Chinese President Xi Jinping was confident recently when he told a joint meeting of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on March 6 that China can already look at the world on an even keel.
Speaking at a joint meeting of members of the medical and health and Education sectors at the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Xi said, “After 70, after 80, after 90, after 00, before they go out to see the world, China can already look at the world on an even keel, and it’s not as earthy as we were back then.”
The international community, but a strong and rich country, rarely hear this kind of language from the leaders’ speeches: constantly going to compare with other countries, to compare, to secretly compare, calculating to exceed in a certain year or month. From this point of view, Xi Jinping still inherited Mao Zedong’s idea of “catching up with Britain and surpassing the United States” in the short years of the Great Leap Forward. Xi Jinping’s “flat view” has attracted a lot of ridicule, with some netizens commenting: “This statement reveals an inferiority complex, and generally speaking, people with an inferiority complex always think of ‘flat view’ and ‘overlook’ to improve their performance. overlooking’ etc. to improve their status.”
But Xi’s confidence is unstoppable, especially in recent months. He was especially energetic when he mentioned the “victory against the Epidemic.” At the two sessions, Xi once again spoke of China’s success in fighting the epidemic, saying, “This is not only a moment of luck, but also our road confidence, theoretical confidence, institutional confidence, and cultural confidence.”
The New York Times carried an article commenting, “Over the years, Xi and other Chinese officials have sometimes used such godly language to express the East versus West debate. But the frequency with which Chinese officials have used such language has increased markedly in recent months, underscoring the confident (or, in the words of critics, arrogant) appearance of the Chinese government.”
The key words Xi has preferred to use in his speeches over the past few months include “risk,” “confidence” and “opportunity,” among others, and in his speeches he talks about risk to warn the party that things are not so smooth. But as long as the two supporters are always in mind and unite around Xi’s core, there is no risk that cannot be overcome. Therefore, talking about risks is actually to pave the way for further elevating the wise leader. A typical example of this is “looking at the world”.
On Jan. 11, more than a month before saying that Chinese people can “look at the world with a level head,” Xi said in a speech at a workshop for provincial and ministerial leaders that “Time and momentum are on our side, and this is where our determination and strength lie, as well as our determination and confidence,” saying He said that China’s development is at an important strategic opportunity period, with unprecedented opportunities and challenges, but he affirmed that “the opportunities outweigh the challenges”.
Another quote from Xi Jinping was disclosed by the Party Secretary of Qilian County, Qinghai Province, who said in his study of Xi Jinping’s important speech at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee and the seminar for major provincial and ministerial-level leaders that Xi Jinping, “when talking about the international situation, made the statement that ‘the west is strong and the east is weak’ is the stock, is the history, and ‘the east is up and the west is down’ is the stock. The political judgment that the ‘East is rising and the West is falling’ is the increment and the future”, Xi Jinping said when talking about the strategic game between China and the United States, “he made the ‘biggest source of chaos in the world today is in the United States’, ‘the United States is the biggest source of chaos in our country’s development and security. ‘The United States is the biggest threat to our development and security’ and other major judgments.”
“On January 15, the official media published an article by Chen Xinxin, secretary-general of the CPC Political and Legal Committee, conveying Xi Jinping’s speech at a special seminar for leading cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels, entitled “‘East is rising, west is falling’ is a trend, and the international community is not in a position to take advantage of it. The trend is that the international pattern is developing in my favor.
Zhou Ye, deputy director of the Organization Department of the Party Committee of Fudan University, said in an article titled “The heart has faith before it can travel far” on January 7: “At the Fifth Plenary Session, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that it is necessary to recognize the general trend of rising in the east and falling in the west, and the stark contrast between China’s rule and the West’s chaos.”
Xi Jinping believes that the east rising and west falling is the trend and that the situation favors China. His judgment is not new at all, as Mao Zedong said long ago, “The enemy is rotting day by day, and we are getting better day by day,” and Mao also said things like “the east wind overwhelms the west wind,” even though Mao-era China was one of the poorest countries in the world . In this sense, Xi’s judgment is motivated by the CCP’s ideology, which has given rise to the so-called four self-confidences. But after all, the Xi era is different from the Mao era, and Xi’s confidence also comes from other factors: Chen Xinxin summarized four miracles based on Xi’s speech: first, the miracle of rapid economic development; second, the miracle of long-term social stability; third, the miracle of fighting the new crown epidemic; and fourth, the miracle of achieving full poverty eradication. However, analysts pointed out that the four miracles of rapid economic development is true, but now also reached a bottleneck, the previous rapid no longer. As for the long-term social stability, implicit in the authoritarian system of iron-blooded repression and stability maintenance, not worthy of envy; anti-epidemic victory, China is to control the epidemic, but can not be said to end the epidemic, and can not talk about the miracle. China’s image in the world was corrupted step by step because of the opaque fight against the epidemic, and it is still difficult to recover. When it comes to the miracle of poverty eradication, the minimum standard of poverty eradication set by itself not to mention the fact that even Premier Li Keqiang has pointed out the difficult reality of 600 million people earning an average of 1,000 RMB per month, it is not at all possible to boast about the miracle of poverty eradication.
In any case, the four miracles have become the main basis for Xi Jinping’s rise to the east and fall to the west; in addition, the CCP has always had a serious misunderstanding of Western democratic societies, that is, chaos, elections once in a few years, chaos, demonstrations and protests, chaos, officials in Beijing often compare this time to the fight against the epidemic, which the West has not yet collected. But a major cost is overlooked, which scholars say is a low human rights cost. In China, the epidemic was fought by sealing off cities and provinces, and tens of millions of people were forcibly locked up overnight, in an authoritarian, sweeping manner, and no one dared to disobey. Moreover, some experts pointed out that the final control of the new crown epidemic depends on the degree of universal immunization, and from the current rate of vaccination in most Western countries, many Asian countries, including China, are far from optimistic.
Confidence is one thing; the Communist Party leader is still focusing a fair amount of attention on the United States, in addition to making grand statements. It is clear from Xi’s talk that he has come to believe that the United States is determined to stop China’s rise, no matter who is president of the United States. According to Chen Xinxin, who interpreted Xi’s remarks, “The world has entered a period of turbulent change. The rise of China is a major variable, both independent and dependent, and the trend is “rising in the east and falling in the west,” with the international landscape developing in my favor. The U.S. containment and suppression is a major threat, both an encounter and a protracted war.” It is clear from this that the top echelon of the Chinese Communist Party, when talking about the international arena, is aware that “the United States is a major danger” and describes the United States as “containing and suppressing” China. But Xi Jinping sees this more clearly than his subordinate Chen Xinxin, who does not believe that the United States is only a major danger, but that “the United States is the greatest threat to our development and security.
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