This book examines the policy, ideology and politics of Xi Jinping, State President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and China’s “ruler for life.”
Through comparisons with former CCP leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, it assesses whether, having abandoned many of the key precepts of the Era of Reform and the Open Door, the conservative supreme leader’s restitution of Maoist standards might enable China to sustain economic growth and project hard and soft power worldwide. The book also examines whether the Communist Party will succeed in retaining the support of 1.4 billion Chinese in the face of unprecedented challenges in the economic and geopolitical arenas. It also provides a comprehensive picture of Xi’s rise to power; his AI-assisted and “legalistic” surveillance and control mechanisms; China’s evolving economic system; Xi’s foreign and national-security policies and the implications of the 20th Party Congress of October 2022 from both domestic and foreign perspectives.
Being among the first books in English on the ambitious and multi-faceted agendas that Xi has laid out taking China up to the early 2040s, this will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Chinese studies, China-US relations, East Asian politics and Contemporary Asian history.
Foreword/Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
1 Introduction: Retrogressions under Xi Jinping in Light of the Institutional Reforms of His Relatively Liberal Forebears
2 The Rise of Xi Jinping, His Work Style and Members of the Xi Faction
3 Xi’s Ideological Agenda: To Push Forward Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era
4 Xi Jinping’s Surveillance-State Apparatus and Its Impact on Society
5 Xi’s Economic Agenda: Boosting Party Control over Business while Avoiding Decoupling from the International Marketplace
6 Xi’s Foreign Policy Agenda: China to Become Rule-Setter of the World
7 Conclusion: The 20th Party Congress and Beyond: Xi Jinping Becomes “Leader for Life” but China Faces Unprecedented Challenges
Index
Biography
Willy Lam is a Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, Washington, DC, and a research affiliate with several academic institutions in North America. Previously, he taught Chinese politics and foreign policy for 15 years at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lam has 40 years of experience writing about China. His eight books include China in the Era of Xi Jinping and The Fight for China’s Future (both published by Routledge).
'Xi Jinping, ambitious that the world see him as a second Mao Zedong, has arranged a blueprint for China’s future that puts himself at the center, for life. It is not sure that his plans will hold, but they present a danger to the Chinese people that could be as terrible as the havoc that Mao created. For more than three decades, no China-watcher has followed elite Chinese politics with more precision and in more detail than Willy Lam, whose encyclopedic grasp of data is the base for insights that the world ignores at its peril.'
Perry Link, Chancellorial Chair for Teaching Across Disciplines, University of California, Riverside, USA'Willy Lam’s penetrating analysis of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ideological agenda, personal ambition, and political ruthlessness explains how fast and far China has retrogressed since he rose to power in 2012. Those in the West concerned about responding to the China challenge in the coming decade will benefit greatly from reading the book.'
Minxin Pei, Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna University, and Editor, China Leadership Monitor
