China’s 20th Party Congress meets.
Xi Jinping congratulates himself.
But just how secure is Xi in his power?
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
It’s a big week in China!
It's the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress!
From Sunday to Saturday this week, about 2,300 handpicked delegates are attending a twice-a-decade
meeting that will determine China’s future.
Everybody has their eyes glued to the 20th Party Congress.
Especially students.
The Chinese Communist Party really wants them to learn about this more than math.
Or grammar.
Or history.
Then again, the Party has never been good about teaching their citizens its history.
When I said everyone has their eyes on the 20th Party Congress, I really mean everyone.
It doesn’t matter if you’re on a women’s basketball team, or in compulsory drug rehabilitation—you
need to be watching.
Compulsory drug rehabilitation is by the way actually more like a detention center where
people are imprisoned by the state and then used for slave labor.
Moving on.
The point is, everyone is watching the Party Congress, even if it’s during your own wedding.
“Baby, I love you—I do.
But I love the Party even more.”
So if you’re out on a date right now, or performing surgery, or operating heavy machinery,
take a break—and celebrate the 20th Party Congress...
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.
So here’s the gist of what the 20th Party Congress is about.
The 2,300 Party delegates will form a Central Committee of around 400 people.
The committee will then “vote” to confirm the line-up of a new 25-member Politburo.
And among those 25, they’ll pick 7 to be in the Politburo Standing Committee.
That’s the highest decision-making body in Chinese politics.
And then of course, they’ll choose the General Secretary, which will once again be Xi Jinping.
But this isn’t what actually happens.
While the Party members go through the motions of voting at this Party Congress, in reality,
the winners have already been predetermined.
Imagine!
A political party predetermines which candidate will win, even if the people voting want someone
else.
At any rate, under the Chinese Communist Party, people win or lose positions not through votes,
but through power struggles against each other.
“Party elites have already spent the past few months – if not longer – jostling
for influence behind the scenes to ensure their preferred candidates come out on top.”
These elites included former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.
You know, the guy who was accused of sexually assaulting tennis star Peng Shuai and had
her disappeared.
Zhang showing up means he’s still a-ok in the eyes of the Communist Party.
But guess who wasn’t at the opening of the Party Congress?
Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.
If you’ve been following General Hostility, then you’d know that Jiang and Xi are in
a bitter power struggle.
But this is still surprising.
Jiang was listed among the 46 members of the committee that oversees the 20th Party Congress
proceedings.
As of this recording, there hasn’t been any news of where he’s at.
Sure, Jiang is 96 years old, but Party elder Song Ping, who’s 105, still managed to show
up, so age alone doesn’t explain it.
Although judging from the last footage of Jiang that I was able to find—which is this
one from two years ago—
my guess is he’s at home, either sleeping, napping, or snoozing.
While dreaming of Xi Jinping’s untimely demise.
But that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.
Xi Jinping has been chipping away at Jiang's influence for years, and he’s about to officially
get a third five-year term as the CCP’s General Secretary.
But as I have covered in my previous episode, Xi’s position isn’t as strong as people
might think.
Xi hasn’t been able to achieve a lot of his goals, and this could be a big problem
for him.
Xi Jinping is like a local hamburger place that put up a sign saying, “Voted America’s
favorite hamburger!”
Really?
By whom?
Some local restaurant in the middle of Tulsa Oklahoma is *America’s* favorite?
I don’t think those burgers are as good as you say they are.
Xi may get to keep his position, but he still needs to prove that he’s the one China needs
as their leader.
That’s where there’s a lot of attention on Xi’s political report about China’s
goals.
“The meeting is… pure political theater meant to reassure the Chinese citizenry and
convince global audiences that the party remains steadfast and unified under Xi as he pursues
the goal of transforming China into a socialist great power.”
So it’s all just a show to try and convince everyone that everything is fine.
Kind of like when people
start posting 40 inspirational quotes a day on Facebook.
This doesn’t make you look powerful.
It makes it look like you’re going through a divorce.
