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ISSUE BRIEF VOL - XII NO-2 / MAY 2018

Brigadier (Dr.) Rajeev Bhutani PROFILE: (Retd) superannuated after 34 ’S years of distinguished service in the Army as the Sub Area Cdr. PRESIDENT XI Writer, Defence Analyst and presently he is Senior Fellow JINPING CENJOWS.

Jinping became president of consummate political chess XiChina in 2013, ushering in player who has cultivated an an era of increased assertiveness enigmatic strongman image. and authoritarianism. Outshining The Chinese government’s his immediate predecessors, Xi propaganda machinery can be considered as the most regularly projects him as a powerful leader (paramount firm yet adoring patriarch and leader) since Deng Xiaoping. leader, who fights poverty and corruption at home while building He has created a public persona China’s image abroad as an emerging about himself as an avuncular man of the super power. people, even though he has maneuvered behind the scenes with a ruthless After being declared the country’s ambition to dominate China’s enigmatic “core leader” in late 2016, Xi is marching elite politics. He is considered as a ahead to break two decades old 2 CENJOWS tradition and stay on after his second Ministry when the younger Xi, the third term as the President and head of of four children, was born. the ruling Communist Party. His sole Xi grew up as a princeling of the ambition appears to be to make China a new ruling elite, but in the fractious era Superpower not only during his lifetime that followed, his father fell out of favor, but that too when he is leading the country targeted for humiliation in the Cultural unless the destiny has something else Revolution and imprisoned. Xi, at that in store for him and the country. time was in high school. What is surprising is how very The 15-year-old little is known about Xi’s biography as a was sent for “re-education” and hard leader? Xi’s deliberations and decisions labor in the remote and poor village of unfold in utmost secrecy. Leaks have all Liangjiahe for seven years. While in but ended in the Xi’s era, a reflection of Liangjiahe, he lived in a typical cave- fear as much as loyalty. Kerry Brown, a like dwelling, fetched water from a well, professor at King’s College London and and subsisted mainly on rice gruel. But author of a 2016 biography, “C.E.O., instead of recollecting the experience China: The Rise of Xi Jinping” and other as a punishment, he has done as Mao experts described the extreme secrecy evidently intended, describing it as a around China’s leader — even where lesson that made him more confident and Mr. Xi lives is not broadly known — as enlightened. He often describes himself symptomatic of an affliction that often as having been a farmer for those years hobbles autocratic leaders: living inside - an experience that would later figure a closed bubble of self-affirmation, largely in his official story. While much echoed by yes-men (all men, in his of rural China has seen breakneck case). urbanization, the village where he grew Early Days up is now a pilgrimage destination for the Communist Party faithful.

Born in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province Xi says that the ideas and qualities, on 15 June 1953, Xi jinping is the son which define him today were formed in of revolutionary veteran , his early cave life. “I’m forever a son of one of the Communist Party’s founding the yellow earth,” he likes to say. “I left fathers and an early comrade-in-arms of my heart in Liangjiahe. Liangjiahe made Mao Zedong. His father, Xi Zhongxun, me. “When I arrived at 15, I was anxious was a commander in the war against and confused. When I left at 22, my life Japan and then in the civil war that goals were firm and I was filled with brought the Communists to power. He confidence.” then became a senior government minister, working in the Propaganda Before, he arrived in the cave; young Xi had enjoyed a privileged CENJOWS 3 and cloistered upbringing as a “red There was no electricity, no motorized princeling” - growing up with families transport and no mechanical tools. The of first-generation Communist Party teenage Xi learned to carry manure, revolutionaries in ’s exclusive build dams and repair roads. He shared residential compounds. But all of that the flea-ridden