The fifth plenary session of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) recently concluded with a rare overtime broadcast of Xi Jinping‘s speech on CCTV in the evening news broadcast.
Xi Jinping pointed out that we should tightly focus on the “two safeguards” to strengthen political supervision, comprehensive strict governance of the party. He asked the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to first look at politics, improve political judgment, political comprehension, political implementation, focusing on corruption cases where political and economic issues are intertwined, and seriously investigate and deal with people who are disloyal to the party, the two sides of the sun. He focused on the need to strictly punish corruption in the political and legal system.
Observers point out that the use of the CCDI’s anti-corruption campaign to purge dissidents was Xi Jinping’s path to totalitarian dictatorship before the 19th National Congress, and now that the 20th National Congress, which is two terms away, is just around the corner, how will Xi lay out his plan? How will he further purge dissidents? How will he tame the top echelons of the party to follow his personal will?
Wang Juntao, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese Democratic Party, pointed out that Xi’s announcement of the meeting through the “plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection” is to ensure that the contents of the meeting can be implemented in practice and escorted.
Wang Juntao said: “The first thing I think is that he stressed a ‘new situation’, this new situation is three things, these three things are a challenge to Xi Jinping’s rule, but also a challenge to his ability to govern is widely questioned inside and outside the party. The first is the question of questioning, so his description of the situation in his opening remarks, he wants to set a tone, how to look at the questioning. The second is the Sino-US relationship, he used a euphemism, saying ‘shocking waves abroad’, he actually wanted to emphasize how the CCP is positioned in the middle of this big change. He wants to set a tone for himself. The third one is the economic situation. Apart from the situation, the second noteworthy message of Xi’s meeting is that he now wants the work of the CCDI to be a good political safeguard for the rest of the CCP’s central or personal dictatorship. That means that in the past, he mentioned the party style and anti-corruption, in fact, in the third year Wang Qishan started to mention the party style and loyalty together, and this Time he proposed the economic anti-corruption, he is going to use the ‘knife handle’ of the CCDI to implement his ruling policy in the economic field, to protect the escort.”
Samp, a practicing lawyer and independent commentator, compared the current Xi Jinping to an ancient emperor and the current CCDI to a brocade guard. The Commission’s selective anti-corruption efforts are merely a way of defending Xi Jinping’s power, and will not be followed by “anti-corruption”.
Samp said, “Now it’s all about politics, the big picture and understanding, focusing on corruption cases where political and economic issues are intertwined. In other words, we should take the threat to the political security of the party and state as the benchmark, talk about two safeguards, political supervision and strict governance of the party, not about corruption. Because, as we all know, there is almost no official in China without corruption, and the ruling base of the CCP is inherently fragile. Does this fragile tyranny and power still need to be maintained? Is the way to maintain it to fight corruption? Of course not. It has to selectively fight corruption. Selective anti-corruption began in the third year of the first term and continues to the present. Now it is made very clear in a big way that it is to move the ‘knife handle’. As you know, throughout the broad scope, Xi Jinping is going to target two categories of people. The first category is the so-called private white gloves, this place you see, like the former chairman of Huarong Lai Xiaomin, Ma Yun was liquidated. The other trigram is to open the way of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, because the Commission has too much evidence of corrupt officials, but also evidence that can shake the state capital. So it is very simple, kill to silence. After using a white glove to commit a crime, it still needs to be exterminated, which is what the ancient emperors would do and what Xi Jinping is doing now.”
Wang Juntao pointed out that the CCDI’s selective anti-corruption has become a tool for Xi’s personal dictatorship, with the benchmark being whether it is loyal to the party and state, and has little to do with whether the style is corrupt.
Wang Juntao said: “Some repeated categories of cases that should have been taken, it is pushed back, the discipline inspection committee at all levels constantly have new cases forward, so much so that some cadres from the succession of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has been established by the case, to retirement has not gone to catch him, to retirement to catch him, not because of retirement before someone reported him, because at that time to catch too many people, there is such an order of priority. So what exactly is the anti-corruption going to do? The anti-corruption has changed from the inside out. The first anti-corruption effort Xi Jinping made was really to clean up the official atmosphere, rebuild the legitimacy of the Communist Party’s rule, and establish his personal prestige, which was achieved in the first two years. In the third year, when he was about to establish his personal dictatorship, he wanted to use anti-corruption as a tool for political cleansing. In fact, at the beginning he had this intention, but in the third year he began to ‘loyalty is not absolute is absolute disloyalty’, that is, political clarity, sometimes it has nothing to do with your style of corruption or not.”
Will Xi’s selective anti-corruption allow him to reach the pinnacle of power? Samp analyzes that although Xi Jinping has mastered the pen (the Propaganda Department) and the gun (the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection) and is on par with Mao Zedong in terms of maintaining totalitarian power, he does not have Mao’s political ability and “devil’s charm” to achieve a blind personal cult of universal fervor, so Xi Jinping is still far from a Mao-style peak of power. Xi is still far from the pinnacle of Maoist power.
There are elements of low red, high black, and letting the bullets fly, but he has pacified all sectors, or at least made them obey him with their mouths,” Samp said. So it is also seen that there is no generation that will take over from behind, the whole layout can be seen and he will continue to do it. Is there a comparison here with a Mao-style peak of power? It is the missing piece, and a very bad one, that there is no ‘idolatry’ at that stage. The secret of totalitarianism lies in the idolatry of the totalitarian to the point of blind obedience. At that time, Zedong-style power was very unstable below the pinnacle, there was Lin Biao who wanted to rebel, and there were many people who wanted to go against him, and now Xi Jinping is also afraid that people below him will turn against him, which is determined by the logic of dictatorship, not by one person, but there is one less piece of the pinnacle of power, which is the fervent cult of the individual. I believe Mao had this so-called ‘charisma of personality’, a devilish charm, but Xi Jinping doesn’t even have that.”
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