In the past year, there has been intense power struggle within the walls of Zhongnanhai.
The Fourth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party, originally scheduled for last autumn, was postponed for a whole year and has recently finalized its session date. Xinhua News Agency announced on September 29th that the Fourth Plenary Session will be held in Beijing from October 20th to 23rd this year.
Over the 13 years of Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has witnessed a comprehensive shift towards the left in terms of economy, politics, and diplomacy, completely reversing the development path of China’s reform and opening-up over the past forty years, leading to widespread social decline.
At the beginning of Xi Jinping’s rule, he had support from the “Red Second-Generation” and the “Crown Prince Party”, with reformists like Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao also rallying around him. His anti-corruption campaign, while politically driven, also objectively earned him popularity among the public by taking down a large number of officials from the Jiang faction of the previous regime.
Internationally, the United States and China still had a friendly cooperative relationship, and international capital was pouring into China in large amounts, with the Chinese economy experiencing rapid growth at that time.
However, 13 years later, Xi Jinping is faced with a completely reversed situation. The Red Second-Generation, the Crown Prince Party, and the reformists are generally dissatisfied with him. Officials criticize him privately, and the public increasingly views him as a tyrant and traitor.
In today’s China, foreign capital is fleeing, businesses are closing, employment is shrinking, and a large number of people are struggling to make ends meet. At the same time, officials are generally neglecting their duties and maintaining a low profile. Xi Jinping’s political foundation has long been lost, and apart from a few close allies within the system, most officials are secretly hoping for his swift removal from power.
So, will Xi Jinping hand over power at this Fourth Plenum? Will there be a major reshuffling of power within the Zhongnanhai political landscape? These questions are becoming the focus of intense attention from the outside world.
Why did Xi Jinping completely ruin a winning hand? What intimate relationship does all this have with his character and experiences as a youth? In this program, we will delve into Xi Jinping’s psychological characteristics to uncover the intrinsic roots of his downfall.
Xi Jinping was born in 1953 in a high-ranking cadre compound in Beijing. His father, Xi Zhongxun, was one of the founding fathers of the People’s Republic of China and held the position of Vice Premier of the State Council. Xi Jinping belongs to a typical Red Second-Generation, enjoying special privileges that ordinary people cannot aspire to. Under normal circumstances, he should have received the best education and become a knowledge elite, a political elite, or an economic elite.
However, his formative years were during the peak of political movements under Mao Zedong’s rule. In 1962, when Xi Jinping was only 9 years old, his father Xi Zhongxun was suddenly labeled as a “counter-revolutionary”, making Xi Jinping himself a “counter-revolutionary’s offspring”.
In that era, the Chinese population was divided into different classes by the Communist Party, each assigned a “class status” code. The label of “landlord, rich peasant, counter-revolutionary, rightist” was the worst, known as the “black five categories”. The better statuses included “poor peasants”, “lower-middle peasants”, “workers”, “cadres”, and “liberation army”.
In other words, overnight, Xi Jinping went from being the offspring of a “deputy national-level leader” at the highest level, to the lowest level of a “black five categories” member, and even the darkest one within that category, the offspring of a “counter-revolutionary”.
At this point, the ruling families in Beijing started to snub the Xi family, his peers among the Red Second-Generation also looked down on the Xi family, and the young Xi Jinping endured bullying, discrimination, and exclusion.
When Xi Jinping was in his teens, he even wandered the streets of Beijing. When he had nowhere to go, no one sympathized or helped him.
Of course, in that era, there were countless families who faced experiences similar to the Xi family’s, but most of them were able to reflect on the Cultural Revolution’s mistakes once it was over and became staunch supporters of reform and opening-up.
However, Xi Jinping seemed to have not learned enough lessons from the Cultural Revolution. After coming to power, instead of firmly following the path of reform and opening-up, he attempted to revive the Cultural Revolution, reversing history. This not only brought about deep social disasters for the Chinese people again but also tarnished the enlightened image of his father Xi Zhongxun in the minds of the Chinese people, which is the greatest irony of the Xi Jinping family.
Clearly, Xi Jinping’s character and psyche have serious flaws. So, what factors have caused these unique psychological characteristics in him?
These factors involve both the influence of the political environment and his personal specific psychological factors.
During Mao Zedong’s era, an unrestrained totalitarian regime reached its peak in history, causing great harm to most Chinese people. However, after the Cultural Revolution ended, in order to maintain regime stability, the Communist Party did not hold Mao Zedong accountable for his sins, nor did they allow society to openly reflect on the Cultural Revolution.
Mao Zedong remained the unshakable founding father of the Communist Party, and Mao Zedong Thought remained the most important ideological banner of the Communist Party, enshrined in the Four Cardinal Principles.
In other words, regardless of how many inhumane deeds Mao Zedong committed with his absolute power, he did not need to take any responsibility for them and was required to continue to be respected and revered by future generations. This is tantamount to encouraging people to follow and emulate Mao Zedong.
Deng Xiaoping’s initiation of reform and opening-up required the denial of Mao Zedong’s political and economic policies on the one hand, while not daring to hold Mao Zedong accountable for his crimes. This left future successors with two choices: either continue with reform and opening-up or, like Mao Zedong, re-establish an autocratic regime and leadership authority, creating a red empire through an absolute social control system.
This dualistic confrontation resulting from reform and opening-up has provided a breeding ground for Maoist supporters to cause chaos and continue to stir up trouble. The free dissemination and development of Maoist ideology in China, coupled with the Communist Party’s continuous emphasis on the guiding position of Mao Zedong Thought in political study and education, have provided a political and popular foundation for the top echelons of the Communist Party to revive the Cultural Revolution when conditions permit.
