IS XI JINPING BECOMING THE JOE BIDEN OF CHINA?
[Few scholars know Chicom China better than Willy Wo-Lap Lam. There is a lot to think about here – please consider reading it attentively-JW.]
After emerging as China’s “leader for life” and filling top party organs such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the Politburo with members of his own faction, paramount leader Xi Jinping has been relentlessly buffeted by what he refers to as “high waves and dangerous winds” in his effort to keep the ship of state afloat (Radio Free Asia, May 30).
However, whether the supreme leader and his newly minted Politburo can acquit themselves of handling these challenges remains dubious.
The horrendous rain and flooding of Typhoon Doksuri (杜苏芮) earlier this month (August 2023) that have hit Hebei Province and Beijing itself, which resulted in the displacement of some 1 million people and an undisclosed number of deaths, has again illustrated the questionable governance ability of the Xi Jinping administration.
And Xi—who is General Secretary of the CCP and commander-in-chief—has neither visited the sites of devastation nor spelled out measures to help flood victims re-establish their livelihoods. He has instead gone to the nearby seaside resort of Beidaihe to chair a series of informal policy-making sessions with other Politburo members and top advisors (Australian Broadcasting Corp Chinese, August 10; Radio Free Asia, August 4).
Sounds just like Joe Biden and the horrific fire in Maui, doesn’t it? The comparisons go far deeper.