brick bed in his cave with was shattered in the maelstrom that three others. One of them was farmer an increasingly paranoid and vengeful Lü Housheng, who told in 2015 that Chairman Mao inflicted on the party elite at night Xi would retreat to his cave to in the 1960s. Classes across Beijing read by the light of a kerosene lamp. Lü were suspended so that students could remembers him as “a voracious reader criticize, beat and even murder their and heavy smoker. He read the Selected teachers. Xi’s father was first purged and Works of Mao Zedong, famous quotes then jailed, and his family humiliated. from Mao, and the newspaper. There Xi’s family home was ransacked by wasn’t anything else.”Xi had no sense student militants and one of his sisters, of humor according to Lü. He didn’t play Xi Heping was killed. Later, his mother poker, hang out with other young people was forced to publicly denounce him as or look for a girlfriend. Xi was paraded before a crowd as an Building up Political Career enemy of the revolution. Without parents or friends to protect him from the Red At 18, Xi was ready to embark on Guards dispensing the summary justice his political career. He joined the of the Cultural Revolution on the streets, Communist Youth League, and at 21, the teenage Xi lived his second Beijing despite multiple rejections (10 times) life, dodging death threats and detention. due to his father’s imprisonment and his Much later, he recalled an encounter in family’s disgrace, he finally succeeded a conversation with a reporter. in joining the Party itself. Thus far from turning against the Communist Party, Many of Xi’s generation agree Mr Xi embraced it. In 1974 Xi became that when their schooling stopped and an official party member, serving asa they learned to survive on their wits, branch secretary, and the following year they developed emotional toughness he began attending Beijing’s Tsinghua and independence of thought. University, where he studied chemical Back then everyone studied engineering. After graduating in 1979, Chairman Mao’s famous little red book. he worked for three years (1979 – 1982) Now the thoughts of Chairman Xi are as personal secretary to Geng Biao(an posted on huge red hoardings and there old friend of his father), who was is a museum in his honor. It extols the then the vice premier and minister of good deeds he did for his fellow villagers. national defense in the central Chinese Village life in 1960s China was tough. government. He uses his brief service 4 CENJOWS in uniform to claim a military pedigree, positions, progressively rising through though he was more of a staff officer the ranks. He had promotion... in mind than a foot soldier. It was around this from day one.” time that he married his first wife, Ke Xi took the traumas of his early Lingling, the daughter of the Chinese life and the solitude of the cave with ambassador to Great Britain. The him. His friend said his reserve, a marriage ended in divorce within a few certain distant quality, contributed to the years. failure of his first marriage. But it clearly Supremely pragmatic, a realist, contributed to the success of his political with his “eyes on the prize” from early career. Until he reached the very top, his adulthood. This was how Xi’s friend defining achievement was to have risen described him in the 2009 diplomatic with barely a trace. cable. Unlike many youths who “made Steady Ascent up for lost time by having fun”, Xi was exceptionally ambitious and focused. From 1983 to 2007, Xi Jinping served After the Cultural Revolution, he “chose in leadership positions in four provinces, to survive by becoming redder than the beginning with red”.  Local party secretary in Hebei By the time Xi was 25, his father province. During his tenure in had been politically rehabilitated Hebei, Xi Jinping traveled to and sent to run Guangdong, the vast the and spent province next door to Hong Kong, time in Iowa, with an American which would become the powerhouse family, learning the finer points of China’s economic rise. The elder Xi of agriculture and tourism [Iowa advanced his son’s career through his governor Terry Branstad, who met patronage network, and according to Xi on his 1985 trip, was named as his friend, Xi quickly learned to build his Trump’s pick for ambassador to own. China].

