Xi Jinping's Centralization of Power in China

Could we argue that Xi Jinping has centralized power in every matter: economy, politics and society? And if so, what are the purposes of the centralization of power?

For six years ago, Xi Jinping becomes the president of the People’s Republic of China. Meanwhile, it is well known for his acquisition of status and influence towards the People’s Republic of China, being a politician who has served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, and now as the President and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, it can be seen that his influence has been made prominent through all his high ranking roles, and he indeed has become a man with unquestionable power, however, the questions arise as to whether he has centralized this power in all aspects of the political society, such question shall be addressed and defined thoroughly.

In the past, many people viewed Xi Jinping as mainly an option and not relatively a person who could make a large impact. For the reason, there were two big parties in Chinese politics which Chinese people think those parties were very powerful, but Xi was yet to be directly affiliated with both parties as none of them belonged to their group during the time. Therefore, Chinese people think that he can not reach more power. After that, when he has been in the position of the president, the important things for him to be successful are fulfilling his power and stabilizing the Communist Party of China (CPC). To fulfil his purposes and becomes a powerful leader of China, he has to find a way to consolidate his power or we can called “Centralization”. The centralization has been defined as the concentration of authority at the top of the administrative system, the process of transfer of administrative authority from a lower to a higher level of government is called centralization, centralization of power occurs mostly in government that power or legal authority is exerted by a de facto political executive to which local authorities are considered subject and all power is held by a single authority or by a group of people. Regional or local leaders are appointed by the central authority and they can potentially be removed if they do not obey or abide by the orders issued by the government. As such there many possible examples for as to why politicians and governmental authorities, such as the People’s Republic of China, would have the motive or make a binding decision to centralize power, as such the most obvious example for intention of centralizing the government based on what has been learnt through lectures, would be that centralization of the government would potentially bring about trust from the Chinese community towards the China Communist Party, such trust would benefit the party as they would receive popularity votes from such centralization, showing the people that they can put their trust into the Chinese Communist Party to overlook all affairs of the People Republic of China. As such, the main purpose of Centralization of Power would be the stabilization of power of the Chinese Communist Party, in which this essay shall describe how Xi Jinping has centralized power in each aspect and how each aspect has furthered to his purpose of benefiting and maintaining the power of his communist party. 

In the political aspect of centralizing power, as the result from the part that Former President Jiang Zemin's party and former president Hu Jintao’s party were big in Chinese politics and many Chinese people thought that Xi Jinping was not dangerous that much. as campaign hard started occurring, people thought that Xi Jinping had already come to be considerate. There was moderately Listening and coordination between the two major parties, but as soon as Xi Jinping took office, it was not long before Xi Jinping started to subdue the corruption, and in no time, there was nothing more left in both parties, leaving only the new camp of Xi Jinping which was rising high. This was known as the “Anti-Corruption Campaign”. In this campaign, Xi Jinping took power to solve the serious corruption problem of local politicians. As the local government sowing investment funds to build roads, bridges, airports, buildings, to compete with other countries and to inflate the GDP rate. These infrastructures are now more than enough, as the high investment of these economic activities were used to open a box for local politicians to dishonestly grow, therefore less investment into these sectors provides less room for corruption. As such, now is the time that China has to change to focus on economic development with quality Instead of focusing on the quantity like in the past. This strategy is a political one and also known as “One Bullet kills two birds” in which it suppresses corruption, however, such act alone results in two things; dissolving the old political camp until there was none left therefore ridding the society of corruption, yet at the same time, winning the hearts of the people as corruption is something the people considered as bad for the society. Xi Jinping's suppression of corruption also extended to the removal of senior military leaders. Xi Jinping had also announced the reform of the military army during November of 2015, this was known as the first wave of the People’s Republic of China Military reform. Xi Jinping had modified the military administration structure so that the power wouldn’t spread among all military bases like what had happened in the past. Xi Jinping took drastic measures to make sure that he conceived the ability to control the army completely. With all actions taken by Xi Jinping, the Chinese citizens that may have either feared and saw dangerous motives behind Xi Jinping had ended up rather liking him and as such he had received the favour of the general public. The operation to entirely eradicate corruption had occurred, in which there were more than 1 million members of the party were disciplined causing the party to be incredibly peaceful, this was partly because Xi Jinping was smart in using choosing people to give power and authority to and the assignment of Huang Qi Chan, who was known to be a direct person and very good at work Overseeing the party’s disciplinary unit.

