Ashis Ray

Xi’s bid for global domination could easily backfire

Activists in India prepare to burn an effigy of Chinese president Xi Jinping (Getty images)

China’s multi-pronged militarism against its neighbours in recent weeks is intended as a show of strength. In fact, it reveals a weakness at the top of Xi Jinping’s Communist party which could prove to be counterproductive.

Why is Xi lashing out? A detection of dissatisfaction among China’s people, mixed with a perceived opportunity for China to assert itself while the rest of the world is distracted by coronavirus, appears to have led to attacks against Indian troops and a crackdown in Hong Kong. But the gambit could backfire; and the country’s bid to attain superpower status might easily become a longer march than Xi is hoping for.

Xi has been compared more to the bristling Mao Zedong, the founder of the communist state, than the reformist Deng Xiaoping, who is generally credited with China’s meteoric rise as an economic power. He has massively tightened his grip on power by being president of the country, general secretary of the CPC and chairman of the Central Military Commission at the same time; and, with a new change of constitution, is now effectively also leader for life.

Xi, the first leader of China to be born after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, also harbours Mao’s hostility towards the outside world. China has territorial disputes with several states around it. Indeed, its post-war camaraderie with communist Soviet Union evaporated to erupt in violent conflict in 1969, with the Russians using tanks and rockets to inflict heavy casualties on the Chinese. According to the CIA, Mao backed down because he didn’t want China’s fledgling nuclear capability to be annihilated by a Soviet assault. 

The tussle with Japan and Vietnam and over the South China Sea, though, remained. While the disagreement with Delhi, ostensibly thrust into the back-burner in 1993, has evolved into an attempt to encircle India by deepening ties with countries around it, including Sri Lanka and Nepal (where a communist party is in government).

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in