“He carefully laid out a career plan  After his return, he served as vice that would maximize his opportunities mayor of in , where to rise to the top levels of the Party he proposed several infrastructure hierarchy, first becoming a PLA [army] improvements, all of which officer in the late 1970s (being aPLA were rejected by the provincial officer and PS to Geng Biao, Minister authorities. In 1987 he married of national defense would have been folk singer Peng Liyuan, who also a dual appointment) and then serving holds the rank of army general in in a variety of provincial leadership the PLA. CENJOWS 5

 That was the only time he drew and washed his own clothes even attention to himself on marrying his when he was deputy mayor of current wife. For many years the Xiamen. He also dined at a public public joked: “Who is Xi Jinping? canteen and never visited fancy He is Peng Liyuan’s husband.” restaurants. The couple has a daughter, Xi  In 2003, Xi moved to the Mingze, who studied at Harvard neighboring Zhejiang province, University under a pseudonym. where he served as Governor and  In 1987, Xi was transferred to Party Secretary. During his tenure, Ningde, where he served as a private industry quadrupled district party chief. He launched its research and development a conservation campaign that investment in the province. Xi beautified the major artery turned his tenure in Zhejiang connecting Ningde to the greater province into a major advantage, Fujian province. building a power base that sustains him to this day. According  He was the party leader in Fuzhou, to Willy Lam, an adjunct professor the provincial capital, from 1998 at the Chinese University of Hong to 2000. Credited with stimulating Kong’s Center for China Studies, foreign investment, Xi revitalized “Xi has promoted large number of the historical ‘Three Lanes and his former colleagues, associates Seven Alleys’ section. from Zhejiang province. This so-  His reputation as an honest and called Zhejiang faction is a major efficient politician rose steadily component of the Xi Jinping faction during his time in Fujian province. and is now the largest faction in In 2000, he was named Fujian’s the party.” provincial governor. Among his  In 2007, his career got a further concerns as Fujian’s head were boost when a pension fund scandal environmental conservation and rocked the leadership of Shanghai cooperation with nearby Taiwan. and he was named as its party He held both the deputy secretarial secretary, following dismissal of and governing posts until 2002. Chen Liangyu. He spent his tenure From his time in Fujian, Xi gained promoting stability and restoring first-hand experience of China’s the city’s financial image. export boom. A Hong Kong businessman, Sze Chi-ching told National Prominence the South China Morning Post that Having watched as his outspoken father Mr Xi lived in a public dormitory was victimized by Mao, Xi deferred to 6 CENJOWS power and was careful to avoid making weighing every cost and benefit. I’m not enemies. Even in his 40s and 50s as a going to lose my appetite over it.” very senior Party leader, he was always In early 2012, Xi Jinping traveled competent, never showy. One astute to the US to meet with President Barack insider described him as “a needle Obama and members of his cabinet. He concealed in silk floss”. also made a nostalgic trip to Iowa and In 2007, he was chosen for the then visited Los Angeles. Politburo Standing Committee and Later that year, on 15 November, Central Secretariat. In early 2008, Xi’s Xi Jinping was elected General Secretary visibility became even greater when he of the Communist Party and Chairman was elected Vice president of the PRC of the Central Military Commission. In and placed in charge of preparations for his first speech as General Secretary, Xi the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. broke from tradition and sounded more He became Vice Chairman CMC (2010 like a Western politician, speaking about – 2012). the aspirations of the average person Elected Leader of the PRC and calling for better education, stable jobs, higher income, a more reliable Everyone was taken in, when he safety net of retirement and health care, became Communist Party leader in better living conditions and a better 2012, Xi Jinping was the compromise environment. He also vowed to take on choice. corruption within the government at the In his first five years in office, Xi highest levels. He referred to his vision Jinping has built a personality cult. At for the nation as the “”. its core is the image of a man of the On 14 March 2013, Xi completed people. He has talked in earthy prose, his ascent when he was elected President telling students that life is like a shirt with of the PRC, a ceremonial position as buttons where you have to get the first head of the state. In his first speech as few right or all the rest will be wrong. He president, he vowed to fight for a great has queued in a down market steamed- renaissance of the Chinese nation and a bun shop and paid for his own lunch. more prominent international standing. Xi reflected on his ability to Achievements and Controversies listen to other points of view without necessarily bowing to them.