The growing personality cult around China’s leaders is a threat to the world

State and party leader Xi Jinping visiting an Olympic training camp

This year, the 68-year-old should be approved for a third term. Only Mao Zedong had that much power before.

(Photo: imago images / Xinhua)

In the minds of many Chinese, Mao Zedong is still the pre-eminent leader of China. Everywhere you can see large and small portraits of the founder of the People’s Republic. If China’s head of state and party Xi Jinping has his way, his own image is said to hang more and more often on taxi rear-view mirrors and in living rooms. “Xi Dada”, Uncle Xi, as he is half ironically called by many, ensures that the cult around his person takes on more and more massive forms – and reminds more and more of that around Mao.

This year, the Communist Party will most likely vote for a third term for the Chinese head of state and party leader at its party congress in autumn – a historically unique event.

Chinese state media print texts about the trips or wise words of Xi on their front pages almost every day. “Xi Jinping’s Thoughts” must be taught in schools. They have even been part of the country’s constitution since 2018.

Criticism of the central leadership figure, but also of the rest of the state leadership in Beijing, is forbidden. The limits of what can be said have become even tighter under Xi. And they apply to everyone. Internet billionaire Jack Ma was punished for criticizing a Chinese regulator, as was businessman Ren Zhiqiang, who was jailed for 18 years for discussing deficiencies in Xi’s management of the corona crisis. Journalists are tracked and comments on social media are censored.

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Concentration of power and personality cult are not good for China under Mao

At the same time, China has had painful experiences with the concentration of power on one person – and, after Mao, consciously took a different path.

Mao’s campaign to industrialize China under the name “Great Leap Forward” brought devastating famine to the people. Because no one dared to contradict the unattainable production goals of the “great helmsman”, farmers melted down their tools to maximize steel production and were subsequently no longer able to cultivate their fields. The massive crop failures went unnoticed in Beijing for a long time because no one dared to deliver the bad news.

Later during the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s “Red Guards” persecuted, tortured and murdered millions of people with fanatical zeal. Mao, however, saw himself as infallible and stuck to the path he had taken.

His successor Deng Xiaoping recognized the great concentration of power as a problem and allowed limits to be drawn in: the term of office of leading figures was restricted, the collective should decide and not an individual.

But Xi has reversed central elements of this principle. So much so that the growing personality cult around him and the concentration of power on the 68-year-old now pose a serious threat to the world’s second largest economy. Because a regime that does not allow criticism and concentrates all power on one leader deprives itself of the ability to learn.

The world’s second largest economy is facing major problems

Given the major challenges China will face in the years to come, this is a dangerous development. In the coming decades, the Chinese government will have to tackle problems that have so far been masked by high growth. The reform of the real estate market, which plunged the entire sector into deep crisis, is just one example. To protect the climate, the entire energy supply must be converted.

Added to this are the great inequality in the country, the severe aging population and tensions with other countries. Doing all of this without the economy collapsing is a huge challenge.

It would be hoped for the Chinese people and the world that the CP reconsidered to allow Deng’s principle of collective leadership and criticism. However, it is not likely.

More: Xi Jinping starts Operation Preservation of Power – It’s getting more and more uncomfortable for companies in China

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