Rigidity at home, risk of friction abroad – Martin Wolff
(British Financial Times dated October 5, 2022)
Xi Jinping will soon be approved for a third term in two posts: general secretary of the Communist Party of China and head of the military.
Is it good for China, or for the world, for Xi Jinping to obtain such a powerful power that no one can match?
The answer is no. It’s dangerous for both sides.
Even if Xi Jinping is a ruler with a record of being second to none, this is dangerous.
However, there is no such track record.
Currently, there is a risk of inflexibility within Japan, and a risk of increasing friction with other countries abroad.
10 years is enough for everything
Ten years is always enough for everything.
Even the best leaders will fade away if they stay at the top for so long.
When you have great power that no one can match, you tend to corrupt faster.
Surrounded by those of his choosing and protecting the legacy he created, the dictator becomes increasingly isolated, nervous, and even paranoid.
Reform stops. Decision making slows down. Absurd decisions are carried out unchallenged and continue to apply. The zero-corona policy is one such example.
If you want to look outside of China, you’ll notice the madness that Putin’s long-term rule has wrought in Russia.
There is also an example of Mao Zedong in China.
It was because of Mao Zedong’s example that Deng Xiaoping, who was a genius of common sense judgment, established a term limit system that Xi Jinping is now overturning.
