China Under Xi Jinping: Caution gives way to control, nationalism, ambition

China Under Xi Jinping: An Interdisciplinary Assessment

by Michal Dahl, Maciej Szatkowski, Hanna Kupś (editors)

Published by Brill

512 pages €205

  China Under Xi Jinping: An Interdisciplinary Assessment is an exhaustive work. Edited by three academics from Poland, the central theme is to show how the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) policies are being shaped to conform to Xi Jinping Thought. The book also analyses how these new policies attempt to achieve Xi Jinping’s idea of the “China Dream” and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

 

Since Xi Jinping became the President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2013, there have been significant changes and assertiveness in foreign and domestic policies. The book rightly highlights that it is now an accepted conclusion that Mr Xi has abandoned Deng Xiaoping’s dictum of “hide your strength, and bide your time”. Under Xi and the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought, China is not afraid to assert its power in the global order and be acknowledged as a strong nation. In the chapter “Realpolitik of Xi Jinping Thought”, John Garrick opines that, “…. with China’s economic and military rise, the CCP pursues both domestic and international goals with increasing vigour, and Xi commands the gun”. While state-directed nationalism is rising under Xi, he points out that, “At the heart of contemporary nationalism is the regime’s claim that loving the country and loving Communist Party are the same.”

 

Another mode of strengthening power under Mr Xi has been the anti-corruption drive. No one has been spared — not the military, the party, or the private sector.  However, Mr Xi’s anti-corruption campaign should not be seen as something new. As Mr Garrick argues, “From the Gang of Four trial to Bo Xilai’s downfall to Xi Jinping’s ‘tigers and flies’ campaign, there are similarities and continuities in the CCP’s anti- corruption measures, with the CCP both main actor and director, eliminating political enemies through publicised campaigns and trials, and non- judicial anti- corruption measures that rely on Maoist rhetoric for legitimisation”.

 

A similar assertiveness is visible in foreign policy. However, the book argues that this has not had major benefits for the CCP or Xi Jinping. In the essay “Chinese ‘Security’ in the Xi Era” David A Welch rightly points out that, “Just as the internationalists worried, these moves generated fear and distrust abroad, cultivated an image of China as an expansionistic aggressor, and triggered balancing behaviour”. However, one of the most pertinent points raised by the book concerns the limitations to Chinese ambitions in moulding regional and global politics. As Mr Welch asserts, “China is a country with significant hard-power capability, but far less hard-power capability than is required to shove things down other countries’ throats. It has essentially no soft-power capability whatsoever and has squandered opportunities to enhance it even as the United States busily squandered its own during the presidency of Donald J Trump”. It also has no friends or any genuine ally (except North Korea).

 

There is increasingly less room for criticism and challenge to the CCP. China is now pushing for a uniform language that will eventually lead to a uniform identity and history as well. As Kamil Burkiewicz writes in essay “Community of Common Language: The Last Decade in the Advancement of Putonghu”, the new education campaign is “conducted under the slogan ‘united sounds of children’s language’.”

 

When it comes to religion, the Party’s approach is one of complete control.  Martin Lavička writes in the chapter “Opium of the People? Religious Politics in the Xi Jinping Era” that the Chinese government is “speeding up the Sinicisation of religions to strengthen and diversify the overall control of its citizens, all this to avoid any ideological alternative and an uncontrollable social force that could endanger or overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party”.

 

Nevertheless, the Chinese have learnt to manoeuvre around constraints on free speech. The chapter discussing the use and functionalities of political humour in the Xi era provides a peep into the world of Chinese cyberspace and how citizens manage to criticise and question policies. The chapter by Wendy Weile Zhou and Lutgard Lams titled “Functionalities of Political Humor in Xi Jinping’s Era” concludes that, “… political humour in China under Xi entails a wide range of public functions, including acts belonging to the three categories of resistance, symbolism, and nationalism”.

 

The book provides a one-stop access point for information and analysis on China under Mr Xi. A chapter dedicated to Chinese policies on Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong would have made the book more inclusive and provided further understanding of the leader’s policies towards China’s minorities. In foreign policy, a discussion of the shifts underway in the larger global context would have made it comprehensive.

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The reviewer is associate professor, O P Jindal Global University