This is why there is still a chance for the Cultural Revolution to re-emerge in China. This, coupled with Xi Jinping’s bold imitation of Mao Zedong and the regression to an autocratic system, is the social basis for his administration.
Apart from this larger environment, Xi Jinping also has two specific growth factors that have led to his unhealthy psyche.
Personal Factor 1: Xi Jinping lacks a sense of security, does he suffer from “Stockholm Syndrome”?
Xi Jinping went through a rollercoaster ride from being a “high-ranking cadre offspring” to a “black five categories offspring”. During his golden age for education, he was in the midst of ruthless persecution under a totalitarian autocratic regime, harboring both fear and admiration for absolute power akin to Mao Zedong.
Due to his black category status, Xi Jinping had almost no hope of standing out at that time. Wanting to apply to the Party? Sorry, a black category member still wants to join the Party? According to public records, Xi Jinping submitted his Party membership application at least a dozen times in Liangjiahe Village during his time in northern Shaanxi, before it was finally approved.
One can imagine the psychological state he must have been in when the Party organization finally accepted him. Would he develop an even more grateful admiration for Mao Zedong?
Undoubtedly, his numerous Party membership applications must have been filled with expressions of “infinite loyalty to Chairman Mao”. Inevitably, over time, wouldn’t this also deepen a pathological psychological condition of a type of “Stockholm Syndrome” common to victims?
Additionally, when applying to college as a worker-peasant-soldier student, Xi Jinping faced significant challenges due to his background. It was only with the help of Li Liqun, the widow of Gao Gang and then-director of the Student Division of the Ministry of Education of the CCP, that Xi Jinping was able to enter Tsinghua University. Li Liqun was holding the role in the Ministry of Education at the time.
Looking at Xi Jinping’s present performance, these experiences may have taught him one thing: that power is a good thing, and Mao Zedong, who had absolute power to control others’ destinies, is his idol.
After coming into power, Xi Jinping indeed sought power just like Mao Zedong and attempted to present himself as another great leader on par with Mao Zedong. This was not just adoration of a symbol of power but a deep sense of insecurity. Perhaps only unlimited power can help him overcome the psychological shadows of his youth.
Of course, Xi Jinping’s psychological shadows go beyond that and also include deep feelings of inferiority.
Following the end of the Cultural Revolution, Hu Yaobang initiated an unprecedented large-scale redress of wrongful cases under the Chinese Communist rule, helping many high-ranking officials and ordinary families escape the shadow of the Cultural Revolution and resume normal life. Xi Zhongxun also received redress, a reinstatement, becoming the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and re-entering the ranks of deputy national-level leaders.
In theory, Xi Jinping should have been able to overcome the psychological shadows of his childhood and reconstruct a positive, optimistic life attitude. However, the missing power could be regained, but the lack of education was harder to compensate for.
Due to Mao Zedong’s persecution of his family, Xi Jinping lacks a complete primary and secondary education. After entering Tsinghua University as a worker-peasant-soldier student, his academic abilities were clearly not on par, with his writing and speaking skills being evaluated as not passing even the level of elementary Chinese language proficiency.
It is reasonable to estimate that Xi Jinping’s Tsinghua University degree was not obtained based on his academic merit.
The late Li Rui, Mao Zedong’s former secretary and Executive Deputy Minister of the Organization Department of the CCP, did indeed say, “I never expected Xi Jinping’s cultural level to be at the level of a primary school student.” This was Li Rui’s belated evaluation of Xi Jinping after he had ascended to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party.
Xi Jinping likely harbors deep feelings of inferiority about his cultural level. Many of the people he has promoted are graduates of worker-peasant-soldier academies, including Li Qiang, Cai Qi, and Li Zhanshu. Conversely, those who differ in their outlook and are difficult to cooperate with Xi Jinping mostly have a good educational background, including Li Keqiang, Hu Chunhua, among others.
Xi Jinping publicly stated on TV that in his youth, he could carry 200 pounds of wheat and traverse ten miles of mountain roads without changing shoulders. This was not boasting but the only achievement from his youth that he could be proud of, the only “special skill” he could showcase when he became the highest leader of the CCP.
Before the age of 9, Xi Jinping lived in the grand courtyard of a high-ranking cadre household in Beijing. During that time, there were ordinary citizens of Beijing who surrounded them, praising them. This was the most beautiful childhood memory in Xi Jinping’s life.
Voice of America has evaluated that after the 20th Congress, 7 of those who made it to the CCP’s top leadership were essentially replicas of the environment of high-ranking cadre households in Beijing, with a core composed of high-ranking cadre offspring of a grand courtyard, surrounded by flatterers.
Xi Jinping is a deep victim of Mao Zedong’s system but has, after coming to power, turned around to harm the Chinese people using this same system. This contradiction within the Communist Party’s reform and opening-up environment, coupled with Xi Jinping’s personal flawed psychological characteristics, has brought about disastrous consequences.
After entering the third term, Xi Jinping has deviated from the right path, returned to the Mao Zedong era, plunged the economy into a severe crisis, and witnessed unprecedented fierce internal power struggles. Today, both the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping himself have become objects of public criticism.
For the upcoming Fourth Plenum, the outside world not only hopes for Xi Jinping’s removal and for reformists to regain control of the situation but also desires for China to gradually move out of Mao Zedong’s shadow, completely abandon all forms of authoritarian restraints in the future.