Xi’s obsession with Gorbachev put China on Soviet track

TOKYO – Xi Jinping’s first commitment as leader of the Communist Party of China eight years ago was never to allow the party to suffer the same fate as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

“Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse?” he asked his colleagues in December 2012. “An important reason was that their ideals and beliefs wavered,” he said in an internal speech that was not broadcast by the media. State.

“Finally, it only took a quiet word from Gorbachev to declare the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, and a big party has disappeared,” he reportedly said.

The words – uttered just weeks after the dark horse candidate became secretary general – foreshadowed the US-China tensions that, years later, would relentlessly haunt Xi.

Because establishing an absolute party regime – his prescription to prevent China from going down the Soviet Union’s path – was the only policy Xi fiercely clung to during his tenure. This is also the main reason why Sino-US relations have fallen to their lowest point since 1972, before then-president Richard Nixon visited Mao Zedong.

It is ironic to Xi that the Trump administration today is treating the Chinese Communist Party as Washington did its Soviet counterpart, trying to push it to its grave.

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In a dazzling speech last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Xi “a true supporter of a bankrupt totalitarian ideology.” He did not fire any punches. “If the free world doesn’t change,” Pompeo said, “Communist China will surely change us.”

It was as if the American diplomat was showing Xi the exit, signaling him to follow the same path as Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.

For China, the Secretary of State’s words reek of the terrible theory of “peaceful evolution” formulated by John Foster Dulles during the early years of the Cold War. Dulles, who served as Pompeo from 1953 to 1959, spoke of a political transformation of the Chinese socialist system by peaceful means. Beijing has been on the alert against such a move for decades.

Pompeo’s speech was so provocative that it was not outright reported in China. Harsh reprimands for the speech were brought by the Xinhua News Agency, but Pompeo’s speech itself was not.

Troubling for the party, the speech was filled with phrases aimed at driving a wedge between him and the Chinese people, clearly distinguishing them.

Symbolically, Pompeo delivered the speech at a museum built in memory of Nixon, whose surprise visit to China paved the way for the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1979.

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The establishment of US-China relations changed the course of modern history.

The Chinese Communist Party decided to separate from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which it had followed in many ways, and instead associated itself with the United States, which it had until then accused of imperialism. .

Nixon himself made the bold choice to team up with Communist China to contain America’s No.1 adversary, the Soviet Union.

The demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 made China the only remaining great Communist power. But the United States did not seek to pursue the end of Communist rule in China simply because China was not up to the level of the United States and was not worth it.

Today the situation has changed and countries are turning a blind eye on countless problems.

Xi’s eight-year reign is marked by a constant effort to strengthen the party.

One of the first steps Xi took was to create various “small groups” within the party’s Central Committee that would become the country’s main decision-making bodies. Xi himself became the leader of the new groups.

These movements concentrated power in Xi’s hands while weakening the powers of the State Council, the national government chaired by Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Xi’s political rival.

As a result, even macroeconomic policies that were traditionally under the prime minister’s jurisdiction gradually fell under Xi.

This was evident at a large-scale symposium attended by a group of public and private business leaders held in Beijing on July 21. It was chaired by Xi, who was accompanied by three of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Li was not present, although he is known to be in Beijing that day.

Guests at the meeting included representatives from Microsoft and the Chinese subsidiary of Panasonic, as well as those from Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, China’s leading manufacturer of surveillance cameras, which is under pressure from the US government.

It is clear that Xi and the party make the policies, not Li and the government.

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Since taking office, Xi has turned the tide in three areas. He slowed down the separation of government and party, separation of government and business, and separation of military and business.

As a result of Xi’s “reverse reforms”, the party is back at the top of every organization.

The slogan “military-civil integration” is an excellent example.

The word “military” here does not mean an ordinary national army. It means the People’s Liberation Army, which comes under the absolute command of the party. Military-civil integration is a framework for private companies to fully cooperate with the PLA.

The objective of companies is to seek profit. But in China, there are party cells within companies. With the party at the decision table, they are very different from the international standard of business.

In addition, Chinese companies and its people are required, under national intelligence and other laws, to cooperate with the government – primarily with the party – to provide information when necessary.

This unique communist state structure has become a major drag on Chinese companies such as telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologies and surveillance camera maker Hikvision, which have operations in the United States and other countries. free.

“Party, government, military, civilian and academic; in the east, west, south, north and center, the Party rules everything.” It was one of the slogans ratified during the last national congress of the party, in 2017.

US President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019 © Reuters

At the same congress, it was also decided that the target year for achieving “modernization” would be 2035 instead of around 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of Communist China, as originally planned.

In other words, China would catch up and overtake the United States 15 years earlier than expected.

Naturally, the Trump administration has done everything to block its rival.

China abruptly enacted the Hong Kong National Security Law, which erodes the “one country, two systems” principle that had applied to the former British colony since its return to Chinese rule in 1997. It ‘s was a decision which, as far as the international community is concerned, far from common sense.

But the party’s priority was its own internal political interests, its survival instinct. The question of how the decision would affect the national economy has been put on hold.

As expected, the confrontation between the United States and China has escalated and diplomatic relations have plunged to their lowest point in decades. The Trump administration began to target the Chinese Communist regime itself, on the assumption that many things that happened during Xi’s eight-year tenure undermined the rules-based world order.

The United States has reportedly weighed down restrictions on entry for members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families. The party has up to 92 million members, more than the German population. The total number of members and their family members would be close to 300 million, approximating the American population.

If the United States sever relations with the Chinese elite, it could actually mean a freeze on diplomatic relations. It would also be very dangerous.

Xi’s obsession with not becoming Gorbachev and his relentless efforts to strengthen the party to that end have now turned against him.