Understanding China means understanding Xi

The life and philosophy of Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping has forged his version of China, having centralised power since becoming president in 2013. China, in turn, is set to shape the coming international order. One man’s vision will have an increasingly global impact – here, Director of the SOAS China Institute Steve Tsang sets out Xi’s thought and what it will mean for the world. This work is based on the book "The Political Thought of Xi Jinping", co-written with Olivia Cheung, and published by the Oxford University Press in January 2024.

 

Unlike his two predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, Xi Jinping is not a managerial but a transformational leader. He is changing China and intends to make a huge impact on the world. He aims to make what I will refer to as Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics the latest and best rendition of China’s Marxist-Leninist ideology. Having made himself leader for life, Xi will use his Thought to guide Chinese policy in the coming decade or two, if not longer. Now the two are intertwined, if we are to understand China we must understand Xi.

To use the imaginary of the digital era, China’s Leninist political system can be described as the hardware while its governing ideology is the operating system (OS). Xi has kept the hardware in place, but he has altered how it works by replacing the operating system. In effect, China’s system delivered totalitarianism under Mao Zedong’s OS1.0, ruthless authoritarian pragmatism focused on growth under Deng Xiaoping’s OS2.0, and a Sino-centric globally ambitious dictatorship under Xi’s OS3.0.

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The China Dream seeks to create domestically one united and powerful country, with one patriotic people, guided by one ideology, governed by one party and led by its supreme leader, Xi himself.

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