Wang Zian | Is Xi Jinping a dictator? | Text version

Today is the weekend, let’s talk about some light topics. Last week, US President Biden said at a fundraising meeting that “China’s President Xi Jinping is a dictator.” This statement caused a great uproar. This remark was not specifically aimed at Xi Jinping, but rather referred to the fact that a Chinese spy balloon had floated over the United States some time ago, and then Biden said, “Because Xi Jinping is a dictator, he cannot obtain true information,” not knowing about the balloon, and even less about what was on the balloon. He simply wanted to say the loneliness of a dictator, because a very important characteristic of a dictator is that no one dares to tell him the truth.

But after all, saying that Xi Jinping is a dictator in a formal speech, China immediately became unhappy. The Chinese Embassy in the United States issued a statement, lodging serious representations and protests with the US government, calling it nonsense, unacceptable, and stating that all political consequences that may arise in the future would be the responsibility of the US. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was also ordered to confront President Biden, saying that “the relevant remarks of the US are extremely absurd, extremely irresponsible, seriously violate basic facts, seriously violate diplomatic etiquette, seriously infringe upon China’s political dignity, and are an open political provocation.”

But there is a detail that is particularly interesting. I looked at Mao Ning’s speech. First, I didn’t see any questions. I don’t know if foreign reporters didn’t ask questions, if she spoke proactively, or if the questions were cut. Second, there were no reports of this speech in domestic media. According to convention, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will answer questions from foreign reporters and will be disseminated in the form of text transcripts in Chinese media, but this part was deleted.

Why was it deleted? Because the accusation by Biden that Xi Jinping is a dictator cannot be repeated. I have said many times in the past that under the Chinese system, some things cannot be repeated, even if you oppose him. Therefore, the current Chinese media does not want the public to know that Biden accused Xi Jinping of being a dictator, even if it is firmly opposed and firmly protested, this is not allowed.

Because there are two factors to consider. First, domestically, it is usually said that Xi Jinping is not only loved by the people, but he is also a leader loved by the people of the world. “Reference News” talks every day about Xi Jinping pointing out the direction for Sino-US relations, China-Europe relations, and the future development of mankind, implying that Xi Jinping is not only loved by the Chinese people, but also admired, worshiped, and respected by the people of the world. So he is a remarkable leader. Second, if the US President accuses Xi Jinping of being a dictator and the Chinese people know about it, the people will think about whether Xi Jinping is a dictator. We don’t talk about this issue, and in fact, no one considers it, but once he is said to be a dictator, it will remind everyone to think about this issue, which is not allowed.

Therefore, the Chinese media has no reports about this news at all, including the online Little Pink (nationalist internet users) did not come out to confront President Biden. I believe that if any Little Pink on Sina Weibo confronts President Biden, saying “President Biden said that Xi Jinping is a dictator, we will never agree,” it is estimated that his account may not be preserved, you can try it if you don’t believe it.

Biden’s remarks are still worth analyzing, because this is the first time in history that a sitting US president has accused the Chinese head of state of being a dictator. Mao Zedong was so dictatorial back then, but no sitting US president said he was a dictator, because there is also a basic diplomatic etiquette issue here. Although some national leaders are scoundrels and rascals, leaders of other countries rarely tear their faces and directly call them rascals.

We are not very good at analyzing why Biden said this, but this matter has indeed attracted widespread attention in international public opinion. The Prime Minister of New Zealand said, “I do not agree with President Biden’s remarks,” because he is going to visit China next week. If he agrees with Biden’s remarks, how can he visit China? So the Prime Minister of New Zealand said, “Xi Jinping is not a dictator, and the Chinese system is the Chinese people’s own business. They can change it if they want to, and we don’t need to care if they don’t want to.”

The White House later stated, “We are not ashamed to speak frankly about some concerns and issues, and the President is very straightforward in dealing with these challenges and the complexity of this relationship.” Biden also said when asked by reporters, “You could say that something happened to us, causing some confusion, but Blinken’s trip to China was pleasant, and I look forward to meeting with President Xi in the near future, and I don’t think there are any real consequences.”

