This collage of "the gang of six corrupt arch-villains" is on display at the Beijing Exhibition Center. Clockwise from top left, they are: Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Guo Boxiong, Ling Jihua, Sun Zhengcai and Xu Caihou.
Posted on 10/23/2017 4:15:34 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Xi Jinping and the end of collective leadership
'The gang of six corrupt arch-villains' now a warning to those who resist
KATSUJI NAKAZAWA, Nikkei senior staff writer
TOKYO -- China is transitioning from a decades-old party-led collective leadership to one that is led by one man, Xi Jinping.
After months of wrangling with factions led by former presidents Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin over just how much power the current leader should be given, Xi, the Communist Party General Secretary and state President, sent shock waves across the country on Oct. 14, the final day of the seventh -- and last -- plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party.
The communique that wrapped up the plenary session -- the curtain-raising event to the 19th Communist Party national congress, currently underway in Beijing -- omits the words "the firm maintenance of the collective leadership system." The phrase has been in communiques of previous central committees and has been the political consensus since the days of Deng Xiaoping. They have served as a reminder not to return to the charismatic but erratic days of the Mao Zedong autocracy.
"Whatever rule changes are made at the national congress, the leadership system will become one in which President Xi Jinping calls the shots," one party source said.
/snip
Xi has already taken steps to achieve this by, for example, introducing new criteria for promoting nengshang nengxia officials. The term refers to performance-based promotions or demotions.
The new criteria has three important aspects. First, how much economic growth each candidate delivered in their respective positions will not count. Second, past scores on promotion evaluation will not be taken into account. Third, the candidates age will not be a factor.
/snip
(Excerpt) Read more at asia.nikkei.com ...
In short, he can appoint anybody he wants.
This collage of "the gang of six corrupt arch-villains" is on display at the Beijing Exhibition Center. Clockwise from top left, they are: Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Guo Boxiong, Ling Jihua, Sun Zhengcai and Xu Caihou.
Exactly.
Competence no longer counts for anything. Scary time for people in China.
Some nationalistic dictators have worked. The question is, what is his economic philosophy?
Most dictators rule with the primary view of maintaining power and accumulating wealth.
How does Xi expect to rule? More or less central planning?
More or less gunboat diplomacy?
Socialism turns into communism and communism turns into dictatorship and dictatorship turns into hereditary dictatorship which is really old fashioned royalty.
China can be the first full-fledged digital big brother state.
China is all about economic freedoms, as long as the money keeps rolling in (and the correct state and local palms get greased). The Chinese (so far) have adored their Golden Goose, and do not want to kill it. (They just renamed it "Chinese Socialism" so that nobody figures out that it is actually Capitalism. Shhhh. Don't tell anybody.)
It is the social freedoms that have to wait "until the economic conditions are stable" (which, of course, they will never be).
“They just renamed it “Chinese Socialism” so that nobody figures out that it is actually Capitalism.‘
The correct term is Fascism.
China’s been having a problem with GDP numbers inflated by government projects with no economic basis, like empty cities.
Culture is (to my mind) the strongest force of all when it comes to government, above religion and politics, and Xi’s consolidation of power is true to China’s very long running culture. The only thing that has changed, really, since the “age of Chinese emperors” is the labels by which Chinese government and government leaders have had. It is all theater covering a system that has changed very little.
Mao and Deng both understood they were inheritors of China’s ancient system of governance, more than they were representative of any political philosophy. So does Xi. The great center holds.
Chinese communist revolution is an example of successful religious cult rebellion. Now a religious council is being disbanded and an imperial court is being installed. How long does this empire last in its current form? Xi’s empire will probably face big internal turmoil because Chinese economy is heading for a serious trouble.
Having modern weapons to enforce such loyalty certainly helps, but the penalties for disloyalty haven't changed much for thousands of years.
“Chinese communist revolution is an example of successful religious cult rebellion.”
It may have been, but that is not so unusual with historic contests for the center of power in China. What is not so different is the nature and use of that center of power. Mao simply became the then latest emperor, imposed the imperial system on the “party” (to him the party was just a tool). Deng took it over and now Xi is returning it to its historic norm. The shuffling of personalities and players and what causes are behind the shuffling has not changed how China is a country ruled by an imperial hand from the center. And in spite of what has seemed like “changes” the last half century, it has mostly been window dressing.
Very good article.
I noticed a lack of generals who run industries on the list. Xi is forming a military/industrial complex by attacking corrupt party members and scaring other competing capitalists.
That's a good sign - - and it's totally Xi Jinping. Jinping has made the decision China WILL be a premier world power... not based on nukes, but based on economic and political competency. If he plays his cards right it'll happen.
+1 to You. I have been saying for well over 15 years that China is now a fascist state.
I’ve been saying for years that Russian Communism was a cult of Russian Orthodoxy, while Chinese Communism was a cult of Confucianism. It’s nice to know others have noticed this.
Mao believed too much in his own theology to appoint himself Emperor; it’s doubtful that Xi is a true believer. Do you think he will actually claim the Mandate of Heaven?
“Do you think he will actually claim the Mandate of Heaven?”
Publicly no; but to some very select cronies maybe.
He is just following what happened in Russia after the revolution. After it was all said and done Stalin ended up the Dictator. No Communism just a total Dictatorship.
I think the cultures of Russia and China exceed the influences of Confucianism or the Russian Orthodox church. That is not to say that leadership players have not used them as tools of their governing elites, but I think that is my point, they, and political ideologies were, and are tools, of a larger and overriding culture of what is accepted as legitimate power.
The left would say that the Soviets reformed or remade or destroyed the empire of the Russian Czars, while I would argue they merely assumed it, including all its systems of power (and absolutely all its foreign & domestic intelligence structure and community), and put the public pastiche of Communism as its public face; but power, and holding it was always the primary, secondary and only objective, and they understood what was acceptable (customary) in the context of the Russian culture.
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