The Chinese Communist Party journal Qiushi on Sunday revealed previously unpublished remarks made by dictator Xi Jinping in November on the subject of his endless “corruption” purges.
Xi made the interesting admission that he is not solely concerned with fighting corruption, but instead believes the leadership (other than himself, of course) must be constantly shaken up to keep the Party vigorous.
Xi spoke in November at a meeting of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) — which, as its formidable name suggests, is the Chinese Communist Party’s highest disciplinary agency. The CCDI has nearly unlimited authority to investigate allegations of corruption, misbehavior, and abuse of power against all but the highest-ranking Party members.
“Changes in the external environment and in the party membership will inevitably lead to various conflicts and problems within the party. It is necessary to eliminate all kinds of negative influences in a timely manner with the courage of turning the blade inward to ensure that the party is always full of vigor and vitality,” Xi said in the key passage from his speech to the CCDI.
Xi and his toadies usually maintain that everyone who gets purged from the Chinese Communist Party is guilty of unconscionable corruption, and they rarely admit there are any “conflicts and problems within the party.”
The turbulent state of the Party has nevertheless been obvious to outsiders, as Xi’s “anti-corruption purges” have been racking up a large number of senior officials recently. Contrary to Xi’s image of a wise gardener carefully pruning old growth from the thickets of Communist ideology to preserve its vigor, two of the highest-profile recent purges were officials who had been at their posts for less than a year: Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Defense Minister Li Shangfu. Qin Gang was a spring chicken by the standards of the Chinese gerontocracy at just 58 years old.
Bloomberg News on Monday suspected Xi has discovered one of the big problems with being dictator-for-life over a huge country that has aspirations to become a dynamic global hyperpower: everyone is terrified of angering Xi and finding themselves accused of corruption, so no one does anything constructive, leaving the gigantic Chinese government paralyzed while the economy falls apart.
Xi tried to reassure the public by launching a campaign against excessive red tape, but if the problem is fear of the dictator rather than convoluted bureaucratic procedures, that could just be a smokescreen for deflecting public anger away from Xi and his policies.
Xi has a habit of blaming his problems on lower-ranking officials who did not execute his instructions properly. This was a big part of his narrative during the Wuhan coronavirus disaster. Chinese state media organs were filled with stories about how local “negligence” sabotaged Xi’s perfect strategy for dealing with the pandemic.
The publication of Xi’s previously confidential remarks to CCDI by the Qiushi journal suggests Xi is sending a new message to the Chinese Communist Party: bureaucratic sclerosis will no longer be tolerated, and those who think doing nothing is the best way to avoid being purged could find themselves next on the purge list.
Another scapegoat trotted out by the Chinese Communist Party is neijuan or “involution,” which is a theory that excessive competition between Chinese corporations is wasting resources without producing enough benefits for the public. The theory holds that companies engaged in price wars are starving themselves of the profits they need for growth and innovation, leading to a stagnant economy.
Stagnation looks like China’s future for the next year or two. Consumer confidence evaporated during Xi’s deranged coronavirus lockdowns and never recovered, despite constant assurances from the dictatorship that lockdowns will never happen again. The real estate market remains timid and fearful of collapse. Retail sales are growing at a very anemic pace compared to China’s boom years. Investors are deeply rattled by the prospect of another trade war with America under President-elect Donald Trump.