“I had to When Xi Jinping came to power, he learn to enjoy having my errors pointed had promised the public to eradicate out to me, but not to be swayed too corruption, caging tigers as well as much by that. Just because so-and-so trapping flies. He arrested some of the says something, I’m not going to start country’s most powerful figures: CENJOWS 7

. One of the biggest tigers a mafia. But the Party rarely of all - 72-year-old, Zhou executes its own. Zhou was Yongkang was the most sentenced to life in prison. senior Party official ever to . It’s winner-takes-all in stand trial for corruption in politics here. Winner- the history of communist takes-all is a dangerous China. His trial came game. Zhou was not just halfway through Xi’s first corrupt - he belonged to a term around 11 June 2015. rival Party faction whose . Another tiger was Bo Xilai. power challenged Xi’s own. He and Zhou were accused Everyone now sees that in of plotting together and, with the Xi era, if you lose, you two top military figures and lose everything. another senior politician, of To supplement the image of a newly “wrecking Party unity”. disciplined and frugal political culture, Xi . Zhou Yongkang had been tried to avoid banquets and sometimes a Party member for half a travelled in a van with colleagues instead century. After graduating of a fleet of limousines. as an oil engineer, he had For the past five years, Xi’s risen to run China’s biggest blunt message has been: “Don’t join oil company and then a the Party if you want to make money.” province of 80 million people. But his problem was, and still is, that He’d crowned his career it is precisely the reason why some of with a seat at the Party’s the Party’s nearly 90 million members top table and control of the did join up. Communist Party politics security system. Together functions through money and patronage. it made for a formidable Cleaning it up means removing not patronage network. By just individuals but whole networks of the time Zhou appeared in influence and a culture. court, Xi had painstakingly torn that network apart - his He issued edicts on the appropriate investigators interrogating number of dishes for lunching public everyone from office staff officials and even decreed office to drivers and cooks. Only measurements for each rank in the months before Zhou’s hierarchy. Xi returned to his roots in court appearance, one of the cave village to rub shoulders with his business cronies had ordinary farmers and make an unspoken been executed for running point about the contrast between his 8 CENJOWS own life-story and corrupt elite. – effectively Xi’s right- hand man - is himself corrupt. The only But Xi has always belonged to the person Guo has been careful not to elite. In the years before he took power, target is Xi himself. some of his relatives had be come enormously wealthy, though there is Beijing has denied his allegations no evidence that he sought to promote and Guo himself is now the target of the business interests of his family. multiple lawsuits. But many Chinese Interestingly, according to an unofficial are gripped by his sensational account account, Xi’s Net Worth is $1.53 Billion of the links between politics and (as of Jan, 2017). business (see www.youtube.com/ watch?v=LkOsgh5kcgQ) According to his friend’s account, in the American diplomatic cable Some of his allegations seem published by Wikileaks: “Xi knows how far-fetched, but the picture he paints very corrupt China is …..and such ‘moral is one of pervasive moral bankruptcy. evils’ as drugs and prostitution.” In the absence of transparency, it has tarnished Xi’s narrative of a Party, which By caging hundreds of powerful has rediscovered its moral compass. tigers at the top of the Party and army, Xi has torn up the rulebook, which kept The a fragile peace between the red elite remains an opaque organization, and after the death of Chairman Mao. Any of while pledging to clean up wrongdoing, them might be making a speech in the Xi has shown no inclination to allow the Great Hall of the People one minute and whole truth to emerge in court or any dragged off to a cell the next. other public domain.