So, is Xi Jinping a dictator? First of all, we need to distinguish what a dictator is. From a political science definition, a dictator refers to a situation where all political power in a country belongs to one person, and this power is absolute and unconstrained. So, generally speaking, we call such a person a dictator. There are also several concepts similar to dictator, such as authoritarianism and authoritarianism. Authoritarianism refers to a political system in a country that is not democratic, but is monopolized by a certain party or group. Authoritarianism is like Singapore, which holds democratic elections, but in fact, the People’s Action Party has been in power for a long time.

Generally speaking, the Chinese Communist Party system belongs to an authoritarian regime, and there is almost no doubt about this. But are the leaders of the CCP all dictators? Not necessarily. For example, Mao Zedong is definitely a dictator, but Deng Xiaoping is questionable. In my own opinion, Deng Xiaoping is not a dictator. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao after him are even harder to call dictators.

During the 30 years of Mao Zedong’s rule in China, all political power belonged to him alone. In the Mao Zedong era, Liu Shaoqi served as the President of the State, but his political power could not be compared with Mao Zedong’s at all. When Mao Zedong lost his temper at Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai, no one dared to speak. Mao’s power gradually increased, and political movements and purges were carried out time and again to eliminate those who posed a threat to his political power. After Deng Xiaoping came to power, he proposed to abolish the lifelong tenure of leading cadres and to have collective leadership, and to turn the Politburo into a collective decision-making mechanism again.

After Deng Xiaoping, political leaders are difficult to be defined as absolute dictators. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao both had other constraints within the party, especially the “Nine Dragons Governing Water” during the Hu Jintao era. At that time, the Standing Committee of the Politburo discussed the Bo Xilai incident, and the final vote showed that it was a collective decision, not one person’s say.

But with Xi Jinping, the situation is changing. In the past ten years, the basic rules of the national system have been destroyed. For example, the term limit system has been abolished, and the rules of serving two consecutive terms have been broken by amending the “Constitution.” The tradition of the Communist Party itself of “designating successors across generations” has also been abolished, and other factions within the party no longer exist.

Now, Xi Jinping holds all the power within the party and has no other constraints at all. He deifies himself through the way of personal worship, such as publishing “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” and “Selected Readings of Xi Jinping’s Works.” These practices brainwash people into accepting that Xi Jinping is an absolute authority, and it is not allowed to discuss or even question him casually.

So, is Xi Jinping a dictator? From my personal point of view, I think he is, he is a dictator. The power of a dictator is unconstrained and prone to serious mistakes. For example, the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution could have been avoided, but under the rule of a dictator, these mistakes become inevitable. The three-year epidemic prevention measures that ended last year, especially in the last year, the crazy epidemic prevention measures would not have made such crazy decisions if it were collective leadership.

Dictators, after falling into absolute power, will be unable to identify the true information of the country, and no one dares to tell him the truth. In his later years, Mao Zedong, the Cultural Revolution lasted for ten years, and no one dared to tell him that everything was not normal. Xi will also fall into this situation, which is the loneliness and sadness of a dictator. The terribleness of dictatorship itself lies in this.

Chinese people do not have such a strong aversion to authoritarianism, because the Communist Party has done a good job in the economy in the past few decades, and everyone feels that although they cannot share power politically, they can tolerate it. But dictators cannot tolerate it, because once a dictator makes a mistake, it is really too crazy. In today’s China, the harm of dictatorship is far greater than political authoritarianism.

Deng Xiaoping abolished the lifelong tenure of leading cadres, but in the era of Xi Jinping, he has returned to the era of dictators. The core reason is that the system of the Chinese Communist Party is all soft constraints, lacking rigid constraints on power. The internal system of the Communist Party depends on internal power struggles. When a strong political figure appears, the internal system itself has no constraints on him. The Communist Party itself has the hereditary nature of dictatorship, and has a strong desire for strength, hoping that a strong political leader will solve the problem.

Old Mao implemented 30 years of dictatorial rule in China, which brought extremely far-reaching disasters to Chinese society. What will Xi Jinping bring to China in the future, we don’t know, but hopefully he will not bring the social disasters of the Mao era back to Chinese society. We can only hope.