Oct. 10, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET
By Kerry Brown
Mr. Brown has written several books on Chinese Communist Party politics including “The World According to Xi.”
“To Western eyes, Chinese President Xi Jinping may appear as the embodiment of tyrannical one-man rule, and for good reason.
Since taking leadership of the Chinese Communist Party a decade ago, he mothballed a power-sharing arrangement among party factions, transforming one of the world’s largest political organizations into a unified whole in which his words, thoughts and visage are everywhere. Speaking in 2016, he used a phrase once uttered by Mao Zedong in describing the party as China’s “east, west, south, north and center.” He may as well have been speaking of himself.
Mr. Xi now stands ready to assume an unprecedented third five-year term as supreme leader during the Communist Party Congress, which begins on Oct. 16.”