While outsiders are prevented from actually seeing what’s happening behind the scenes,
Xi Jinping’s speech does give us some insight into the CCP’s power struggles.
I’ll explain after the break.
Welcome back.
Xi Jinping is trying to cement his power within the Chinese Communist Party.
One way he’s doing it is by presenting himself in a positive light during his opening speech.
To pat himself on the back, Xi listed a bunch of things the Chinese Communist Party supposedly
did, like eradicating poverty and gaining significant scientific achievements.
Thanks to stolen tech.
Ok, maybe he didn’t say that last part.
But he did list other ways that the Communist Party needed to improve China.
Hey, Xi Jinping, if you need any more ideas on how to improve China,
like and subscribe.
Sounds nice and all, but that’s because China needs a lot of reassurance right now,
in the face of all the economic risks the country is facing.
In fact, Xi is standing on shaky ground.
And not just because the roads in China are falling apart.
Under Xi’s leadership, China is facing a ton of problems, many of which were self-inflicted.
He’s still sticking to an unpopular and not very effective zero Covid policy.
Other problems in China include soaring youth unemployment,
and a faltering property sector.
To make things worse, the US is putting pressure on China with semiconductor export controls.
This has reportedly caused mass resignations and paralyzed Chinese manufacturing.
But of course, Xi didn’t talk about any of those things.
In fact, here’s a picture of him delivering his speech.
Xi’s in a sticky situation.
In the past, Xi and previous Chinese leaders used economic development and growth as a
basis for their legitimacy.
“From the 14th to the 19th Party Congress, economic development was, each time, explicitly
stated as the central mission for the Party.”
Now for the 20th Party Congress, the economy is still on fire—only this time it’s a
dumpster fire.
Xi Jinping doesn’t want to make himself look bad, though.
So instead, this time he emphasized “complete” and “well-rounded” development.
Because anything can seem less bad when you use euphemisms.
“No, officer, I wasn’t littering.
I was just redistributing food packaging!”
What is “complete” and “well-rounded” development?
All other kinds of development.
So let’s not focus too much on the economy, ok?
After all, China needs more than just economic growth.
It needs security!
Security was mentioned 50 times during Xi’s opening ceremony speech.
He like said security like more times than like a teenager in the like LA Valley like
says like in a like sentence…
like.
According to Xi Jinping, the CCP needs to ensure security for everything.
Security for the people, political security, economic security, military, technological,
cultural, and social security…
The list goes on to even include overseas security.
It’s a never-ending need to secure all things Chinese!
Sounds great, until you realize that the people responsible for security are the Chinese Communist
Party.
In China, “security” just means another way to restrict people’s liberty.
Guaranteeing “security” also justifies China’s takeover of Hong Kong.
The CCP can argue that Hong Kong was pushed “from chaos to governance” thanks to Xi.
And according to Xi’s speech, the Communist Party is going to continue its crackdown on
Hong Kong.
By making sure that it’s governed by “patriots” and “safeguarding national security.”
But don’t worry, people of Hong Kong, because under the guidance of the CCP, you will learn
to love your country and be more patriotic.
Everything’s cool.
Unless you’re an anti-China element who creates chaos.
And as for Taiwan?
That is, China’s Taiwan?
Well, according to Xi, taking over Taiwan is the Communist Party’s unshakeable commitment.
And they won’t rule out use of force.
Other parts of Xi’s speech make it clear that the Chinese Communist Party is going
to continue to persecute the Uyghurs.
As well as continue to co-opt Chinese nationals overseas to promote the Chinese Communist
Party’s agenda of “advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
When Xi Jinping and the CCP tell us what they’re going to do, we should listen to them.
The upshot of Xi’s speech is that the Communist Party is facing difficult economic times ahead.
It plans to distract from this by focusing on “national security.”
Which means a bigger crackdown in Hong Kong, more aggression towards Taiwan, and expanding
the Party’s focus overseas.
This is not sounding good.
I hope this isn’t Xi’s version of posting inspirational Facebook quotes.
So what do you think of Xi Jinping’s speech?
Leave your comments below.
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Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.