We have briefly discussed President Xi Jinping’s political, diplomatic, economic and military achievements since his assumption of office in 2012: a certainly impressive track record from all angles, however it is not all. His tenure has some disputed and debatable aspects as well. In the following lines we will try to analyze this side of his governance as well.
Xi’s period is severely criticized for some grave human rights violations. The observation of well-known political scientist Jerome A. Cohen dated September 26, 2019 is meaningful that ‘President Xi has built upon what is known as Deng’s Reform and Opening-up but taking a chapter from Mao’s book , he has also implemented measures for crushing dissent—-mainly through arbitrary detention’. The western media has vehemently accused Xi for ‘depriving millions of people of their freedoms of movement and communications without any fair opportunity to challenge these grave restrictions’.
The observers insist that ‘physical and psychological torture and coerced confessions are routine, and, if considered useful to bolster propaganda, detainees are paraded before the media, sometimes before being formally charged’. It is widely noticed that despite ‘rule by law’ rhetoric, mostly the niceties of law are not observed; and the law is used as a tool to ‘better implement dictatorship, not protect human rights’. Xi demonstrates China’s ‘soft power’ based upon its economic and military achievements and expects to match liberal democracies ‘soft power’ whereas it rests upon certain other factors: political and religious freedoms, artistic creativity, innovative ideas…… The charges of an arbitrary rule by Xi are not a recent phenomenon: as early as October 6, 2016, the renowned ‘TIME’ magazine vide Charlie Campbell’s report had claimed that ‘respect for human rights and rule of law have deteriorated markedly during the term of President Xi Jinping’ and he was bent upon consolidating his own power ‘through forced ideological conformity and the systematic persecution of human rights lawyers and defenders’. It is highlighted that when China joined WTO in 2001, it had committed to ‘enshrine financial fair-play and judicial independence’ but unfortunately these pledges were placed on the back-burner due to internal political considerations. The civil society groups and activists were ‘sieged’ as per Document No: 9 of the ‘Internal CCP Directive’ that ‘pointed to China’s flourishing civil society as a risk to the Party’s hold over society’. China’s prevalent foreign NGO and domestic Charity Laws very narrowly limit the scope of civil society to operate outside the official sponsorship. Similarly, the labor-related NGOs and groups have been often subjected to various forms of harassment and pressure. Labor rights advocates have also been targeted; so much so that government award –winning Zeng Feiyang was also penalized in 2015. Freedom of press has also not been a strong point during Xi’s presidency as China’s ranking in the ‘World Press Freedom Index’ remained always in the lowest bracket. The expulsion of the French journalist Ursula Gauthier in 2012 and the arrest of ‘Caijing Magazine’ analyst in 2015 particularly made headlines. A law enacted in November, 2015 declared fabrication of false reports, a criminal offence, which enhanced the vulnerability of the journalists. Simultaneously, China is also criticized for not playing its due role in the climate change crisis despite its several commitments on the issue.
According to the Amnesty International Report 2022-23, the harassment and imprisonment on religious grounds continued unabated. The Christian priests, Uyghur Muslim imams, Tibetan Buddhist monks and Falun Gong activists were faced arbitrary arrests and detentions. Same is the case with ethnic minorities particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet, where-in a systematic repression’ on the pretext of ‘anti-separatism’, ‘anti-extremism’ or even ‘counter-terrorism’ persisted. Restricted access and pervasive surveillance virtually made leakage of inside information impossible. Xinjiang specifically remains in the lime-light where the official actions threatened disappearance of the Muslim’s religious and identities.
The documented reports alleged ill-treatment, torture, gender-based violence including sexual abuses, forced labor and abductions. The international media and even the representatives of the UN Human Rights Council have been denied entry into the region numerous times. Approximately, a million of persons are reported to be detained without trial in ‘prison’ the Chinese government insists to call ‘education’ and ‘training’ centers where-in ‘political indoctrination’, ‘physical and psychological torture’ and all forms of ‘ill-treatment’ are common. Situation in Tibet is no better: the localities face discrimination and restrictions on their rights to freedom of religion and belief, expression, association and peaceful assembly. In Hong Kong, the government enforced a ‘draconian’ national security legislation in 2020 which made it difficult for citizens to participate in the official decision-making process and hold the authorities accountable. The ‘Human Rights Watch’ vide its report dated January 13, 2023 highlighted that the protests in Hong Kong are crushed in a harsh manner and the dissidents are sent behind the bars which tantamount to ‘devastation of civil liberties’. Actually, China’s Hong Kong-related policies have proven to be ‘the biggest obstacle confronting Xi’s quest for soft power’. Needless to say that China remains the world’s leading ‘executioner’ where death penalty is applicable for as many as 46 offences including the non-lethal ones. According to ‘BBC News’ dated October 21, 2015 vide the report filed by Camila Ruz, ‘there are no officially published statistics but activists believe that thousands are executed and sentenced to death every year’.
The ‘Zero-Covid Policy’ involving wide-spread lockdowns and mandatory quarantine undermined the right to health and adequate food. Localized demonstrations against the harsh restrictions gradually proliferated to almost all the major cities and assumed the shape of a national agitation in 2022. Despite harsh measures by the government when the violent uprising could not be controlled, the easing of Covid-19 restrictions was announced; however the damage had been done both in the political and the economic spheres. Xi’s Covid-management ‘angered citizens and saddled local governments with huge costs of constant testing and quarantining’. The corporate business particularly the MNCs stricken by the ‘disruption and regulatory crack-downs’ squeezed their operations and laid-off large number of employees. The situation threatened the entire economy and turned unemployment into a serious political risk for the party.
President Xi Jinping’s dictatorial tendencies also remain under-discussion in the world media. All the measures designed under Deng Xiaoping’s guidance to prevent over-centralization of power have been abandoned one by one. Fixed terms of office, term-limits, mandatory retirement-age, delegation of authority from the Communist party to government agencies, holding regular meetings of the party institutions etc stand to be ‘infructuous’ now practically converting China into a ‘personalistic dictatorship’ after decades of ‘institutionalized collective leadership’. With incremental amendments in the constitution, Xi has made himself ‘three-in-one’: he chairs the CCP, he commands the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and heads the Government; a unique position, which no erstwhile Chinese leader has been able to attain. More worrisome factor is that he has ‘purged’ all the organs of the party and the state from the ‘fault-finders’ and filled them with the ‘sycophants’. This form of ‘totalitarianism’ has made all the consultative bodies and decision-making forums merely a ‘rubber-stamp’.
Keeping all the aspects of President Xi Jinping’s leadership in view, one can’t deny the fact that he has placed China on the center-stage of world politics, calling into question the US hegemony it enjoyed since the disintegration of the USSR. On the home-front he has proven to be a visionary in almost all the spheres of national life: Zero Tolerance Covid-19 Policy might be an exception. The world needs to enhance its knowledge regarding his personality and ideas, as apparently they have to deal with him for number of years to come.
