This weekend, China's President Xi Jinping secured a third term as
general secretary of the ruling Communist Party. She and the newly
appointed members of the very top of the Chinese government, the
Politburo Standing Committee, received a standing ovation at the
20th party Congress, The seven person committee is now filled with
she loyalists.
Also this weekend, security officials escorted out China's former
President Hu Jintao in front of the world's media.
For more on all of this, we turn to Christopher Johnson. He had a
20 year career in the U. S intelligence community, where he focused
on China. And now he runs his own consulting firm. China Strategy
Group. Chris Johnson, Welcome back to the news hour, So first of
all, how does this What is this new leadership lineup in China? Tell
you about how much power she Jinping has.
Well, I think it tells us that she Jinping is basically unbound in
terms of his power inside China. We see a situation where all of
his allies dominate. Not only the Politburo Standing Committee the
top seven men in China, and unfortunately for now they're all men
and the full Poulet Bureau. So suggestions that representatives from
other factions inside the Chinese leadership might make it into those
senior parties turned out to be untrue. And I think what we see here
is that loyalty and what we might call virtue accuracy.
C have replaced meritocracy and that all of the new
Leaders are very close to She Jinping very loyal to him, of course,
and do not have any blemishes on their record in terms of their ideological
rectitude is she Jinping would say, but also in terms of corruption,
and we saw some indications that some of the other candidates that
might have been considered for that top leadership, including
Wang Yang, who was suggested as maybe a new premier candidate for
China, his daughter had been working for a foreign private equity
firm for five years before suddenly quitting that post about a year
ago. This amount
To let some Chinese officials have called the stain on his shirt
that in she Jinping's eyes.
Shows a bad look in terms of the type of officials he wants to surround
himself with. So now we see himself with a Cabinet, a top leading
core under his ruler ship that are completely dedicated to his agenda
going forward. And what did you make of the the purge or the removal
of several individuals who were at the top of the party?
Well, my sense is what we've seen is Xi Jinping has demonstrated
at the raw exercise of power is back as the fundamental driving force
within Chinese politics rather than these norms or conventions that
had been followed in previous party Congresses. So previously in
the past, there had been some conventions that were followed with
regard to age restrictions for pulling mural members where individuals
who were 67 years old or younger on the current polling bureau or
who who could be moved up to the next bullet bureau. They were
Retained and individuals who are 68 or older were dropped.
We saw that she Jinping decided to retain several people who were
older than 68. Also to drop some members who were 67, the Leica Chang
sitting premier and another individual. Wang Yang, who I just mentioned
while retaining Wang Hu Ning, who was also 67 the first two gentlemen.
Of course, we're from another interest group inside the party, whereas
one running has been she Jinping's loyal ideologist. And what about
the removal? As we just said on camera in front of the media, the
former
President Hu Jintao. What? What do we believe? What do you believe
is going on there?
Well, it was an extremely awkward There's no two ways about that.
Of course, the official response from the regime has been that he
suffered a health issue upon watching the video of myself. He does
look confused, of course, and seem to be stammering slightly. But
then we see him leave on his own power and with quick pace, and he
seems to be being dragged along somewhat hesitantly by these minders.
You know, my sense is just what we were just discussing Judy is that
all of a sudden, all of his loyalists who Jintao's loyalists Leica
Chang, Wang Yang Hu Chunhua all dropped from the Politburo. Obviously,
this was something that upset him. Perhaps he had suggested he was
going to spoil the punch somehow, and she Jinping in a demonstration
of his raw power, and perhaps ruthlessness decided to have who Jintao
removed from the congress. So the question of course everybody has
is one of the consequences of this consolidation.
Of she Jinping's power in terms of China's approach to the rest of
the world and domestic policy.
Well in terms of the rest of the world. I think she Jinping sketched
out for us in the political report that he delivered to the Congress
a week ago. What he sees, which is an external environment that is
increasingly hostile towards China is increasingly chaotic because
of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the hostility that he perceives
from the Biden administration towards China's rise.
So this is a system where she increasingly is saying the likelihood
of conflict internationally is going up. And his response seems to
be in the economy, for example, to portray sort of a fortress economy,
where China will be more self sufficient in technology and focused
very heavily on food Security, energy security supply chain security,
In other words, hardening that system to respond to what he perceives
to be a very threatening external environment in terms of the economy
itself. As I just said, this fortress economy idea
More than a quarter of the new Politburo members are either former
officials and Chinese defense firms or scientists that have served
in Chinese state firms. This is perfectly suited to this agenda of
technology upgrading with the state led approach. And what about
with regard to Taiwan? We didn't hear a lot in the last day or so
about that. But what? How do you read what you see there?
Well, There's been a lot of speculation that in his political reports,
you Jinping perhaps menaced Taiwan a little more with the inclusion
of this new line about China, not promising to announce the use of
force, and that certainly was not in his last political report in
2017 that said, if we look at it carefully, the words that followed
were that this threat of military force on Taiwan was directed at
interference by external forces, the United States and what China
considers separatist elements on Taiwan.
Likewise, the two new top military leaders that have been chosen
in this bullet bureau. Many have speculated that because one individual
had combat experience really one of the few people in the Chinese
military U. S combat experience in 19 seventies and also a former
commander of the theater opposite Taiwan suggested that maybe we
will see more activity there and possibly an invasion of Taiwan.
My own sense is that this is again and demonstration of them hardening
the system in preparation for that, But they still see a war with
Taiwan as a crisis to be avoided.
Rather than an opportunity to be seized. And just a very quick final
question. Justice Department today as I know you
Saw his charged to Chinese intelligence officials were seeking to
obstruct the criminal prosecution against its giant Chinese telecom
firm. It's assumed to be Huawei. What should we read into that in
just a few words?
Well, most definitely it's Huawei and I think what it does is, it
gives the lie to not only Huawei's suggestions, but also the Chinese
government suggestions that Huawei is somehow a private enterprise
and has nothing to do with the Chinese government. What we see in
the indictment is the fold capabilities of the Chinese government
being used to foster Huawei's interests internationally, and that's
something that, of course, always international competitors in the
global telecommunications race do not have access to
It also demonstrates a big commitment counterintelligence win for
the FBI. But of course, that also shows us that there was someone
who was working for the Chinese prior to being turned as a double
agent.
Chris Johnson of the China Strategies Group. We thank you.