Chinese President Xi Jinping sees himself as Joseph Stalin’s successor: US NSA O’Brien

US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien launched a frontal attack on Chinese President Xi Jinping, comparing him with Russia’s dictator Joseph Stalin. Speaking on the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology and its global ambitions, O’Brien said that Xi Jinping sees himself as Joseph Stalin’s successor.

“Yes, Stalin – the man whose brutal dictatorship and disastrous policies killed roughly 20 million Russians and others through famine, forced collectivization, executions, and labour camps,” said the NSA, according to a transcript released by the White House.

O’Brien, giving his narrow interpretation of communism, said that individuals are merely a means to be used toward the achievement of the ends of the collective nation-state. He said that individuals can be easily sacrificed for the nation-state’s goals and individuals do not have inherent value under Marxism-Leninism. 

“They exist to serve the state; the state does not exist to serve them,” he added.

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'Seeks total control'

O’Brien said that the political ideology which was discarded by Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union has remained fundamental to the Chinese Communist Party. He noted that the Chinese Communist Party seeks total control over people’s lives including economic control, political control, physical control, and, “perhaps most importantly, it means thought control”.

The top US diplomat went on to say that China actively seeks leadership positions in global organisations to dictate its ideologies. Noting that China now leads four out of 15 UN bodies, O'Brien said that Bejing was using those leadership positions to coerce international bodies into agreeing with Chinese policies and also to install Chinese telecommunication equipment in their facilities.

Citing the example of the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, O'Brien said that the UN official repeated Chinese talking points to the world. He said that the WHO chief, till late January, asserted that the virus could not be spread through human to human contact also favoured interventional flight while lauding Chinese travel ban.

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