Is China’s star falling?

When delegates to the 20th Party Congress confirm Xi Jinping as general secretary of the Communist Party for another five years in the fall, the 69-year-old in the Great Hall of the People might think of an old Chinese proverb: “Eagle fly alone, sheep go.” in herds.” Especially since the constitution, which was amended in 2018, means there is no doubt that China’s People’s Congress will re-elect him as President next year.

Since the death of the “great helmsman” Mao Tse-tung 46 years ago, no ruler in communist China has stood at the top of the power hierarchy for as long as Xi. Even the economic reformer Deng Xiaoping has to look up to them in the Sino-Communist Olympus. Xi is considered the “core” and “anchor” of the party.

At the zenith of his power, he is unlikely to think of any other Chinese proverb: “The truths we least like to hear are the ones we most need to know.”