He is not yet
one of the “saints” of the Chinese Communist Party along with Mao and Deng. But
already, after less than two years in office, Xi Jinping is, to borrow a phrase
from the Catholic Church, being “beatified” – given pre-sainthood status.
On successive
days last week, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post published full-page
features drawing attention to Xi’s exalted power and status, in effect
condemning his two predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, to insignificance.
The SCMP is
edited by a mainland Chinese long assumed to be a party member expected to
promote party views while trying to present the SCMP, Hong Kong’s leading
English-language paper, as a forum for diverse news and views.
In its Aug.
22 issue, the SCMP used the 110th anniversary of Deng’s birth not just to
recall Deng’s contributions to China’s development and the return of Hong Kong,
but went out of its way to link Xi to Deng. The overlines to the main article
read: “President Xi Jinping’s efforts to exert China’s influence on the world
stage mirror those of the former paramount leader who would be 110 today.”
It went on to
compare Deng with Xi’s “flexing the country’s military muscle and asserting
China’s involvement in regional affairs.” While acknowledging that Deng’s
policy had actually been one of lying low internationally while building the
economy and modernizing society, it implied that China is now in a position to
make demands and get at least some of what it wants internationally. Nor
did it stop to consider the impact of Xi’s adventurism on China’s standing
among its neighbors, particularly the supposedly weak but populous – and
increasingly unnerved -- countries of Southeast Asia.
The
underlying theme was that Xi deserves comparison with Deng because he is making
waves around the world while Deng’s role was to make the waves which
transformed the domestic economy.
As if this
was not praise enough for the time being at least, the following day the SCMP
published another full-page article about Xi himself entitled: “Up there with
Mao and Deng.” It featured an illustration showing Xi’s portrait appearing on a
wall with a China’s red flag background alongside those of the two earlier
“saints”.
The article
was rather less effusive than the headline, acknowledging that it “would be
premature to call him China’s new strongman.” However, Xi was said to have
amassed more power in 20 months than his two predecessors had during their
terms in office. And for sure, Xi has been making more waves, particularly with
his cutting down of Bo Xilai and associates and more recently with the high
profile anti-corruption campaign and jingoist stirring of the Chinese soul
against Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. His economic agenda also suggests
further reforms to create more competition, improve the management of state
enterprises and modernize the financial system.
However the
efforts to improve the status of the party and efforts to disadvantage foreign
companies relative to domestic ones scarcely suggest that economic reform will
be paramount among his goals. Indeed the SCMP’s writers appear to have
conveniently forgotten that the boldest economic reform measures were those
carried out when Zhu Rongji was premier under Jiang Zemin.
Zhu as
central bank governor had earlier rescued China from an inflationary spiral.
Zhu’s reforms involved wholesale closures of inefficient state-owned
factories, especially in the northeastern “rust belt”, and layoffs of millions
of workers hitherto protected by jobs for life and enterprise-provided welfare.
Given that party officials are now deeply embedded in the ownership and well as
operation of state enterprises, reform on the Zhu scale looks impossible.
For sure, Xi
has been building a personality cult, with his many public appearances with his
glamorous wife, and by downplaying the role of premier Li Keqiang. But in that
he appears closer to Mao or Bo Xilai than to Deng, who kept his own personality
in the background, winning his position among the “saints” from his singular
achievement in rescuing the party and the country from Maoism.
Nor does the
building of a personality cult fit well with the aim of improving the
legitimacy of the party as an institution not the party as agent of an
individual as under Mao. For now, however, judging from the likes of Xi’s
treatment by the SCMP, the party apparatus is happy enough to promote the
future “canonization” of the president Asia Sentinel
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