Is Xi Jinping 'President For Life?' Why 2022 is Make-or-Break for China's leader

To say that world has seen China differently since year 2020 would be a debate-worthy topic. On one hand, while one could easily presume that COVID outbreak is a rock-solid prism that has forever nuanced how we see red dragon, it would be just as defensible to put forth that re have always been observations people wanted to make about China, only it was thought not prudent to do so.

China gets away with a lot. Name a sector, a walk of life, a policy - and you are likely to find at least one example of how China seems to function outside ambit of what's permissible in rest of world. 

Intellectual property, for instance, is a concept largely unheard of re. Sure, China makes plenty of things on its own now, but back n, when it was still finding its feet as a manufacturing powerhouse, re was no iconic brand that you couldn't buy a knock-off of, almost anywhere around world, that wasn't me in China. Going by maxim - good artists copy, great artists steal - China has mastered art of making just about anything, and economically and at scale to boot.

China's Alter-net: Where Google & IPR are unheard of

Internet is anor profitable line of inquiry. Land in Beijing, connect to a wifi or data network, and you'll be forgiven for thinking your phone's conked off. Google and Facebook and rest of Internet staples don't function re. It's almost as if China has developed its own parallel Internet - Marvel fans will recognise it as a kind of Wakanda - where all same technology exists as rest of world, only different in every conceivable way.

Coming to environment, China is among most ruthless deforesters and fossil fuel burners out re. Only strict action and ruthless implementation has stopped Beijing from turning into a smog-metropolis like it was a few years earlier. That is something China needed to do so as to not be a global laughing stock, as country with most visibly polluted city. But re are aspects of environmental degredation that we don't notice. Tritional Chinese Medicine, a completely bunkum pseudo-science, is world's biggest direct threat to wildlife. Rhinos are killed half a world away in Africa for ir horns, which are sold in China for a lot of money for medicinal properties that y simply don't have. same is true of Tiger bone, and problem is so acute and involves so many species, that even humble donkey is facing becoming endangered because Pakistan isn't able to meet China's needs.

Fire-Breathing Dragon or flat-track bully?

But China has got away with all this, and a whole lot more, and we're not even talking about expansionism. China's bullying is such a geopolitical white elephant that Taiwan, a democratic country that was founded by an icon of Chinese history and identity - Chiang Kai Shek - isn't allowed to use its name at Olympics and is inste referred to as Chinese Taipei. Similarly, Hong Kong, once among most hi-tech and vanced global cities on Earth, is no longer a place you'd envision going to, due to it having come under Communists' shroud. While Hong Kong continues to protest, however, and world occasionally shows its support, closer to India, historic and mystical land of Tibet is hardly ever spoken about, it's government long since exiled to India and its way of life mutilated.

All se, and a whole lot else, were things not spoken of openly, at least not via official channels and by mainstream media outlets. And n, 2020 happened, and it is arguable that wher or not China cooked up SARS-CoV-2 virus in a lab in Wuhan, its reaction and belligerence since n have turned it into a diplomatic punching bag. Gone are days where China minces its words. Accusations are now replied to with wilder accusations, and terror groups like Taliban are received warmly and openly, essentially saying that China doesn't care wher Afghan people prosper or suffer barbarism and discrimination, so long as Beijing gets to build plenty of ros in country and inveigles it into its debt trap.

As it has got increasingly defensive on a range of matters, China has gone on a full offensive in recent times, and offensively so. And while any nation, much less a juggernaut like China, would occasionally give it back when backed into a corner, for China's President Xi Jinping, this seems like just a little bit more than that, a little bit more personal.

Will Xi Jinping Be 'President For Life'? 

But why, you would ask? Is it not same Xi Jinping who as recently as 2018 was being spoken of along with term 'President for life'? same Xi, who is referred to as 'China's most powerful leer since Chairman Mao Zedong?' one whose so-called 'thought' has been written into China's Constitution and into its school textbooks? Why is that Xi, ever picture of calm strength, so hot and bored by a couple of questions about his foreign policies, about being totalitarian, about possible leak of a virus mid-weaponisation, or about or people in China, such as Jack Ma, coming to be appreciated for ir achievements? Isn't 'Uncle Xi', as Chinese are forced to refer to him, powerful and entrenched enough that all this should be water under bridge? Well, answer is, 'it's not as simple as that'.

Xi Jinping is not yet President for life. He may well come to be so - he has paved way for himself to le China forever by removing limits that were put in place to prevent anor 'President for life'. This is after Mao Zedong h ruled China from time it became an independent country in 1949, till his death in 1976. Mao was a political titan, under whose leership some of biggest human calamities and catastrophes in history took place, largely hidden from rest of world, and yet he remained firmly in place for 27 years, and for deces since n after his death, as unshakeable and blemish free founding far & symbol of People's Republic of China. His so-called 'Great Leap Forward' and 'Cultural Revolution' were anything but what ir names imply, with millions perishing due to famines and floods and thousands being persecuted for little or no reason. In comparison, Xi Jinping is a neophyte, coming to power in 2012, by which time China was well on its way to becoming an economic cornerstone of world. To put things into perspective - Beijing Olympics, when China welcomed world in and wowed it with its incredible infrastructure, wondrous Bird's nest stium and breathtakingly beautiful opening ceremony - that Olympics h taken place in 2008, when Xi Jinping was still 4.5 years away from becoming top political leer in country.

