The Mind of Xi Jinping

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, July 5th, 2023 - 17 comments
Categories: China, chris hipkins, Diplomacy, Free Trade, history, jacinda ardern, socialism, Xi Jinping - Tags:

An excellent interview with a well-connected American who would like to see the US and China work together, and knows Xi Jinping well, provides some real insight as to why he is a serious leader. Interviewed today by Richard Harman, Tim Groser backs it up.

The full interview is here and it is definitely worth watching. John Thornton is Director of the Global Leadership Program at Beijing’s top Tsinghua University. He was formerly President of Goldman Sachs Asia. the interview was conducted at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Center at Texas University. It’s worth listening to people who have actually met the man.

Arnaud Bertrand has published a Twitter thread that covers all the points made about Xi Jinping. Definitely worth a look. Some of the main ones:

He says, rightly, that the only way one can ever hope to have an impact on China is by building trust (with an interesting personal anecdote of a diner he had with Xi Jinping). China will obviously never listen to someone it is convinced is trying to contain or destroy them.

He also says that Chinese leaders lament that US leadership never actually read or hear what they say, only seeing China through the writings of “China watchers” – like Kevin Rudd – who get China completely wrong. He attributes part of this to China “failing miserably” to communicate to the world media.

One thing he says the West misunderstands about China is its aspirations, which isn’t to have “a Chinese century” but a “century of diverse civilizations, a new era in which there will no longer be a single civilizational hegemon”.

He says the West also dramatically misunderstands the BRI. He reveals – which I think is an exclusive (never heard it before) – that they first proposed to John Kerry to do it jointly with the US, which the US didn’t even want to consider. Later in the video Thornton revealed that Kerry told him that not taking up China’s offer to jointly do the BRI was “the single biggest missed opportunity of my life”.

To a typical braindead question that the Chinese are brainwashed and, if only they knew about the world, they’d be “on our side” , Thornton has a masterful reply: “I’ve been teaching at Tsinghua now for 20 years so I know a lot of young Chinese… I don’t know a single one of them who doesn’t know what’s going on in the outside world.”
He then gives a bit more insights about the Chinese system and Xi Jinping personally. Here he describes Xi’s incredibly challenging upbringing and how it shaped his convictions: “If you’re Xi Jinping, when he says ‘our single biggest priority is to improve the lives of the ordinary people’, this is a deeply felt, personal, emotional comment. This is not a conceptual comment. Any of the US leaders in my lifetime, none of them lived that life. When they talk about improving the lives of ordinary Americans, this is an intellectual concept.”
He says that “when the Chinese government says they’re going to do something, chances are very high they’re going to do it”; painting an interesting comparison between the very aspirational but highly unrealistic US “State of the Union address” and the equivalent in China, the “work report”, “which tells you exactly what they actually did, for real, and what they’re going to do, for real”
Lastly, he describes how the Communist Party of China works and the meritocratic nature of it.
A similar insight is provided by former Trade Minister and diplomat Tim Groser, who has also met Xi Jinping. He is quoted today in Richard Harman’s excellent Politik newsletter:
As New Zealand’s lead trade negotiator when China joined the World Trade Organization and later as the Key Government’s Trade Minister, Tim Groser made over 50 trips to China, a country he first visited in 1972 as part of a student delegation. He believes that there is a strong personal element in President Xi Jinping’s “Great Rejuvenation.” In 2014 when the President visited New Zealand, Groser escorted him around. When he called at his hotel to pick him up one morning, unprompted, Xi told him how his father, a deputy Premier, had been persecuted and purged during the Cultural Revolution and how he himself spent his teenage years living in a cave.
“He told me the story quite dispassionately without emotion,” said Groser. “And I thought to myself, it’s amazing that you would say this to a foreigner straight up just because, by chance, I was in China at the same time as a young man. “This must be central to your whole thought process.” Groser also believes that the impact of the Cultural Revolution’s disorder on Xi and his family has been a major influence in driving not just a rejuvenation of Chinese society and standing in the world but also his abhorrence of disorder and, therefore, his insistence on a strong leadership centred on him.
The effects of disorder are etched into China’s psyche. Within our own cultural memory’s timescale since 1840, China has experienced the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the Boxer rebellion, the birth of the Republic, war with Japan, civil war, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. One can understand how such disorder would be abhorred.
After all that it is under Communist Party leadership that China is now the most dynamic economy in the world, the largest by purchasing power parity, and  has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. While the United States seeks to “contain” it, China seeks to further improve its own prosperity and the prosperity of all peoples,  not just for itself. China also places great stress on personal relationships.
Xi Jinping’s recent meetings with Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins both ran over the scheduled time. That is a good sign that the relationship with New Zealand is important to China. It is certainly very important to New Zealand – we could certainly do with a “great rejuvenation.”

17 comments on “The Mind of Xi Jinping ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. UncookedSelachimorpha 1
    5 July 2023 at 12:45 pm

    China sounds lovely – almost perfect!

