Xi Jinping exposes cracks in China's governance model
Hong Kong: During President Vladimir Putin's visit to China in mid-May, he said Russia and China are «jointly committed to promoting the establishment of a more democratic multipolar world order». To countries that do consider themselves democratic, Putin's notion was laughable, for both China and Russia are ruled tightly by autocratic rulers who have no intention of losing their grip on power.
In fact, Professor Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute at SOAS University of London, told ANI, «The biggest challenge China faces in governance terms is the concentration of power in Xi's hands.»
Doctor Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation think-tank in the US, concurred: "Xi Jinping has eroded norms and distorted the distribution of power throughout his decade-long rule..." For example, the State Council is now a mere policy-executive organ directly controlled by the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), with a reduced capacity for designing policy.
Dr Lam further noted a power shift in Beijing. «The so-called Zhejiang faction — a reference to officials who worked with Xi when he was party chief of the coastal province from 2002-07 — was formerly in the ascendancy. Now the Fujian faction — those officials with whom the supreme leader built his career and reputation from 1985 to 2002 in the coastal province opposite Taiwan — has more clout.»
The Hong Kong-born academic said the biggest beneficiary of this change has been
