Xi Jinpings Negative Effect on China - Essay Example

Centralized and personalistic leadership: Xi Jinping’s negative effect on China China is the fastest growing and second largest economy in the world today, with speculations rife that it could overtake the United States and become the world’s superpower. Presently, China boasts of numerous technological innovations, architectural advances, and political influence the world over. However, China has not always experienced such economic and political hegemony as it does today. China’s history is characterized by former glory which was crushed by humiliating defeats in the hands of western countries, thus adversely affecting the Chinese economy prior to the First World War. This paper examines how subsequent Chinese leaders, through China’s communist Party (CCP) have helped the country reclaim its lost glory. In essence, former leaders such as Deng Xiaoping advocated for decentralized and non-personalistic leadership as the only way through which China could prosper. However, Xi Jinping, the current State President and Party leader seems to be deviating from this ideology and is leading China to a darker period than that witnessed in the Mao era. Prior to the 1800s, China was experiencing economic boom as a result of silver inflow into the country in exchange for Chinese exports. However, according to Naughton the British felt threatened by the Chinese and stated importing excess amounts of opium into China1. The attempt by China to stop the influx of opium led to the opium war during which China suffered degrading defeat and severe economic meltdown Naughton2. Consequently, Chinese leaders started formulating ideologies that were geared towards regaining national pride. However, as Naughton writes, most of these strategies continued concentrating on centralized and personalistic leadership especially during the Maoist era3. These are the same strategies that Xi Jinping is continuing to advance on China, thus leading China on a dark retrogressive path. Deng Xiaoping is one of the most celebrated Chinese leaders credited for bringing about reforms aimed at controlling the abuse of power by the Party’s general secretaries. As a supreme leader, Deng was able to ensure the decentralization of power within the government, going as far as removing secretary generals whose policies were in conflict with national interest. For example, according to Lawrence and Martin, before his death in 1997, Deng had removed Jiang Zemin and Zhao Ziyang from the Party secretariat for leading the Tiananmen massacre4.However, China today has no such supreme leader with such powers. As such, when an opportunistic leader such as Xi Jinping comes into office and tries to amass personal power, there are limited avenues of stopping controlling such personal interests. In 2012, Xi Jinping became Secretary General of the CCP and chairman military’s commission. Xi was taking over from Hu Juntao, who by the time he left office, had been actively working towards ensuring that China fully adopted and sustained inclusive leadership. Under this form of leadership, government function would be fully decentralized and national leaders would engage in constructive dialogue in running the government. However, after coming into power, Xi was quick to shift from inclusive governance towards a more personalistic approach. For example, according to Lawrence & Martin, Xi added the title of State President to his accolades in 2013 during the National People’s Congress (NPC) held in March5. This is the kind of personalized leadership that Deng warned about“…over-concentration of power is liable to give rise to arbitrary rule by individuals at the expense of collective leadership, and it is an important cause of bureaucracy under the present circumstances...”6 Xi is probably the greediest and most self-centered Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. Xi’s first step in office should have been to try and decentralize power, by deviating from the tradition of placing the Party before all other government structures. Ideally, Xi should have fought to uphold the constitution and ensue that governmental functions were carried out in accordance with the national constitution and not the Party’s constitution. According to China Daily, the current government should base all its functions on the law, if economic reform is to be achieved7. Accordingly, when Xi took over the leadership of the CCP, he promised that the law was above every individual and organization in China, and that the constitution should be followed to the latter. Despite this declaration, Xi has often demonstrated complete disregard for the constitution and instead focused on Party politics, thus creating a centralized government. For instance, according to Lawrence & Martin, in 2013, Xi urged Party members not to pay much attention to the constitution and instead abide by the Party’s constitution8. The major political institutions in China include the Communist Party, The People’s Liberation Army, The State Council, the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference, and the National People’s Congress. All these institutions are doing nothing to resist the kind of leadership being exercised by Xi Jinping. If anything all these institutions are simply being manipulated by Xi Jinping through the CCP.As it stands, many Party officials sit the boards or committees in each of these institutions to ensure that the Party controls the major decisions. In particular, the military is one of the institutions which are almost completely controlled by the Xi Jinping and the Party. Lawrence & Martin give the example of a speech made by Xi in 2012 where he told the troops that obeying the Party’s command is as important, if not more than winning battles9. The issue of Party officials being given government jobs affects the government negatively. The fact that these officials influence major government decisions means that there is little autonomy amongst government institutions controlled by state officials. Essentially, state officials should be given specific responsibilities with measures in place to prevent these officials, especially those that hold key positions within the CCP from abusing power. According to Deng, Party responsibilities should be distinguished from governmental responsibilities, in order to ensure work efficiency10. Xi should emulate the precedent set by Deng who together with other Party officials gave up their vice-chairman positions and restructured the Party so as to reduce centralization11. Xi Jinping’s government has also been accused of undermining the role of the NPC by not involving the latter in the governance process. The central government usually adopts policies aimed at the local populations without consulting the CPC, thus exercising some sort of dominion over local governments. Fundamentally, the central government should work towards developing grass root democracy, whereby people are able to choose representatives. According to Deng, one of the aims of restructuring the Party structure during the Deng era was to ensure “…all the people truly enjoy the right to manage state affairs and particularly state organs at the grass-roots level and to run enterprises and institutions… 12.” The judiciary should also operate autonomously without interference from the central government to ensure justice and equity. Apart from having a negative impact on China’s political system, Xi Jinping’s model of centralized and personalistic governance is adversely affecting the China’s economy. According to China Daily13, the government should “…further deepen the reform of administrative review and approval procedures, and reduce the central government's control over market operations to a minimal level…” For instance, there are too many approval procedures for foreign investors thus making it difficult for these investors to enter the market. The government should, therefore, delegate the control of the markets to oversight organizations that are not funded by the government. Similarly, the central government should also increase the mandate of local governments in the taxation process. China has been on an economic and political rise in the past decade, mainly because of measures instituted to decentralize and depersonalize leadership. Leaders such as Deng Xiaoping worked ensuring that China did not go back to the Maoist era. However, the current State President, Xi Jinping, is set on destroying China’s future. The rate at which Xi is amassing personal power, the control exercised over government institutions by the CCP, and the sidelining of local governments will eventually lead China to a very dark future. References China Daily. Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms In Brief. 16th Nov, 2013. Deng Xiaoping. “On the Reform of the System of Party and State Leadership”, In Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping 2 (1975-1982): 302-325. Lawrence, Susan &Martin, Michael. Understanding China’s Political System. Congressional Research Service (2013):1-41. Naughton, Barry. “The Geographical Setting”, In The Chinese Economy. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2007. Read More