Sun Zhengcai – who was tipped Again and again, the Party has to rise to the very top leadership in the discovered that power corrupts and coming Congress reshuffle was purged. absolute power corrupts absolutely. The charge sheet was familiar – Bribes, But Xi is determined that he alone will abuse of power, exchange of money command the cleanup of comrades and for sex and leaking party secrets. But the caging of tigers. five years into Xi’s rule, it reinforces the The Control of Cyberspace impression that the Party’s corruption problem is systemic and enduring. The trouble started when wags on In recent months, from the safety Chinese social media spotted a similarity of a Manhattan penthouse, Guo Wengui between a photo of Xi Jinping strolling has made regular You Tube broadcasts with Barack Obama and a classic image alleging that the anti-corruption chief of Winnie the Pooh and Tiger. CENJOWS 9

From then on, China’s Internet Xi took office in 2012, a year after censors have waged war and the Party- the Internet had played a key role in controlled media has warned, “The sparking the Arab Spring. He resolved Internet has grown into an ideological it would never be allowed to spread battlefield, and whoever controls the protest in China, fearing a repeat of tool will win the war”. 1989, when the Party sent troops into to crush a student China has more than 750 million democracy movement. Internet users and Xi is keen that China should be a cyber-superpower when it Even when travelling abroad, comes to innovation and commerce, but many Chinese citizens now remain not at the expense of political discipline. behind the as their service Xi has waged two wars at home, one for providers enforce Party censorship. control of his Party comrades and the Until now the firewall has had small other for control of the Internet. cracks, with those determined to access He has enormously strengthened alternative sources of information able the so-called Great Firewall of China, to do so via a virtual private network the combination of legislation and (VPN), a tunneling device to the world technologies, supported by legions of beyond the reach of China’s censors. In professional and volunteer censors, his second term, Xi intends to take full which together enable the Party to control of the VPN tools. control Chinese cyberspace. Relying on mobile phone data Cyber security is now central to Xi’s and facial recognition, all enhanced definition of national security. Internet by a massive investment in artificial service providers and social media sites intelligence and big data management, are forced to censor users, while users Xi hopes to command an internal are encouraged to censor each other. All security system unimaginable to his are denied online anonymity and those revolutionary or imperial forebears. who overstep red lines are jailed. Both fear and greed are powerful It is reminiscent of the Mao era, motivators in the context of a rising China, when the Party expected citizens to spy and Xi has been bold in exploiting them, on each other, and kept detailed files on globalizing a control strategy of carrots them to instill fear. But Xi’s surveillance and sticks that works well at home. network may already be more powerful. And money talks. When Xi China has no meaningful privacy visited Seattle in 2015, America’s protection and every mobile phone is technology giants allowed themselves now a potential listening device and to be summoned. The bosses of Apple, censorship tool. Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Amazon all 10 CENJOWS stood alongside Xi in the front row of of purpose when it renounced its a group photograph. All have since revolutionary history. In a speech to embarked on multiple partnerships his own Party comrades shortly after with China despite its commitment to taking office, he warned: “Proportionally, perfecting Internet censorship. the Soviet Communist Party had more members than we do, but nobody was Facebook’s messaging tool man enough to stand up and resist.” Whatsapp is increasingly blocked in China and Apple has now removed from Xi’s resistance to the seductive its China App Store the VPNs which power of liberal values has been once gave Chinese users access to ferocious. He said, “If our people cannot social media tools in the West, including uphold the moral values that have been the YouTube channel which gave the formed and developed on our own soil, gleeful Guo Wengui such a devastating and instead indiscriminately and blindly platform to discredit Xi’s rule. parrot Western moral values, then it will be necessary to genuinely question Weaving Nation’s Conscience in to whether we will lose our independent his “China’s Dream” ethos as a country and a people”. It is now a matter of history that Mao’s A nation of active citizens is Xi’s policies led to famine and the deaths of nightmare. Christians, Muslims, labor more than 30 million Chinese, or that activists, bloggers, reporters, feminists, Xi’s own family had been persecuted and lawyers have been jailed for during the Cultural Revolution. Under speaking or acting on their convictions. Xi Jinping, dwelling on inconvenient In some cases, they have also been facts of history or insulting revolutionary paraded in televised confessions - that heroes and martyrs is now a punishable they allowed themselves to become offence called “historical nihilism”. pawns of China’s enemies in the West. Xi has promised the public that He wants his citizens to identify with China will be rich and strong. He believes “the motherland, the Chinese nation or unity and discipline under one-party rule race, Chinese culture, and the Chinese are crucial in achieving that. socialist road”. He calls these the “four identifications” and has distilled them into Xi’s elite early education, followed two key slogans - the great rejuvenation by the terrors of the Cultural Revolution, of the Chinese nation and the Chinese taught him to fear a politicized citizenry. dream.

