What does Xi’s reelection mean to the world?
China is the buzz word in today’s fast evolving international arena. And whosoever knows China must understand what Xi means for the great Chinese nation. China has found a new hero in Xi who has given a new vision, new energy and new vigour to the Chinese people to materialise their immediate goal – the Chinese Dream.
In its recent 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) meeting last week, it reelected President Xi Jinping as party general secretary by a unanimous vote besides electing the new Central Committee that was chosen at the party’s twice-a-decade national congress.
The plenum also elected the members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and its Standing Committee.
Based on the nomination of the Political Bureau Standing Committee, it endorsed members of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and decided on members of the CPC Central Military Commission.
It also approved the election of the secretary, deputy secretaries and members of the Standing Committee of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). As a surprise to many, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng were chosen as members of the Political bureau of the CPC.
Starting from early 2017, Xi began seeking advice from other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau on how to deliberate and determine candidates for a new central leadership.
On April 24, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau held a special meeting which was presided over by Xi and adopted a plan on the recommendation of candidates for the central leadership.
Candidates should have firm faith and be loyal to the CPC, and keep a “high degree of conformity with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi at the core,” according to sources close to the central leadership.
They should have outstanding leadership abilities, be a veteran in practice with the determination to push forward reforms and innovation, take a lead in implementing democratic centralism, and be an impartial and upright person with a communist outlook on the world, life and values.
New mechanism
In late May, a provincial leader was summoned to Beijing for a talk in Zhongnanhai, the exclusive compound for the top leadership. This official then had a one-on-one session with a senior leader about recommendations on candidates of the new leadership, after studying the name lists of then incumbent leadership and ministerial/provincial leaders.
There was no limit to the recommendations, according to the official.
This is one example how one-on-one talks were included in the recommendation of candidate leaders for this first time.
During the recommendation processes ahead of the 17th and 18th CPC national congresses, the results were heavily influenced by votes at recommendation conferences. However, some voters at the conference voted recklessly or for people with whom they had connections.
The new mechanism included a series of arrangements from one-on-one talks, consultations, deliberations, and meetings.
From April to June, Xi personally talked to 57 senior leaders and retired leaders to seek their suggestions. Other senior leaders also did one-on-one sessions with 290 ministerial cadres and senior military officers.
Based on the suggestions, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau came up with a proposal on the makeup of the new central authority on September 25.
The Political Bureau approved the proposal on September 29 and decided to submit it to the first plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee and the 19th CCDI.
During the one-on-one sessions, several senior leaders voluntarily offered not to seek reappointment to make room for younger comrades.
Sources close to the central authority said the new top leadership of CPC marks a new beginning and fully demonstrates the contemporary morale of the CPC.
The outcome of the 19th National Congress meeting means a lot to China and the world. President Xi’s reelection is a message of stability, peace, and development to the world.
The way Xi has utilised his vision to resolve major conflicts with immediate and distant neighbours reflects that China aims at developing at the same speed and despite efforts being made to distract the attention of the Dragon, China is not interested and will keep marching towards the goal of ‘Chinese Dream’.
It also reflects China is fast transforming its unique concept of ‘collective leading’ and a new model is in place with the inclusion of Xi’s ‘Four Comprehensives’ in the Constitution which has elevated Xi into the prestigious club of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaopeng.
Mushahid Hussain Sayed, perhaps Pakistan’s best commentator on China, says that with the reelection of Xi as CPC secretary general, we are definitely entering a new era of China’s resurgence in a multipolar world where Xi Jinping is the most important and the most politically influential statesman of modern times.
“The reelection of President Xi Jinping as general secretary of the CPC for a second term is extremely important not just for China but the world at large. Xi heads the world’s biggest political party CPC – which has 89 million members. This is the message of stability, continuity, and building on the successes of the past five years,” says Mushahid Hussain.
Over the past five years, he added, President Xi Jinping has provided leadership on issues, ideas, and initiatives.
“The biggest successes of Xi include the immaculate anti-corruption drive in China and his reelection would help take this drive to its logical conclusion which reflects there is zero tolerance for corruption and whether someone is a VIP, big or small, tigers or flies,” he says.