Xi’s Consolidation of power in the political aspect had become real in many ways. Firstly, Xi Jinping had passed a People’s Armed Police Reform during 2018, before the reform, the PAP was the government local tool to maintain personal interests as the power to control it was in their grasps, however after such reform, the chances of the government using the PAP as a tool or the occurrence of a Coup d’etat was very slim, as such, after the reform the power of the PAP was controlled the Central Military Commission, or in other words, controlled by the Xi Jinping, as he was Chairman of the CMC. Secondly, the Chinese Communists Party structure perceived the main goal, that is to maintain a lifetime president, during 2018, China’s parliament had passed a constitutional amendment of ending presidential term limits, as before such it was a two-consecutive term limit, and as such after assuming the leadership of China’s Communist Party during 2012, he has consolidated such power beyond even Mao Zedong. His incentives in consolidating power on the political level would be arisen from the phrase “One Bullet kills two birds”, long-term sustainability of the party results in growth of the GDP and the anti-corruption policies taking the hearts of the society, an example of such policy would be the launch of the Anti-corruption campaign, where Xi Jinping mentions “catching tigers and flies” as eradicating over 2 million officials in the local levels and political factions, the benefits highly form this campaign as not only that he can remove any potential competition to run against him, but he has also won the trust put within the Chinese Communist Party, leading to the long stabilization of the party, proving the legitimacy of the CPC to society. Once the centralization of political power has been grasped by Xi Jinping, this leads on to benefit his centralization of economic power. 

The second aspect of centralizing power is economy. China had begun to accept the fates of the slowing economic growth and gave up the idea of 'Do whatever it takes to grow exponentially”. Once Xi Jinping had caught power in the political aspect of centralization, being the chairman and president. He has an idea to fight against crony capitalism in China which means that the state-owned enterprises and companies and the monopoly leader network gain the market advantage from government subsidies, Economic reform in the next step must focus on promoting the private economy. Especially for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, where they are able to promote free competition in the market and reform state-owned enterprises to be truly competitive without the need for government subsidies. This idea became the guidelines of his economic plan of Xi Jinping. During a meeting with the CPC and State council, Xi had set an economic blueprint for china by defining China’s long term agenda as “Xiconomics”, which formally recognized the president’s leading role in setting the country’s economic agenda, giving Xi all the power to set the future of China’s economy. Firstly, Xi had stated ideas to the public of welcoming foreign investors, his centralization of political to himself proceeded to help him with the reform of reducing State-owned enterprises, as he had a vision of enhancing the private sector to become greater than state-owned enterprises in order to progress the growth of the GDP as a foundation for economic adjustment, this was due to the fact that in Xiconomics, Xi had a combination of demand and supply in idea, on the supply side, merger and acquisition of overproduced sectors such as coal and steel would be merged together so that there may be more supportive of small-medium enterprises and the private sector, focusing on technology and innovation so that production may be more focused on quality more than quantity. As for Xi’s demand side, there would be Capital Economic Zones to reduce the cost of building infrastructure within smaller cities, this lead to equal development for all people in the private sector, this is part of Xi Jinping’s economic development plan, known as “BRI” or One Belt One road, where Xi’s massive trade and investment grand plan seeks to connect nations along the new Silk Road routes through economic cooperation and infrastructure development, boosting funds and countering protectionism by working with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the New Development Bank and the World Bank to support Belt and Road projects. Thus giving Xi Jinping an economic advantage in centralizing power, benefiting to the third aspect of society. 

Moving on to the aspect of society which is one of the aspect of centralization, the scholars and public who believed in the Communist Party of China Instead confirmed that the gathering of President Xi Jinping conceived an aim to reform the Communist Party and China sustainably, and to correct mistakes that have arisen from the opening and reform of the past, by following Mao’s way of ruling, it can be seen how he invoked domestic and foreign reactionaries to build nationalist sentiment and solidify the party’s legitimacy, Xi has adopted a consistent refrain of unspecified but ubiquitous internal and external threats. Xi Jinping started centralizing power by first, the sinicization of Tibet and Xinjiang, as they are two autonomous regions components in China’s geography, and Xi Jinping’s CPC has deal with the centralization in many ways. First, the cultural assimilation of and cultural marginalization in Tibet, during 2018, 2 million Muslims were charged with crimes for only wearing head scarfs and praying, formulating the re-education of Tibet, furthermore, during 2017, the there were legal bans in terms of reincarnation, putting a restriction into religious practices, as during that era it was a Han-dominated policy, to promote positive energy in Xinjiang. Carrying on, from the effects of centralizing the power of economy, Xi Jinping was able to pass laws such as the Two-child policy, as he saw that in the future, there would be more people over the age of 65 and not enough personnel to take care of the aging old people, therefore he could control how reproduction affects the society giving people a right to have two children, which benefits the society because there would be a potential to have more citizens to look after the old population. Furthermore, Xi Jinping and the CPC had planned a campaign known as the toilet revolution, were sanitary conditions would be improved due to foreign complaints, this would be beneficial to centralizing the power in society as he would gain recognition and hearts of the people through aiding society In becoming cleaner. Another example of centralization of the society would be that due to Xi Jinping's centralization of political power, his government controls all usage of the internet, Social Media and strict media, restricting the influence of outside entities. Within the last six months as of 2019, a new national security law was announced along with the new foreign NGO regulation law with the enormous power given to officials to 'Maintain stability and order.

