comparisons between Ukraine and Taiwan.
So I don’t think the CCP would ever risk the fallout of nuclear war on behalf of Russia.
But what if Putin just used a small, tactical nuke? Depending on the international reaction,
China would try to avoid having to condemn or sanction Russia.
But they would abandon Russia if they had to. The CCP always looks out for number one.
Thanks for your question, and your support, ShanghaiFoxo.
And thank you to everyone else as well.
You can support China Uncensored by going to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored
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Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.