China’s President Xi Jinping is dismantling almost all the reforms that have driven the country’s growth for 40 years, Foreign Policy’s Jonathan Tepperman has written. Xi says he is fighting corruption, but in place of a successful, albeit flawed, system he is creating a “colossal cult of personality” and has taken more power into his hands than any leader since Chairman Mao, Tepperman continued. The Chinese government also appears to be using its new powers to stifle dissent at home — something it did not do under Mao or Deng Xiaoping.
China’s President Xi Jinping is dismantling almost all the reforms that have driven the country’s growth for 40 years, Foreign Policy’s Jonathan Tepperman has written. Xi says he is fighting corruption, but in place of a successful, albeit flawed, system he is creating a “colossal cult of personality” and has taken more power into his hands than any leader since Chairman Mao, Tepperman continued. He has abandoned limits to his term and risks turning the country into “another police state” which is “inefficient, ineffective, brittle and bellicose” and a threat to China and the world, he added.