Hu Jintao’s Exit Was Mysterious. Xi Jinping’s Power Play Is Not.
AtlanticNov 25, 2022
The Facts
Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping secured a third five-year term as the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Sunday, following a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress.
This comes as 2.4K CCP delegates attended the 20th Party Congress on Saturday to ratify constitutional changes and major reshuffles, reelecting Xi as the general secretary of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), and appointing its six additional members.
The Spin
Anti-China narrative
Xi Jinping, since the very beginning, has put himself on track to become the next Mao Zedong in Chinese politics. He has crushed dissent, uprooted civil society organizations, and expunged political rivals in his quest to be China's autocrat. Now, having secured a precedent-defying third term, Xi is set to push his vision of a strong nationalist China even further, with himself at the center.
Pro-China narrative
Xi is in power because he is a strong and charismatic leader who understands the complex challenges that contemporary China is facing. The CCP now has a strong and unified core leadership, which is advantageous to overcoming China's many political and economic obstacles.
