‘Guard against arrogance. For anyone in a leading position, this
is a matter of principle and an important condition for maintaining unity. Even
those who have made no serious mistakes and have achieved very great success in
their work should not be arrogant.’
Chairman Mao Zedong’s Little
Red Book
China
was blessed by two great leaders in the 20th century.
Mao Zedong created modern China out of the wreckage of a nation devastated by
war, western and Japanese imperialism, ferocious poverty and lack of national
spirit. ‘Great Helmsman’ Mao made catastrophic mistakes that killed
millions and was dotty at the end, but he put modern China on the path to
greatness.
Clever, crafty, deeply wise Deng Xiaoping took the inchoate mass
of China and laid the groundwork from 1978-1989 for his nation’s miraculous
transformation from dire poverty into the world’s second largest economy and
newest great power. The only title the great Deng held was Chairman of
the Chinese Bridge Association. He didn’t need titles or fanfare:
everyone knew he was the boss. Deng urged China to discreetly grow rich
and strong while keeping its head down so as not to alarm the outside world.
I saw
much of this happen from the mid-1970’s when I began exploring China, which was
then still in the final stages of the crazy Cultural Revolution. To my
wonder, I saw the new city of Shenzhen rise from rice patties into a booming
metropolis of 11 million, one of the world’s fastest growing cities. The
magical transformation of China continues to leave me awestruck. American Raj: America ...
After Mao and Deng, China’s collective Communist leadership
imposed rules limiting party leaders to two five-year terms. The
Communist Party heeded philosopher Vilfredo Pareto’s warnings in his
‘circulation of elites’ that to preserve itself, an elite group had to allow
new members from below to join. Collective leadership was intended to end
or at least lessen the murderous power struggles that, with regionalism and
separatism, had cursed China for centuries.
China’s last two leaders,
Ziang Zemin and Hu Jintao, both chosen by Deng, followed Pareto’s maxim.
But China’s new supreme leader, Xi Jinping, did not. Using his power base
in the Central Military commission, the most powerful organ of government and
party, Xi steadily eliminated his powerful rivals over a decade and put his men
into key positions. Xi’s sleepy demeanor belied his startling ability to wage
political siege warfare and his ruthless elimination of opponents.
This
past week in Beijing, China’s 19th Party
Congress not only re-appointed Xi as party leader but enshrined him in the
Communist pantheon right next to Chairman Mao. In effect, Xi has become
China. Paraphrasing France’s Louis XIV, Xi was saying, ‘I am the
state.’ Which means that anyone opposing Xi Jinping will become an enemy
of China.
Xi now appears poised
to become as all-powerful as Chairman Mao, though he does not yet command the
Great Helmsman’s near-divine status or adulation. If recent years are any
guide, under Xi a severe crackdown will continue against dissenters, religious
groups, and would-be westernizers. In Xi’s view, the west has
little to offer China besides decadent behavior, racial mixing, loud music, and
social rot. The United States, Japan and India are seen as
dangerous, determined enemies bent on destroying united China.
The
major problems facing Xi and his men will continue to be the deep unrest and
resistance by the persecuted Muslim Uighurs of China’s western Xinjiang
province (once Western Turkestan), Tibet’s equally restive people, ‘rogue
province’ Taiwan, and the irksome North Koreans. Further on, China is
girding for a Pacific war with the US, and a mighty struggle with northern
neighbor India over control of the eastern Himalayas and Burma (see my book ‘War at the Top of the World).
At the same time, Xi has said that he will press ahead with
plans to continue advancing China’s soft power around the globe through trade,
culture, medicine, foreign aid and investments. His eventual plan
is to divert the primary flow of trade between the US and Europe eastwards to
China. The People’s Republic will also continue to buy up key foreign
industries and export Chinese abroad. While the US bleeds itself
through small but expensive wars in Asia and Africa, China is using its huge
trade surplus to buy key assets and influence around the globe.
China is doing all this at a
time when its ruler, Xi Jinping, commands absolute authority and has a clear
strategic vision, backed by a mighty economy and some of the world’s most
intelligent people. The same cannot be said for Washington which is
floundering.
But before you put all your
bets on China, recall Lord Acton’s famous dictum about absolute power
corrupting absolutely. Even the great Mao went off the deep end later in
his rule, sending millions to their deaths due to starvation and terrorized all
China with his demented Red Guards. No one dared challenge Mao’s
later-life follies. Xi Jinping is a voracious reader of history like
predecessor Mao. Let’s hope the lessons from Mao’s days are noted.
Eric Margolis [send him mail]
is the author of War at the Top of the World and the new
book, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the
Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World. See his website.
Copyright © 2017 Eric Margolis
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