How Deng Xiaoping tried to block more 'Presidents for Life'

In fact, if you are to look closely at how China has come along, it was largely nowhere - hub of world's miseries - in Mao years, just same way as it came to be a neo-superpower well before Jinping years. In middle came leers who obeyed rules, who me an effort of believing in fair play and a rules-based system. Deng Xiaoping, perhaps most underrated world leer of last 100 years, took up structural reforms, technological vancements and opening up of Chinese economy that an incompetent Mao would have dismissed out of hand. Among Deng Xiaoping's deeds, many of which were heartening and pivotal, while just as many were strong-handed and brutal, was his imposition of term limits, by which China attempted to prevent anor Mao coming into power and holding on to it for life.

To be sure, Deng Xiaoping largely followed se term limits himself, while remaining a power behind scenes, and after him came Jiang Zemin and Xi's immediate predecessor Hu Jintao, who both continued China's economic growth and opening up, while also keeping one-child policy intact and in end voluntarily relinquishing most of ir power and paving way for someone else to come in. And so, finally, less than 10 years ago, came Xi Jinping, who while standing on shoulders of leers that have done things terrible and great to bring China to within touching distance of global supremacy, has seemingly attempted to hoard and harness power to a degree that is unprecedented in history of world. After all, bar one, no American president has spent more than 8 years in office.

What does political future hold for Xi Jinping and for China?

answer lies in intent, which is clear from goings on in recent years. Since coming into power, Xi has undertaken a number of reforms and policy initiatives that have h far-reaching implications on his own political position. first of se was a wide-ranging crackdown on corruption within ranks of Communist Party of China, in which over time over 10,000 people have been indicted. This includes ' tigers and flies', as Xi says, meaning big fish and everyday corrupt people. While he's been praised internally for his decisive action and zero-tolerance approach, whispers also claim it has served as a crackdown on political rivals and dissent within party structure.

He has undertaken a large-scale expansion of China's interests globally, particularly in terms of building infrastructure, with Belt & Ro Initiative coming to be lifeline of certain countries that h languished for years, but now have tarmac ros and bridges, like in Africa, with help of Chinese, and ors, like Pakistan who have beggared mselves to such an extent by being dependent on US money, that y have now h to sell ir proverbial soul to Chinese after Washington stopped its aid flowing. Alongside this economic expansionism, China under Xi Jinping has also followed a doctrine of military aggression, camping at its borders with or nations and trying to steal a square km of land or two when nobody is looking. Apart from this magpie-like 'blink and you'll miss it' habit of stealing land, Xi has also cracked whip on nominally more prosperous and happier regions of so-called 'One China', such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hong Kong, which was handed back to China after having been ministered by UK till 1997, has been a hotbed of pro-democracy protests, with Chinese ministration seeking to impose new and authoritarian laws. Taiwan, on or hand, is geopolitical hot potato over which Xi Jinping appears to want to flex his nationalist muscles. Taiwan, a prosperous democracy that noneless is not recognised by most of world, despite occupying a prominent island of its own off coast of China and exporting most of world's microprocessors. It was founded by same people who unified China and drove out Japanese occupiers during World War 2. But while Mao Zedong and his Communists won war for mainland, Koemintang, led by Chiang-Kai-Shek h to flee to Taiwan, which over 70 years later now, Xi Jinping still covets.

Jack Ma Under House Arrest For Criticising CCP 

Similarly, even in internal economy of China, aggressive and authoritarian tidings are afoot. Jack Ma, celebrated billionaire, media darling and founder of Ali Baba, has been effectively kidnapped and put under house arrest for questioning ministration, and his vast empire is being ruthlessly scuttled. Tech company founders are being punished for things as small as sharing poems with anti-authoritarian meaning on social media. Economic freedom, just like political freedom, is on wane in Xi's China. question is why?

Why 2022 is make-or-break for Xi Jinping

Nominally, since Deng Xiaoping years, re has been a term limit on Chinese president's office, which is 10 years. But in 2018, Communist parliament removed this term limit, paving way for Xi to become what has been referred to as 'President for life'. In last few years, every now and n, Xi Jinping's thoughts are written into Chinese Communist Canon - its Constitution, elevating him to a state of reverence only reserved for Chairman Mao. His thoughts, are now thought quintensential to what it means to be Chinese - this for a President of 9 years and a civilisation that is as old as any in world. 

Regardless, To rule China in a de-facto sense, one needs to hold three posts, which Xi Jinping does at moment. He is elected President of China, he is General Secretary of Communist Party of China, and he is Chairman of Central Military Commission. 

But is Xi Jinping really President of China for life? question is as-yet unanswered, but we may know in a year, and that's why this year is critical. Essentially, just because China has removed term limits on its presidency under Xi Jinping, it doesn't equate to him running for a third term, though it'd be naive to think orwise. 

In about November 2022, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will hold its 20th National Party Congress, where we'll know definitive answer. Between now and n, Xi Jinping, who is perhaps steelier on outside than he appears given that he is at least unsure enough of his re-election that he's taking aggressive measures, will have staked his claim. Between now and n, he's likely to be looking behind his back perhaps a little nervously, a cold sweat every now and n. Because while se elections eventually end almost unanimously, re's always been a thought... that all it takes is a voice, and Xi is listening very closely.