Another formative chapter for Xi From banners hung above roads came with the collapse of communism and stations, to TV documentaries, in the Soviet bloc. His assessment online animations and mobile apps, was that Moscow had lost its sense CENJOWS 11 these slogans are everywhere. Paris climate accord to present himself as the statesman of the hour and In celebrating China’s communist increase China’s influence in the world. history, Xi has been careful to balance reverence for Chairman Mao with equal But if Xi is to achieve his centennial deference to the economic reformer goals, the real challenge still lies ahead. who succeeded him, Deng Xiaoping. Surface strength hides deep economic Xi talks about Marxism and he talks problems. Overall growth is slowing and about markets. But the essence of his debt mounting. Many economists warn “Chinese dream” slogan is clear - “the that time is running out for the reforms dream of a strong nation”. which might fix China’s problems without a crisis. And behind the firewall’s façade The Challenge Ahead of ideological unity are many competing On becoming leader in 2012, Xi set the ideas about China’s future. goals for China: There is a resurgence in patriotic • By the 100th anniversary of the nationalism whipped up by state media, founding of the Communist Party with a particular focus on Mr Xi as - 2021 - China would become China’s strongman leader, leading “moderately prosperous”. some to accuse him of developing a • By the 100th anniversary of the personality cult like that of former leader communists coming to power Mao Zedong and calling him as “the most - 2049 - it would be a “fully authoritarian leader since Chairman developed, rich, and powerful” Mao”. Some observers believe that nation. his ruthless war on corruption is in fact aimed at rooting out opponents, and is China’s economy may soon be 40 part of a series of political maneuvers by percent larger than that of the US, Mr Xi aimed at consolidating his power. measured in “purchasing power parity”. By 2049, it may be three times as large. Despite this, Mr Xi is still thought From island building in the contested to enjoy reasonably widespread support South China Sea to new multilateral among ordinary Chinese citizens - and banks and the infrastructure blueprint of is expected to keep shaping the country the Belt and Road, he has cast off the for the next few years. In a clear sign of old maxim that China should hide its Mr Xi’s influence, the Communist Party strength and bide its time. voted, in 2017, to write his philosophy, called “ on Socialism Xi has also nimbly exploited with Chinese Characteristics for the President Donald Trump’s withdrawal New Era”, in its constitution. Only from a major trade agreement and the founder Mao and Deng Xiaoping, who 12 CENJOWS introduced economic reforms in the The New York Times, 5 March 1980s, have made it into the all-important 2018,https://www.nytimes. fundamental law of the land com/2018/03/05/world/asia/xi- jinping-china-leader.html References: 5. Ben Westcott, “How Xi Jinping became one of modern China’s 1. “Profile: China’s President Xi most powerful leaders”, CNN. Jinping”, BBC News, 25 February com, 18 October 2017,https:// 2018, http://www.bbc.com/news/ edition.cnn.com/2017/10/17/ world-asia-pacific-11551399 asia/xi-jinping-profile-national- 2. Carrie Gracie, “Thoughts of congress/index.html Chairman Xi”,http://www.bbc. 6. “Xi Jinping Biography”, https:// co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/ www.thefamouspeople.com/ Thoughts_Chairman_Xi profiles/xi-jinping-5633.php 3. Malcolm Moore, “Xi Jinping: 7. Melissa Albert, “Xi Jinping, profile of the man born to lead President of China”,https://www. China”, The Telegraph, 15 britannica.com/biography/Xi- November 2012,https://www. Jinping telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ asia/china/9679847/Xi-Jinping- Xi_Jinping profile-of-the-man-born-to-lead- China.html 4. Steven Lee Myers, “Behind Public Persona, the Real Xi Jinping Is a Guarded Secret”,

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