Summary:
The article titled “Burying Deng: Xi Jinping and the Abnormalization of Chinese Politics” discusses Xi Jinping’s erosion of the political norms established during Deng Xiaoping’s era in China. Xi is portrayed as a leader who has systematically dismantled Deng’s legacy by breaking traditional rules that guided Chinese elite politics post-Mao. The piece highlights key actions that signify this shift, such as Xi’s recent decision to delay the Party’s Third Plenary session, a significant deviation from the established political calendar. This alteration emphasizes Xi’s consolidation of power, portraying him not as a reformer, but as a controller of the political narrative in China. The article suggests that the seeming institutionalization of leadership in China was weaker than it appeared and that the norms set by Deng were destined to falter due to the reality of personalized power.
Executive Summary:
Xi Jinping has fundamentally altered the landscape of Chinese politics by dismantling the norms set by Deng Xiaoping, leading to a significant departure from stability in the political system established after Mao. His recent actions, including the postponement of the Party’s Third Plenary session, illustrate his disregard for traditional political structures and rules, affirming his position as a powerful and unchallenged leader. This trend of abnormalization highlights the vulnerability of supposed institutional practices in a system characterized by personalized governance.
12ft.io Link: https://12ft.io/https://www.prcleader.org/post/burying-deng-xi-jinping-and-the-abnormalization-of-chinese-politics
Archive.org Link: https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.prcleader.org/post/burying-deng-xi-jinping-and-the-abnormalization-of-chinese-politics
Original Link: https://www.prcleader.org/post/burying-deng-xi-jinping-and-the-abnormalization-of-chinese-politics
User Message: Burying Deng: Xi Jinping and the Abnormalization of Chinese Politics
If Xi Jinping has accomplished nothing else in his tenure, he has succeeded in methodically bending or breaking the norms that have bounded Chinese politics in the post-Mao era – burying Deng’s political legacy, one clump of dirt at a time. Although the press often characterizes Xi as the most powerful leader since Deng or even Mao, Xi has renovated the system for control rather than revolution or reformation. Xi’s most recent disruption of the norms of Chinese politics occurred at the end of 2023, when he derailed the political calendar by postponing the Party’s Third Plenum well into 2024 while instead convening a Foreign Affairs Work Conference (FAWC), which, prior to Xi’s tenure, was a relatively rare, epochal event. Over the course of his tenure, Xi has not only broken the old rules of the game of Chinese politics but has done so with impunity – and he has been rewarded for his risks. The edifice – or rather the façade – of “institutionalization” of the leadership has always been weaker than it appeared from the outside, and some of Deng’s reforms were likely doomed from the outset because of the paradoxes created by personalized power in PRC politics…
for more on see the post on bypassing methods