It is not only the American southwest that has been subjected to storms, China’s leader for life Xi Jinping says he has been relentlessly buffeted by “high waves and dangerous winds” in his attempt to keep the Chinese ship of state righted in turbulent economic times. This year the new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and its Politburo are challenging Xi, despite their belonging to the same faction of the CCP. This summer economic mismanagement and political scandals are plaguing the Chinese leadership in ways that may prevent them from exonerating themselves.
Xi Jinping lacks formal training in public policy and political economics, but continues to lay down rules for efficient governance, according to Will Wo-Lap Lam of the Jamestown Foundation. He has published several dozen books addressing foreign policy, political administration of government and economic development since assuming the presidency. Lam says “His most famous tome, The Governance of China (习近平治国理政) was translated into a dozen-odd foreign languages and sold a few million copies as of last month.” More recently, the Water Resources Ministry published a book entitled On Studying and Implementing the Important Discourses on the Management of Water Resources by Xi Jinping. It proved particularly embarrassing, says Lam, given widespread complaints that the paramount leader had totally mishandled the deluge in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province.
A number of recent events combined to raise the level of domestic discontent across the country. In Hebei Province, over 30 are dead and at least 1 million people left without homes in heavy rains and flooding in the region. The storms, considered the most severe in 140 years, were exacerbated by the surprise lifting of rural floodgates in spillways and reservoirs near Beijing and Tianjin. The government’s intention was to minimize the inundation of the two megacities with a combined population of over 35 million residents. Local party officials and residents downstream of the floodgates are questioning the action which they view as destructive to their local communities. Party Secretary of Hebei, Ni Yuefeng (倪岳峰) was criticized heavily in Chinese social media for stating that he would do everything possible to reduce “the pressure on Beijing’s flood control and [to] resolutely build a ‘moat’ for the capital.”
Slow emergency response teams drew further criticism of Xi’s handling of the flooding. Search and rescue units that were slow to respond resulted in citizen volunteers trying to offer aid. They were prevented from doing much of the work in the worst-hit zones due to a lack of requisite documentation and approvals from Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin officials.
President, General Secretary of the CCP, and commander-in-chief Xi Jinping neither visited the sites of devastation nor spelled out measures to help flood victims re-establish their livelihoods, according to Lam. The citizenry is calling him cold and heartless amid all the suffering. There is conflicting information out of China reporting that Xi instead was seen participating in a series of informal policy-making sessions with other Politburo members and top advisors in the nearby seaside resort of Beidaihe in Hebei province. This seaside resort town is where CCP leaders as far back as Mao and up to the current CCP leadership have taken their summer swimming vacations. Additional reports in Nikkei Asia say that most of the party elders were avoiding the meetings this year.
The country’s economy in 2023 is another challenge facing Xi as it is in the most precarious state since the late 1970’s. He also needs to decide how to handle the US-China bilateral relationship and Taiwan. Recently the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) sitting vice president made a first-ever trip to Taipei since Tokyo severed relations in 1972. In August, Taiwanese Vice President William Lai is scheduled to visit New York and San Francisco. Lai is expected to run for President of Taiwan. It will be the first time that there are no mainlander candidates running for president of Taiwan. Matters got increasingly worse for Xi Jinping this week when Japan announced the released of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea. China had worked to oppose the release.
As China abandons the concept of collective leadership and Xi establishes a unipolar rule throughout the country, he places himself in a precarious position. He now has to admit his mistakes in key policy areas including the economy where the real estate market is in a slump. Xi must contain the damage to keep his signature “common prosperity” campaign alive. China may be past the tipping point.
Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.
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