China, crossroads between the cult of personality wanted by Xi Jinping and reforms

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Let’s look at history: history is the teacher of life, the Ancient Romans asserted. And it is precisely ancient Rome, especially imperial Rome, that represents an excellent model for evaluating the effectiveness and incisiveness of the paths of the establishment of an Empire. The Romans incorporated by welcoming and unifying under the aegis of the imperial eagle different and diversified territories, which nevertheless maintained their autonomy – if not political-economic – at least cultural and thought. This undoubtedly favored cohesion within an area of ​​influence that has become very vast, cohesion aided by the sense of inclusiveness for which every people, however militarily subjected, could still express their thoughts. And thus contributing to a larger drawing, a vision: what is now called “big picture”. This is our model, the model of Western Democracies, whose juridical-normative prodromes have their roots in the classical Greek-Latin culture.

On the other hand, however, there is the (non) example of autocratic, monadistic and repressive imperialisms, in which power is exercised vertically “anesthetizing” the dystonias. Two current examples? The theocratic dictatorship established by the Taliban in the newly constituted Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, where the dictates of Sharia law must be observed to the letter, or, ça va sans dire, China. With one difference: power in China is de facto concentrated in the hands of one man, Xi Jimping; at the helm (or rather, at the command) of the Chinese Communist Party and, consequently, of the State. A leader profile, that of Xi, which since 2017 has increasingly taken on the contours of a real “cult of the person and personality”, as highlighted by Gideon Rachman in a very recent article published in the Financial Times. And right from the 2017 Congress – observes the Scholar, Head of the Foreign Editorial Office of the famous British newspaper ¬ – the thought of Xi Jimping has become a real subject of study, being incorporated into the educational programs of children from the age of 10. With the variant of the fairy tale for the little ones, where the Super-hero Grandpa Xi is always ready to take care of them. What are the results of this ego exaltation? Not profitable, wide-ranging even for Beijing.

“The combination of personal veneration”, writes Rachman in the Financial Times, “with the rules and impositions of the Communist Party usually generates only poverty and violent repression”. And this despite the counter-information of the regime, according to which Xi would be “a good emperor, a wise guide and strongly committed to safeguarding rights and modernizing the country”.

Certainly, from a Chinese point of view, there have been and are positive results: from the fight and containment of corruption to the intensive development of the scientific and technological sectors, in a dual-use perspective that continually looks at the search for military primacy. Until the adoption of a more assertive, predatory and sudden foreign policy in pointing the finger at those coalitions that try to stem its expansionist aims. See in this regard the pact called Aukus, sealed by Australia, UK and USA (hence the acronym) for the sale to Camberra of nuclear-powered submarines, and which will determine a deterrent zone in the Pacific area, object of Chinese appetites. . A move to which the Dragon immediately responded, submitting an application to join the “Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement”: the free trade agreement between 11 nations of the Asia-Pacific area, wanted at the time by Barack Obama to contain China and later withdrawn by Donald Trump, whom Beijing now intends to exploit to its own advantage, to extend its influence in the region.

Nonetheless, Rachman explains, in the long run Xi’s neo-Maoist and self-congratulatory drifts will harm China itself. The symptoms can already be seen in the recent crusade against wealth, carried out by the leader to – officially – reduce inequalities, as well as in the growing control actions of large technological companies: certainly propagandistically effective measures, but which have already discouraged many investors, reducing investment accordingly. On the other hand, the same claims against Taiwan, if on the one hand they exalt the spirits, on the other hand they foment the conflict with the United States, causing immediate economic damage. The predominant variable in this evolution is, according to Gideon Rachman , the temporal one. With the caveat of specifying what is meant here by variable: in 2018, in fact, Xi had abolished the two-term ceiling, originally envisaged by Deng Xiaoping to underline the pro tempore nature of presidential power.

This potentially leads to Xi’s life coinciding with his existence in power, making the variable no longer subject to regulatory needs but to the life cycle of the leader. And it is precisely here that the difference between the “Chinese model” and “Xi model” lies: two antithetical movements, two forces with opposite directions, precisely because of the importance attributed to the cult of personality.

“Deng Xiaoping’s Chinese model of reform and openness to the world was based on the rejection of personal exaltation,” Rachman observes; on the other hand, “the creation of Xi’s personality cult, the study of his thought and the attempts to qualify him as a regulator of lives, are part of a disquieting design of global influence”, to which the West is reacting / will react (or at least it will try to react) by closing.

It remains to be seen how quickly Chinese society will adapt to the changes imposed by Xi, and to those resulting as a result. It is the physical principle of action and reaction, the driver of the development of civilizations and empires: the march of history that is triggered when the Rubicon is crossed.

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