    “I’ve been teaching at Tsinghua now for 20 years so I know a lot of young Chinese… I don’t know a single one of them who doesn’t know what’s going on in the outside world.”

    Makes it seem weird that Xi Jinping's government still feels the need to impose one of the most profound and comprehensive systems of censorship of free information that has ever existed.

    • Dennis Frank 1.1
      5 July 2023 at 2:15 pm

      A paradox indeed. But I suspect Mike applies the doctrine of Monty Python (always look on the bright side). wink

    • Tony Veitch 1.2
      5 July 2023 at 3:19 pm

      I don’t know a single one of them who doesn’t know what’s going on in the outside world.” Mike Smith

      I seriously doubt that statement. I taught in China, admittedly for only 3 years. On my first day I was told never, NEVER to talk about the 3 Ts – Tianamen, Taiwan and Tibet! I found my students, when I gently probed these topics, were profoundly ignorant on each. Except one insisted that Taipei is not the capital of an independent country.

      Also, wikipedia was not available. Wikipedia is not an infallible source by any means, but it's a damn sight better than nothing – and that's virtually what my students had. Any source of information they had access to was well filtered by the Chinese censors first!

      I don't speak Chinese, so had to watch the English language version of the news: it consisted of three parts – what the Chinese premier said or did, how the rest of the world was falling apart, and the weather.

      My conclusion: the average person in Urumqi, Xinjiang, had a world vision of about three metres ahead of their feet – and little else.

      • UncookedSelachimorpha 1.2.1
        5 July 2023 at 3:30 pm

        Yep, my sister speaks fluent mandarin and was a student in China for 5 years. She certainly doesn't think there is any freedom of information there, whatsoever.

    • Blazer 1.3
      5 July 2023 at 9:01 pm

      Do you really think a country like the U.S has a free and unbiased media?

      Watch it and weep.

      As for China 10's of millions of its citizens travel abroad every year and are exposed to all sorts of ideology.

      https://youtu.be/dguiAWrUGMM

      As for China 10's of millions of its citizens travel abroad every year and are exposed to all sorts of ideology.

      'Mainland China had the largest outbound travel market in the world, both in number of trips and total spend. 6 World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Tourism dashboard, Outbound tourism ranking. In 2019, Mainland Chinese tourists took 155 million outbound trips, totaling $255 billion in travel spending. 7 China's Ministry of Culture .'-(mckinsey.com)

      • Tiger Mountain 1.3.1
        6 July 2023 at 9:41 am

        Exactly, Fox, MSN, and hundreds of other channels giving the appearance of different viewpoints, but mostly all recycling the prevailing direction of US capital and US Imperialism.

        This whole debate displays the cringe factor people choose “their”–as in their ruling class and Govt. officials default Imperialist power over another Imperialist power.

        The Yank suits and others are back in the Pacific now putting the strong arm on small Pacific states, but they may get a bit of a surprise as the South is not so keen on US hegemony.

        When the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation appears in the Pacific! you know the Anglosphere and US is concerned about a shift in power dynamics.

  2. Ed 2
    5 July 2023 at 2:07 pm

    Thanks for this Mike. Another informative and enlightening article.

  3. Dennis Frank 3
    5 July 2023 at 2:25 pm

    Editorial advice: when you write a line like this

    He says the West also dramatically misunderstands the BRI

    Notice that you have yet to inform the reader of the meaning of the acronym. Few may do as I did & copy it into google to get this

    https://nzchinacouncil.org.nz/beltandroad/

    Most readers are too lazy for that & will just go wtf?

    I liked this bit:

    unprompted, Xi told him how his father, a deputy Premier, had been persecuted and purged during the Cultural Revolution and how he himself spent his teenage years living in a cave. “He told me the story quite dispassionately without emotion,” said Groser.

    Background context is often gold in liaison, diplomacy & even comms generally…

    • Tiger Mountain 3.1
      5 July 2023 at 4:29 pm

      Yes, the “Belt & Road Initiative” may not be common parlance just yet despite having been around for a few years.

  4. RP Mcmurphy 4
    5 July 2023 at 5:30 pm

    Xi Jin Ping has a big job and who else would want that?

  5. Corey 5
    5 July 2023 at 8:36 pm

    China is no longer a growth market. It's lost 30% of it's manufacturing because as it has become a richer and more developed nation, it has become too expensive for corporations.

    It's lost a staggering, 30% of it's manufacturing, and it's losing more and more everyday.

    The growth markets are India, Vietnam and Indonesia who have picked up the manufacturing jobs from China and will continue to pick them up, until they too, become too expensive.

    So get some chapstick NZ because Indonesia, Vietnam and India are the butts we need to kiss.

    But Heh. I'm sure the leader for life is a great guy! If his citizens say otherwise they become the invisible man!

