A Xi Jinping primer

Professor Kerry Brown's book attempts to provide insights into the personal and political growth of the Chinese leader, and his mission to make China a great power again

Xi: A Study in Power

Author:  Kerry Brown

Publisher: Icon Books

Pages:256

Prices: Rs 599

Who is Xi Jinping and how does he derive his power? This is a question that is critical to understanding China and the Communist Party of China (CPC) today, the changes and developments underway there, and the global ramifications of his actions.

Xi: A Study in Power by Kerry Brown attempts to answer some of these pertinent and essential questions which can help one understand the Chinese leader and the Party he is leading and in which direction they are headed.

Mr Xi became the head of the Party and the Chinese government in 2013 and since then the motor of changes in domestic politics, economics and foreign policy has been underway at full speed. This simple yet nuanced book attempts to look at the question as what has moulded Xi Jinping into the leader that he is today and the major challenges he faces. The book traces his personal and political growth by weaving a narrative juxtaposing his early life, his family history with his experiences during the Cultural Revolution and his role as a party worker and provincial leader. For Mr Xi, the Communist Party of China  is like a god and he has vowed complete loyalty towards the Party. “... while he may subscribe to an atheist creed, for him, God is the Communist Party — and it is in demonstrating loyalty, commitment and total faith to that epic cause that his power, and his mission, have meaning,” Professor Brown writes.

Since Mr Xi has held the top post, there has been a push towards building the narrative of the China Dream and linking this with the goal of the Party and in extension to himself. By doing this, Mr Xi has made himself the executor of the grand vision of the Chinese people. He has also consistently managed to eradicate any potential opposition and challenge to his policies. Policies such as his anti-corruption drive have greatly helped him strengthen his position and weed out opposition.

“The reality is that despite any issues the Chinese people might have about Xi, opposition to him inside and outside the party is made difficult by the fact that he and the party have bolted his style of leadership to the widely supported mission of making China a great, powerful country,” the author writes.  For it is the Party that is essential and supreme. He is dedicated towards building and strengthening the CPC. “The party’s centrality to all that Xi does is the link between his life before and after becoming national leader,” Professor Brown observes.

These changes not only affect domestic politics but have a strong impact on China’s foreign policy as well as bilateral relations. China is central to the international system today. The author argues, “China has greater significance as a country now than it did in the past. It is not because Mr Xi has some kind of magic quality” but because China today is stronger economically, militarily and technologically. It is an obvious truth.

As China continues to grow, its importance in the international system increases. As an important economic and military power today it has the capacity to write its own narratives that can run counter to the existing Western liberal perspectives and vision.

According to Professor Brown, Mr Xi is a master storyteller and he is all set to convey the Chinese story to the world. “Like Mao, Xi is definite about who should be seen as enemies of the national mission; they are fundamental part of the storytelling now taking place,” he writes. Xi Jinping is writing and telling a story that China and the world both are witnessing. The story is mostly about how China becomes great again and regains its position in the international order, while the world acknowledges and accepts this change. It is also about how China is pushing for an increasingly assertive stance and is marginalising its minorities, as they are portrayed as major hurdles in the ultimate rise of China.

The CPC faces a number of challenges — pollution, population decline, healthcare, mental health, slowing economic growth, corruption, among others — and Mr Xi will have to look for ways to manage these while also making sure that the Party continues to stay in power. “There is one problem that Xi is in place to solve, and by which history will judge him: To make party rule perpetual,” Professor Brown observes. And Xi has proven that he can adopt any means necessary to achieve this goal.

A lot is not known about Mr Xi, one of the most powerful people in the world who sits at the top of the most opaque political structures. This book is crucial because it attempts to fill some of the gaps. It helps the readers understand the Chinese leader a bit better than what one can attempt to do by just trying to analyse him from the prism of an authoritarian and power-hungry politician heading a Leninist Party with the goal of holding on to power for life. It makes the Xi Jinping “story” easier to understand.  

The reviewer is assistant professor, OP Jindal Global University