1. 2022, Xi Jinping’s Annus Horribilis: Or is it?
- Author:
- Christopher K Johnson
- Publication Date:
- 08-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Asia Society
- Abstract:
- The year 2022 is proving to be a difficult one for China and for President Xi Jinping. Choices like Xi’s embrace of Russia and the zero-COVID policy have prompted sporadic outbursts from the Chinese public and a backlash abroad. Unsurprisingly, this has spawned speculation that Xi is facing political difficulties at home that could hamstring or even disrupt his plan to remain China’s top leader after the 20th Party Congress later this year. Despite the real challenges Xi and the party have faced in 2022, however, this paper will argue that such narratives rest on a series of faulty assumptions about the impetus for Xi’s consolidation of power, the presence of powerful opposition voices within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system, and the judgment that Xi’s policy approach amounts to a series of blunders that may help his critics as they try to diminish him at the party congress.
- Topic:
- Economy, Domestic Politics, Olympics, Xi Jinping, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Russia, China, and Asia