    He's been such a great leader for China, it's geopolitical relationships have greatly improved under his reign lol. Again under his reign china has lost 30% of it's manufacturing and it's relationships with almost every nation on earth, not least it's most important two way trade partner the United States, who had a cordial relationship with China prior to Winnie the Pooh became self appointed Emperor.

    Winnie the Pooh (remember when citizens started calling him that and he freaked out) and his highly censorious treatment of Chinese popstars and actors lol.

    A leader who lost the country 30% of it's manufacturing jobs, disintegrated his nations foreign relations with it's neighbors and trade partners, is enforcing bullish tactics on friends, disappears dissidents, bans memes of him, allows several state owned corporations to nearly collapse the economy and whose bullish tactics get it's tech infrastructure products banned from it's most important trading nations.

    Sounds like a real leader.

    As for NZ, India, Indonesia aren't gonna want our milk powder and they are going to be the new growth markets, so what the hell are we gonna sell those nations?

    Perhaps it's time we moved on from the cheapest, dirtiest, farming product and actually develop an advanced economy?

    Cos relying solely on tourism, agriculture, low wages and overinflated housing bubbles are a sure sign of a regressive, decaying economy.

    And selling your Nations soul to sell cheap milk powder is just… Pathetic…

  6. Dennis Frank 6
    6 July 2023 at 3:54 am

    On thoughts in the mind of Xi, we get this:

    Xi'ism, is an ideological doctrine created during General Secretary Xi Jinping's leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that combines Chinese Marxism and national rejuvenation. According to the CCP, Xi Jinping Thought "builds on and further enriches" previous party ideologies and has also been called as the "Marxism of contemporary China and of the 21st century". It consists of 14-point fundamental principles, which were announced together with Xi Jinping Thought.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping_Thought

    Get that apostrophe. Inserted by the Wiki cabal, apparently, due to the false assumption that users of the English language cannot cope with xiism as a meme.

    Much of Xi Jinping Thought comes from Xi's 2013 speech, delivered a month after he became the CCP General Secretary. Beginning his speech, Xi said:

    "First of all: Socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism, not any other “ism.” The guiding principles of scientific socialism thus cannot be abandoned. Our Party has always emphasized adherence to the basic principles of scientific socialism, but adapted to the particular conditions of China. This means that socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism, not some other doctrine… It was Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought that guided the Chinese people out of the long night and established a New China, and it was socialism with Chinese characteristics that led to the rapid development of China."

    Notice where the locomotive of Xi's thought goes off the rails. The rapid development was caused by copying western capitalism. None of Xi's 14 principles acknowledges this fact of life. So delusional is he, none of them even expresses any principle of how the economy fits into society. Mind you, he'd probably explain that "socialism with Chinese characteristics" was intended to signal the hybrid he's been using.

    Is such obfuscation a good idea? Of course not. He needs to do better. Seems a well-intentioned man, so I hope he does. Here's #9:

    Coexist well with nature with "energy conservation and environmental protection" policies and "contribute to global ecological safety".

    Correct. And #13 likewise:

    Establish a common destiny between the Chinese people and other peoples around the world with a "peaceful international environment".

    • Wei 6.1
      6 July 2023 at 3:43 pm

      "Notice where the locomotive of Xi's thought goes off the rails. The rapid development was caused by copying western capitalism. None of Xi's 14 principles acknowledges this fact of life."

      Not exactly. Socialistic methods were used to lay the groundwork of a relatively healthy and literate society in the first 3 decades of the PRC.

      They did not simply copy "western capitalism". They allowed private enterprise to a degree, and invited Western corporations in to develop their productive capacity and infrastructure. Both sides benefitted from this.

      Around 71% of China's Fortune 500 companies are state-owned, and the government keeps a tight leash on billionaires. That's the opposite in the US and other Western countries.

      So its hardly a carbon copy of Western capitalism. Western countries are basically run like fiefdoms of large corporations who donate to both political parties (applies particularly to the US).

      • Dennis Frank 6.1.1
        6 July 2023 at 3:58 pm

        Fair enough. I accept China is using capitalism differently. Xi could have added a 15th principle that identified incorporation of the profit incentive in socialist terms though, and he didn't. Teamwork, mutual benefits etc. I realise he likely assumed it would not succeed for internal political reasons, but it would be more realistic to acknowledge use of the hybrid system explicitly.

  7. Wei 7
    6 July 2023 at 3:29 pm

    Awesome article Mike. Thanks, I enjoyed it.

    As for the detractors, perhaps they are just pissed that for the first time in 500 years, a formerly colonized people (semi-colonized to be exact), brutally subjugated by Western imperialism, is now taking its place on the world stage, and encouraging other developing countries to develop and aspire towards the same first world living that we who are living in the West already enjoy.

    • tWiggle 7.1
      7 July 2023 at 11:37 pm

      I am no great fan of colonisation and militarism, but the Century of Humiliation for China was as much due to weak Chinese rule, as to rapacious expolitation of trade concessions by European powers, Russia, and the very Eastern Japan.