The writer, an academic has been teaching Chinese politics for more than 20 years, for most of that time in China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently been portrayed as constructing a cult of personality in an effort to gather greater powers than a Chinese leader typically has. According to reports, Xi’s mounting authority is angering some Communist Party members who may even be behind a letter demanding that he step down, or at least back off.
And in recent weeks, a number of China’s former leaders have been making public appearances — a clear signal to their supporters that they remain ready to defend their political legacies against any efforts to undermine them.
While it remains to be seen how far this pushback from within the party ranks will go, it’s clear that Xi remains a very attractive figure for many officials. Here’s why.
Xi Jinping didn’t come to power by accident. His rise was driven in part by a clear acknowledgment among more than a few in the Communist Party that while Xi’s predecessors — Chinese leaders Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao — knew how to manage the economy and had been skilled at ensuring stability in society, the party itself was drifting.
Fears were mounting that the party was growing disconnected from the public and that major social trends such as urban migration and environmental harm were being ignored. Party officials urging change contended that too much time was being spent on the economy and not enough on charting a vision for the country.
Adding to the growing gap between cadres and citizens was the dismay about the escalating level of political corruption. Many party members in the system recognized that graft couldn’t be killed off completely,but that the problem had gotten worse in the last decade. The rot had become so deep that, in their view, it was starting to paralyze Chinese decision-making,with a number of cadres more interested in making profits than making policy.
Instead of sticking to the status quo and hoping that economic growth would solve all problems, Xi argued for a focus on rejuvenating the Communist Party. By employing a robust anticorruption crusade to punish officials who behave badly and by promoting a catchphrase that might resonate with both cadres and citizens – the “China Dream” — Xi was out to defy the established orthodoxy in Chinese politics that leaders are supposed to build on what came before.
Now, three years into his term as president, Xi’s managed — despite resistance — to find fans of his strategy within the political apparatus.
Party conservatives are understandably pleased that Xi is finally rolling up a civil society sector that they thought Beijing had tolerated for far too long. Many observers are alarmed at the methods that Xi is employing torestrict social space, but Xi’s supporters no doubt see this effort as exactly what Xi was tasked to do.
Likewise, military officers who have been eager to cleanse the senior ranks of corruption and overturn what they see as outmoded doctrines must be encouraged by Xi’s efforts in those areas. Some officers have also been impatient for China to focus on preparing for and possibly waging a modern war, and they’re clearly grateful to Xi for helping them with their agenda.
And while the anticorruption drive continues to encounter challenges, it’s apparent that Beijing believes that public support for the campaign remains deep.
Of course, Xi is facing resistance. It would be astonishing if he weren’t, given the scale of his agenda. Yet while some may view individuals engaged in defiance of Beijing as representing a nascent movement, solitary outbreaks of anger at Xi and his policies do not an organized political opposition make.
Unless such opposition appears, Xi’s real challenge will be whether the agenda he’s promoting will actually change China in the ways he and his political allies want. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2016/04/18/think-chinas-xi-jinping-is-in-trouble-think-again/
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