“Xi has also made the CPC more responsive to the people of China. More importantly, President Xi has led China in an era when China has rose from a regional economy to a great world power.
“As Xi said in his speech, he would make China a center-stage on world issues. China is already leading the world drive on climate change. Most importantly, Xi has said that Chinese system has offers as an option and an alternative to other countries”.
Mushahid Hussain is of the view that other nations following the Chinese model for serving the people at large.
“For example, Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has said that he would follow the Chinese model to pull large Pakistani population living under poverty line. So Chinese model is already gaining ground in the countries of Asia and the world,” he added.
Mushahid says one can see two more important factors vis-à-vis CPC’s 19th National Congress.
“President Xi’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era have been enshrined in the CPC party constitution along with Mao Zedong’s thought and Deng Xiaopeng’s theory. This has elevated Xi to a level unknown to his recent predecessors,” he said.
“Finally, I would say that One Belt & One Road (OBOR) initiative has emerged as Xi’s signature and most significant measure which has already been joined by over 70 countries of the world. This is all about corridors and connectivity. OBOR – of which CPEC is a flagship project – has proved that China has presented an alternative worldview and a different worldview to the world”.
Mushahid believes China’s view is different from the western outlook. Moreover, he says, Xi has also developed institutions which follow the Chinese vision to take it forward like the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB), the New Development Bank, the Silk Road Fund (SRF), etc.
So we are definitely entering a new era of China’s resurgence in a multipolar world where Xi Jinping is the most important and the most politically influential statesman of modern times.
“I would say we cannot compare Xi Jinping with Chairman Mao as Mao was the founder of modern China. But we can say that it is the new model of collective leadership with the core leadership under President Xi Jinping,” he concludes.
China to build strong military
China’s sincerity towards peaceful coexistence may not be taken as weakness. Soon after his reelection, Xi gave a clear message to all his detractors by asking the China’s military to take solid steps toward a strong army as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era.
The Congress called for arming the Chinese forces with best hardware and software equipment.
“The Congress stresses that, confronted with profound changes in our national security environment and responding to the demands of the day for a strong country with a strong military, we must stay committed to the Chinese path of building strong armed forces, fully implement Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the military, adapt military strategy to new conditions, build a powerful and modernised army, navy, air force, rocket force, and strategic support force, develop strong and efficient joint operations commanding institutions for theater commands, and create a modern combat system with distinctive Chinese characteristics.
With this we can fully advance the modernisation of national defense and the military and transform our people’s armed forces into world-class forces,” says a resolution adopted at the summit.
Pulling people out of poverty
The Congress pointed out that the period between now and 2020 will be decisive in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
“We should accelerate the building of an industrial system that promotes coordinated development of the real economy with technological innovation, modern finance, and human resources, and endeavor to develop an economy with more effective market mechanisms, dynamic micro-entities, and sound macro-regulation. With this, we can steadily strengthen the innovation capacity and competitiveness of China’s economy”.
They called for further supply-side structural reform, move faster to make China a country of innovators, pursue a rural vitalisation strategy and the strategy for coordinated regional development, accelerate efforts to improve the socialist market economy, make new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts, and strive to achieve better quality, more efficient, fairer, and more sustainable development.
Good governance
The Congress vowed to grow better at ensuring and improving people’s wellbeing and strengthen and develop new approaches to social governance besides focusing on the most pressing, most immediate issues that concern the people the most.
“We should give priority to developing education, improve the quality of employment and raise incomes, strengthen the social security system, win the battle against poverty, carry out the Healthy China initiative, establish a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests, and effectively safeguard national security. With this, we should see that our people always have a strong sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security”.
Reforms
The congress called for speeding up reform to develop sound systems for building an ecological civilisation, and build a Beautiful China.
“We should promote green development, solve prominent environmental problems, intensify protection of ecosystems, reform the environmental regulation system, and work to develop a new model of modernization with humans developing in harmony with nature”.
The world seems in a shock and awe over the power transition of China. It, however, offers lessons to the world that power transition does not matter when the country has strong footing on ideology and vision.
