by SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI
We Indians have a tendency to view contemporary China so much through the lens of the western media and intelligentsia that we fail to understand the true nature of the gigantic self-transformation our neighbour has achieved. The West, America in particular, is today paranoid about the rise of China because of its fear of losing global dominance. Hence, right-wingers in USA and Europe view China – especially its strong-willed leader Xi Jinping – as a threat. Washington has been doing all it can to contain China, from weaponising semiconductor technology to taking provocative actions in Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
The West also has a habit of discussing politics in a personalised manner. Hence, almost all of the western media’s commentary in the run-up to the 20th national congress of the Communist Party of China was focused on how Xi Jinping was going to solidify his power by getting himself re-elected as the party chief for a norm-defying third term.
However, those who watched the proceedings of the opening session of the CPC’s congress on October 16, and paid close attention to the speech delivered by Xi, would have come to a different conclusion. The Chinese Communist Party is a far bigger entity, and has built a far more institutionalised structure, than can be run as per the whims and fancies of its top leader. The CPC has learnt bitter lessons from the chaos of the final decade of Mao Zedong’s rule when the so-called ‘Cultural Revolution’ traumatised Chinese society and almost destroyed the communist party. Xi Jinping is no doubt powerful, but he is not taking the party along the path of ageing Mao, nor will the party allow him to do so. As Xi himself once said soon after becoming CPC’s general secretary for the first time in 2012, “power in China” is now placed firmly “within a cage of rules and regulations”. Viewed in this way, power is far more personalised in the hands of Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan or Donald Trump (when he was president of the USA).
It may surprise many that the speech Xi delivered on Sunday is not his alone. It is a report he submitted to the CPC’s 20th congress on behalf of its outgoing central committee, elected at its 19th congress five years ago. Preparation of the speech began almost a year ago, and a lot of leaders contributed to it and reviewed it at various stages. In short, China’s leadership is far more collective and consultative than is the case in several democracies.
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