Since taking power in 2012, Xi has called for the party to return to its “original mission” as China’s economic, social and cultural leader and carry out the “ rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation.”
The party has spent the decade since then silencing dissent and tightening political control. Now, after 40 years of growth that transformed
To support its plans, Xi's government is trying to create what it deems a more wholesome society by reducing children’s access to online games and banning “sissy men” who are insufficiently masculine from TV.
Chinese leaders want to “direct the constructive energies of all people in one laser-focused direction selected by the party,”
In response, their billionaire founders have scrambled to show loyalty by promising to share their wealth under Xi’s vaguely defined “common prosperity” initiative to narrow the income gap in a country with more billionaires than
Xi has yet to give details, but in a society in which every political term is scrutinized for significance, the name revives a 1950s propaganda slogan under
Xi is reviving the “utopian ideal” of early Communist leaders, said
Alibaba,
The party's anti-monopoly enforcement and crackdown on how companies handle information about customers are similar to Western regulation. But the abrupt, heavy-handed way changes have been imposed is prompting warnings that
“I expect that over the next year or two we are likely to see a very rocky relationship develop between the political elite and the business elite,”
Chinese officials say the public, consumers and entrepreneurs will benefit from higher incomes and more regulatory oversight of corporate giants. Parents welcome curbs announced last month that limit children under 18 to three hours of online games a week and only on weekends and Friday night.
“I feel this is a good rule,” said Li Zhanguo, the father of an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl in the central city of
The crackdowns add to party efforts to control a rapidly evolving society of 1.4 billion people.
Some 1 million members of mostly Muslim ethnic groups have been forced into detention camps in the northwest. Officials deny accusations of abuses including forced abortions and say the camps are for job training and to combat extremism.
A surveillance initiative dubbed Social Credit aims to track every person and company in
“Our responsibility is to unite and lead the entire party and people of all ethnic groups, take the baton of history and to work hard to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said when he and the six other members of the new party Standing Committee appeared in public for the first time in
The party Central Committee shifted economic emphasis “from efficiency to fairness” in late 2020, a researcher at a
The party moved from “early prosperity for some to ‘common prosperity’” and “from capital to labor,” wrote
Prominent economists have tried to reassure entrepreneurs.
“It is impossible to achieve common prosperity through ‘robbing the rich and helping the poor,’” the dean of the school of economics at Shanghai’s
The 1979 launch of market-style economic reform under then-leader
As the previous decade's economic boom fades, “Xi sees himself as the only person capable of recreating the momentum,” said
Party members who worry reforms might weaken political control appear to have decided China’s rise is permanent and liberalization is no longer needed, said
That means “anti-totalitarian elements of the reform agenda could be rolled back,” Friedman said in an email. “That is what Xi is doing, as manifest in his attack on purportedly gay and girlie culture as a supposed threat to a so-called virile militarism."
A commentary
The commentary was reposted on prominent state media websites including the ruling party newspaper People’s Daily. That prompted questions about whether
Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, a newspaper published by People’s Daily that is known for its nationalist tone, responded by criticizing Li’s commentary. Hu warned in a blog post against a return to radicalism.
“The Cultural Revolution was a period of chaos, purposely unleashed by Mao because he felt comfortable in chaos,” Nathan said.
“This is almost the exact opposite,” he said. “It is an effort to create tightly structured orderliness.”
AP researcher
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