China's Xi more Maoist than reformer thus far

[CG6468]

China's Xi more Maoist than reformer thus far
June 08, 2013|Barbara Demick

BEIJING — With his photogenic wife at his side and a willingness to make eye contact and engage in small talk, Xi Jinping looks more like an American politician than the gray suits who populate the upper ranks of Chinese politics.

One of his first acts as head of the Chinese Communist Party last year was to ban long speeches, banquets and red carpets.

{snip} At a Politburo meeting in April, Xi announced an effort to reeducate party cadres, using language that harked back to Mao's "rectification" campaigns of the 1940s when he was consolidating power at his revolutionary base in Yanan.

Trying to boost morale in the military, Xi decreed all generals and officers above the rank of lieutenant colonel must do stints of at least 15 days as rank-and-file soldiers. Mao used almost exactly the same tactic in 1958.

In public speeches, Xi tends to elevate the Communist Party above the nation and even above the Chinese people. He's tried to clamp down on criticism of Mao.

"To completely negate Mao Tse-tung would lead to the demise of the Chinese Communist Party and to great chaos in China," Xi told a high-level forum in January, according to an article last month in Study Times, an official publication of the Central Party School in Beijing.

Just to show that he is not Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Xi blames the collapse of the Soviet Union on wavering from Communist convictions.

Just like Mao back in 1958…..

[obumazombie]

Malcolm the tenth would have a lot in common with Xi.

[Wineslob]

With the Chinese having had a taste of the Free Market, this ought to be interesting.