As the two sessions of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are being held, Taiwan scholars interpret that Xi Jinping continues to move toward breaking the collective leadership, taking control of personnel and continuing to consolidate centralized power; however, the State Council’s government work report still shows the divergent lines and contradictions of internal governance.
The two sessions of the Communist Party of China (CPC) were held on March 4 and closed on March 11. On March 5, CPC Premier Li Keqiang delivered the government work report at the NPC session.
Taiwan scholars: Xi and Li’s different tones at the two sessions will continue to divide
Radio Free Asia reported on March 8 that at a seminar organized by Taiwan’s Institute for National Policy Studies related to the two sessions of the Communist Party, Asia-Pacific Peace Research Foundation CEO Tung Li-Wen mentioned the contradictions between Xi and Li.
According to Dong, Xi Jinping’s idea is that the 14th Five-Year Plan of the Communist Party of China can only develop if it is based on itself and smooths out the domestic circulation.
But Dong noted that Li Keqiang’s “government work report” was missing “the most essential feature of building a new development pattern is to achieve a high level of self-reliance and self-improvement. On January 11, Xi Jinping proposed in a study class for major cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels that “we should enter a new stage of development, implement a new development concept and construct a new development pattern.”
Li Keqiang, however, had three other key words in his government work report, namely marketization, capitalist basic system, and “simplifying and decentralizing government.”
According to Dong Liwen, the future direction of the CCP’s economic reform is still ambiguous as to whether to go for “self-reliance and self-improvement” or “internationalization”, with the most important contradiction being “the state advancing and the people retreating” Or “the country retreats and the people advance”?
“The most important contradiction is whether the country is in or out. The battle against poverty has achieved a comprehensive victory, which seems to be Xi Jinping’s greatest political achievement, there are many doubts in Li Keqiang’s work report, to effectively connect from the revitalization of rural areas, the poverty line from the date of poverty, set a five-year transition period.” Dong Liwen said.
Dong Liwen believes that it looks like poverty eradication will continue, except that the announcement of the success of comprehensive poverty eradication, can no longer use the term. The State Council’s Poverty Eradication Office has been abolished and transferred to the State Council’s new Rural Revitalization Bureau, which looks like it will take over the work of poverty eradication.
In particular, he pointed out that Hong Tianyun, deputy director of the National Rural Revitalization Bureau of the CPC, had mentioned the “four non-removal”: removing caps without removing responsibilities, removing caps without removing policies, removing caps without removing assistance, and removing caps without removing supervision. Dong Liwen summarized, “Poverty removal is not the end, but the starting point.”
“Xi Jinping breaks collective leadership to continue centralizing power”
According to the report, the CCP’s claim of “comprehensive poverty eradication” is a major “achievement” of Xi Jinping, which will help him further consolidate his absolute personal authority at the 20th Communist Party Congress.
The report quoted Wang Zhisheng, secretary-general of the China Asia Pacific Elite Exchange Association, as saying that Xi is on his way to the most centralized power since Mao Zedong by breaking the collective leadership, taking control of personnel power and strengthening ideology, despite the fact that some outside observers see Xi as being at the end of his rope and facing a variety of internal and external challenges.
In addition, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency reported on Feb. 28 that members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, secretaries of the Secretariat, members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and party secretaries of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Procuratorate make annual written reports to “the Party Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping.
Wang Zhisheng said Xi has tried to break the pattern of “nine dragons ruling water” by setting up various groups in the past, and has recently resorted to direct action. A total of 52 senior officials from the Politburo and the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress reported to Xi before the two sessions, which has broken the collective leadership of the Communist Party.
“It is clearly implied that these people report to Xi Jinping himself, the general secretary of the party is equal to the party’s central committee, putting the party or the concept of collective leadership in a false hierarchy, as all are accountable to Xi Jinping personally, a practice that was deliberately disclosed before the two sessions. The establishment of Xi’s core is not only presented in the CPC documents, but the high-level political operation is implemented.” Wang Zhisheng said.
The 20th Communist Party Congress will be held in the fall of next year, it is reported that preparations have recently started, when the CPC Central Committee members, Politburo members and Standing Committee will be replaced. Xi is now preparing for his third consecutive term in office, as the Communist Party authorities amended the Communist Party’s constitution at the 2018 Communist Party Congress to remove the provision that the Communist Party president “shall not serve more than two consecutive terms.
Wang Zhisheng said Xi Jinping has considerable power, at least in terms of personnel power. The control of personnel power, of course, extends to the consolidation of power next year. In addition, Xi Jinping also strengthened the ideological, God-making campaign, such as the commemoration of Hua Guofeng, implying that the line adjustment and change metaphor appears. On the one hand, it denies the past line, and on the other hand, it compares itself to Mao Zedong, the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
Wang Zhisheng: “He is constantly trying to establish his authority and core from the power base, after the legitimacy and legality are complete, but under the legitimacy is not enough, from the personnel, from the ideology, from the political operation structure.”
The Second Decade or Xi Jinping’s Battle for Life and Death
Li Hengqing, a scholar at the Institute for Information and Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C., previously said that with less than two years until the 20th Communist Party Congress in 2022, “2022 is a life-and-death battle for Xi Jinping, either he may be able to carry out his lifelong re-election or it may be his Waterloo.
He is not particularly good or competent, but relies on his so-called “anti-corruption and tiger-fighting” campaign, which has rejected a large number of dissidents and curbed competing rivals, Li Hengqing said.
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