China is getting noticed as of late on the world stage, but not in a good way. What went wrong? China in 2010 was looking like a responsible member of the UN, with growing prosperity and a new global trading giant. What more could it want? Well, in 2013 Xi Jinping came to power and power wants only more power. Xi got rid of all opposition to himself in China, extended the 2 term limit to remain in power to forever. Now he is looking at extending his power, first was his belt and road initiative, now it is the South China Sea. Does China need to to keep growing or it will collapse? NO. China built a wall remember. It does not need the rest of the world. It could focus on food production and domestic needs. It would just take much longer for it to develop by itself.
China has its own set of problems, mostly a huge poor rural population that needs, well, everything. China has spent money like there is no accounting for it. State run businesses have received the bulk of the money. The problem is, unless paper money generates benefits, you are building a house of cards. Empty cities built with very shoddy construction may fall down before anyone ever moves. In the West, we call this a ponzie scheme, which is a sure fire formula for disaster.
Is China’s growing military a threat? China is not a threat, but Xi Jinping may be. Xi has made some blunders lately and this shows us just how different his perspective is than ours. You would think a world leader with the fastest growing economy would would feel secure. This is not the case for Xi, his third world dictator’s attitude of being a “strong man” clouds his thinking. No one can speak ill of him or his party without the wrath and the hammer of a short sighted tyrant. Why?
Xi is the son of Xi Zhongxun an exiled party veteran. This removal of his father from power, hardened Xi after his father was put in jail when he was 15. Life got very tough for Xi at this point and he was put in a work camp. In 1974 he was finally allowed to join the Chinese Communist Party. Xi rose through the ranks by enforcing party discipline. His anti-corruption campaign cleared the way for him to grab more power. He then made policies to assert more control at home and abroad.
Will Xi see the errors of his way? Not likely, based on all the other petty tyrants in the past. They all seem the same, do whatever is needed to stay in power till they are forcibly removed.
Xi could easily patch up the bad blood between China and now the entire rest of the world. It is not like China is moving to all out war. It’s military is expanding only at the same rate as its GDP. Xi has said for the next 5 years, the focus will be on bringing its rural population out of poverty. This will also increase its domestic market.
If only Xi could lose the attitude. Maybe rethink the crazy stuff, like the South China Sea is all theirs or expansionism at any price. This attitude of his only makes the rest of the world not want to play nice with him anymore. Everyone has caught on and Xi has overplayed his hand, and now the game is about to change.
image sources
- Xi_Jinping_in_British_Parliament (1): VOA | Public Domain