Xi Jinping's Pursuit of Absolute Security

Abstract

Xi Jinping's Pursuit of Absolute Security Xia Ming (bio) On October 22, 2022, the Twentieth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) concluded with an endorsement to Xi Jinping's third term. It shattered the key legacy of Deng Xiaoping on political reform, namely the abolition of lifelong tenure for leading cadres in 1980. Under Xi's watch, a constitutional coup was completed. It started with its 2013 "top-down design" symbolizing a "superstructural" reaction against the dynamic economic base, followed by the creation of the Central National Security Commission (CNSC, established in January 2014) and the revision of the state constitution to remove the term limit for the state president and vice-president. At the crowning moment of the Twentieth Party Congress, Xi had snatched all important powers into his hand and extended his dictatorship into an indefinite future, from the Chairman of Everything to the Chairman of Everything Forever. The public humiliation of his predecessor Hu Jintao who dutifully handed all his power to Xi can be viewed symbolically as Napoleon's coronation: Instead of being bestowed the crown by the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself. However, this dramatic change of course in China's political development was not without strong headwinds. While taking up the mantle, Xi inherited a flagging economy: in 2012, China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth dropped below 8 percent, henceforth, it has been on the skid. Considering under the Market-Leninism, the legitimacy of the communist rule relied heavily upon its economic performance, Xi's dismal track record on the economy, especially both the 2015 stock market crash in China and the 2017 trade war with Trump, could undermine Xi's power base. But what explained his reversal of fortune when he triumphed in a "winner-takes-all" manner and assembled a team filled with all his yes-men? In this essay, I would like to propose an explanation: through the top-down institutional design, Xi and his proteges had successfully [End Page 331] engineered a paradigm shift in Chinese governance, namely, a developmental state metamorphosizing into a security state. Security takes precedence over everything. The Twentieth Party Congress Political Report conspicuously highlighted this new mantra: "security" appeared 91 times ("national security" 29 times), and "stability," another code word for strong-handed statism in the Communist jargon, appeared 20 times. "Security" replaced "growth"; "Struggle" (22 times) diluted "reform." The goal of Xi's envisioned national security system is to "build a comprehensive, well-linked and interactive, three-dimensional and efficient national security protection system." It has the following features. Security Is Comprehensive Xi's comprehensive understanding of security has encompassed food, energy, supply chain, cyberspace, political ideology, regime, and overseas Chinese interests. The last category should be considered with the principle of jus sanguinis in China's nationality law; therefore, overseas Chinese could be the target of long-armed transnational law enforcement. For example, although the Hong Kong publisher Gui Minhai had been naturalized into Swedish citizenship, he was captured in Thailand and later transferred back to China for a trial for publishing a book entitled Xi Jinping and His Seven Lovers. In 2020 he was sentenced to 10 years in jail without being granted any consular service from Sweden. Xi's regime has asserted its sovereignty over the Internet; therefore, it does deem any critical speeches and oppositional activities outside of China as subversive to its national security, which can automatically apply its domestic security law and criminal law. Security Is Indivisible Since Deng set China's foreign policy to "hide the light and bide the time," China had kept a low profile to avoid taking a leadership role or confronting the United States in a major crisis. In 2010, then state councilor Dai Bingguo outlined a defensive nationalism by focusing on China's three core national interests: stability of Communist leadership and socialist system; sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national unification; and sustainable economic growth. Entering Xi's era, China has become more aggressive, and its core national interests have expanded [End Page 332] omnidirectionally and are more explicit. In particular, any criticism of the Communist regime and its leaders (Xi is the inviolable one...