THE BROKEN CHINA DREAM

A somber story of the quashing of nascent Chinese democracy by the neo-Stalinism of Xi Jinping.

Political scientist Pei opens at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October 2022, when Xi Jinping’s predecessor as the party’s general secretary, Hu Jintao, was forced from the stage. The moment was emblematic of Xi’s revival of “the central elements of totalitarianism: personalistic rule, a cult of personality, permanent purges, stifling social control, ideological indoctrination, and an aggressive foreign policy.” This restoration also undid decades of reform begun in the late 1970s following the death of Mao Zedong, remaking the Chinese economy through relatively free enterprise and foreign investment. This in turn stimulated the global trade that in time built a thriving economy. It also sparked what was called “culture fever,” which allowed a liberalization of the press, literature, film and television, and other media. The Tiananmen Square demonstrations of May-June 1989 closed this window, and Deng Xiaoping, the leader who had been so enthusiastic to see these reforms through, instead allowed the conservatives within the faction-riven party greater power. Even so, as Pei notes, globalization continued, with China offering itself up as a source of “ultra-cheap labor.” Xi’s reversals came about under several guises, including a so-called anticorruption campaign aimed at liberalizing elements in the government and other means to “almost single-­handedly dismantle the post-Tiananmen order.” The author predicts that the outcome will not be positive: China is increasingly isolated on the world stage, the economy is stagnating, entrepreneurship is in sharp decline, and Xi’s concentration of power almost guarantees a power struggle after he is gone. Moreover, Pei adds, Xi’s new cold war means that “an economically prosperous and politically liberal and open China” will elude the Chinese people for years to come.

Revealing insights into the current Chinese state, suggesting that it’s less juggernaut than paper tiger.