The Power Structure under the Leadership of Xi Jinping

This paper evaluates the first year and a half of the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping from two viewpoints essential for judging the vitality of the Chinese Communist Party: the legitimacy of rule and the party’s governmental techniques. To strengthen the legitimacy of rule, the Xi government has fanned nationalism under the national goal of attaining wealth and power. The government has also been promoting the concentration of power into the hands of President Xi in order to establish a leadership essential to the implementation of comprehensive reforms. If reforms are implemented quickly and produce positive effects under the integrated leadership system, the legitimacy of rule is likely to be strengthened. However, it is necessary to have reservations about such optimism. First, as well as the costs that will be required during the difficult process of marketization, the cost necessary for suppressing ethnic minorities’ and citizens’ freedom of speech will continue to swell. Second, if we guess from China’s recent bellicose diplomatic attitude, we cannot rule out the possibility that the leadership of the Xi regime has declined so much as to undermine the ability to make rational judgment at the national level. It is necessary to develop a multipronged strategy that seeks to establish a framework of multilateral cooperation to prevent China from behaving recklessly and to support the country’s economic reforms and its enhancement of governance at the same time.