Speaking to 2,000 Communist Party delegates at the twice-a-decade congress, 64-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping made clear he intends no real reforms on human rights or an open society. While calling himself president, it’s clear Xi sees himself as today’s Mao Zedong, someone responsible for killing over 100 million Chinese during the purges of the 1949 Communist Revolution. Xi wants to have it both ways, continuing Mao’s repressive policies but, at the same time, showing the world China’s openness for business. Xi promised in a three-and-a-half hour speech to build a “modern socialist country,” a euphemism for an oppressive totalitarian state, maintaining restrictions on free speech and civil rights but, more importantly, Intenet access to China’s 1.4 billion population, keeping China a dark totalitarian not “socialist” state.
Xi made clear he plans on continuing the same Mao Zedong policies maintain total control of all aspects of Chinese life. Xi has zero confidence that democratic reforms for an open society would be good for ordinary Chinese citizens. Telling party delegates he won’t adapt foreign political systems, Xi rejected calls for more democratic reforms and human rights improvements, especially open access to the Internet. “With decades of hard work, socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era,” said Xi, referring to the same totalitarian controls while China continues to develop its market economy. As Chinese entrepreneurs see what life’s like in the U.S., Europe and other free Asian societies, it creates dissension in China. Chinses people don’t understand why government censors block access to the Internet or other sources of information.
Xi’s speech made clear, above all else, that China would continue in Chairman Mao’s totalitarian ways. “We should not just mechanically copy the political systems of other countries,” said Xi, referring to the U.S. and European Union. “We must unwaveringly uphold and improve part leadership and make the party stronger,” expecting more repressive tactics practiced in totalitarian societies, especially in the former Soviet Union and now Russian Federation. U.S. presidents from Richard Nixon, who opened China’s doors in 1971, have tried to get China to improve human rights abuses. But true to form, Xi looks poised over the next five years to resume the role of Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party in the tradition of Mao Zedong. Above all else, Xi made clear he won’t succumb to Western pressure to improve Chinese civil and human rights.
European Union officials saw nothing in Xi’s speech that anticipated any real reforms in the biased ways companies are treated in China. EU’s Chamber of Commerce in China saw only “promise fatigue” with Xi’s speech that nothing will change for EU companies doing business in China. “The only cure for promise is implementation,” said the EU Chamber of Commerce, not expecting many changes. China routinely manipulates its currency to remain competitive to foreign markets, refusing to float the yuan on open currency markets. Like Switzerland, China controls the value of its currency relative to foreign markets to maintain its competitive manufacturing edge with other less prosperous Asian countries. Xi wants to continue the status quo for foreign companies, offering them cheap manufacturing while changing nothing in China.
Xi spoke about China’s role in solving many of the world’s most pressing problems, including air pollution and climate change. “No country alone can address the many challenges facing mankind; no country can retreat into self-isolation,” alluding to President Donald Trump’s “American First” foreign policy. Xi scored points against Trump who withdrew the U.S. from former President Barack’s Obama’s commitment to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. China has some of the world’s worst air pollution in Beijing, Shanghai and other industrial hubs, refusing to take necessary steps to transition away from coal to natural gas-fired power plants. Xi’s commitment to Mao’s totalitarian ways serves notice that China’s open for business but only on its own terms. Conspicuously missing from Xi’s speech was the brewing crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
Xi ignored North Korea’s warning yesterday that nuclear was on the Korea Peninsula was growing by the day. Xi wants no part of a U.S.-North Korean conflict, fearing a refugee crisis on the Chinese border. Mentioning nothing about North Korea, Xi signals to North Korean President Kim Jong-un that he’s on his own when it comes to a military confrontation with the U.S. Xi doesn’t want anything interfering with China’s business model that encourages foreign investment in China. Xi’s overall message to the Communist Party’s Congress was that China will not bend to Western pressure on civil and human rights. Fearful that open Internet access would cause dissension in China, Xi has no plans for an open society in China anytime soon. U.S. and EU officials must accept China’s totalitarian ways or do business elsewhere. Xi’s looking more like Mao everyday.