In conclusion, we all know that how powerful and strong he is, as we clearly to see that he took control every aspect of the Chinese politics with the absolute purpose which is not only for his power but also for the stabilization of the power of CPC. Of course, I mean that CPC is very important for him, No CPC, NO Xi Jinping nowadays. The first aspect is the political aspect of centralizing power, Xi Jinping had put down policies to centralize power into the middle (which included in Xi’s thought) and promote decentralization to the locality as in the reform during the era of Xi Jinping's massive suppression of corruption in China using absolute political power from above, until many viewed it as the purpose of eliminating political enemies and gaining more political support from Chinese people. Secondly, in terms of economic aspect, he has an idea to reduce the State-owned enterprises which he believes that it can reduce corruption as well with through the anti-corruption policy. As charges of corruption with more than 30 former leaders and ministerial leaders over the last 2 years had finally led to the dissolution of the foster network. Due to the social aspect, he centralizes his power by promoting the sinicization of two autonomous regions that are Tibet and Xinjiang. He uses the cultural assimilation policy which called Han-dominated policy as a tool to make them become more Chinese or assimilated as Han people. Moreover, he also created Two-child policy to prevent Chinese society from becoming an Ageing society in the future. Furthermore, the toilet revolution also became one of his planning to improve Chinese society as well. Besides, Xi Jinping has had a long history of reformation of China, having a prominent presence in the political arena, he no doubts, has had no trouble centralizing the three powers of economy, politics and society. Like Mao, Xi has prioritized strengthening the party, inculcating collective socialist values, and rooting out nonbelievers. Like Mao, who invoked “domestic and foreign reactionaries” to build nationalist sentiment and solidify the party’s legitimacy, Xi has adopted a consistent refrain of unspecified but “ubiquitous” internal and external threats. And like Mao, Xi has encouraged the creation of a cult of personality around himself.

Reference

1. Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science. Volume 4, Issue 6 (2016). 07/12/2019.
2. pp: 106-110 ISSN(Online): 2321-9467 Retrieved from http://www.questjournals.org/jrhss/papers/vol4-issue6/Q46106110.pdf
3. Centralization of power. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://oer2go.org/mods/en-boundless/www.boundless.com/definition/centralization-of-power/index.html.
4. Lee, S. (2017). An Institutional Analysis of Xi Jinping’s Centralization of Power. Journal of Contemporary China, 26(105), 325–336. doi: 10.1080/10670564.2016.1245505
5. Skidmore, D. (2019, October 16). Understanding Chinese President Xi's anti-corruption campaign. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/understanding-chinese-president-xis-anti-corruption-campaign-86396.
6. Morrison, W.M. (2015). China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges, and Implications for the United States. 07/12/2019. Retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33534.pdf
7. Ruwitch, J. (2018, March 16). Timeline - The rise of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-xi-timeline/timeline-the-rise-of-chinese-leader-xi-jinping-idUSKCN1GS0ZA.
8. Buckley, C., & Myers, S. L. (2017, October 11). Xi Jinping Presses Military Overhaul, and Two Generals Disappear. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/world/asia/xi-jinping-military-china-purge.html.
9. Why the party trusts Xi Jinping with total control. (2018, March 9). Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2136309/xi-jinpings-power-has-purpose-one-person-see-china-through.
10. Visualizing China's Anti-Corruption Campaign. (2018, August 15). Retrieved from http://www.chinafile.com/infographics/visualizing-chinas-anti-corruption-campaign.
11. Associated Press. (2019, November 5). China's Xi vows gradual opening to foreign investment, but offers no specifics. Retrieved from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-xi-vows-gradual-opening-to-foreign-investment-but-offers-no-specifics-2019-11-04.
12. Your quick guide to what Xi said in his 'Belt and Road' speech. (2018, July 20). Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2094250/your-quick-guide-what-xi-jinping-said-his-belt-and-road.
13. McGregor, R. (2019, August 21). Party Man. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2019-08-14/party-man.
14. Economy, E. (2019, October 3). China's Neo-Maoist Moment. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2019-10-01/chinas-neo-maoist-moment.