How Xi Controls His Party

His threefold strategy is to pursue ideological unity, enforce discipline, eliminate the power-brokers

- Vijay Gokhale

By the time Xi Jinping was appointed as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012, China had already made impressive progress but corruption had also seeped deep inside the political system. Within the party, power was dispersed with no supreme authority at the centre. The ruling class was disconnected from ordinary people.

Xi felt that CCP had lost its moral compass due to the weakening of ideology and fragmentation of the party’s supreme authority. He concluded his paramount challenge was to stem the erosion in order to preserve the party’s political authority.

We know that the collapse of the Soviet Union weighed heavy on his mind. He spoke of how the mighty Soviet Communist Party had “scattered like a flock of frightened beasts!” and the Soviet Union was “shattered into a dozen pieces”. One key factor was the abandoning of ideological coherence and internal discipline within the party.

Xi is convinced that if CCP is to avert a similar fate it needs to rebuild its political character and reset its ideological compass. Clearly, personal ambition is also involved. Therefore, a combination of perceived birthright, sense of public service, and great personal ambition possibly determined his political road map.

To restore the party’s political soul and to be able to control it, Xi has pursued three distinct strands: restoring ideological clarity and congruence; rebuilding the party’s control and discipline; and eliminating the power-brokers.

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