Xi Jinping cannot take steps towards new foreign policy unless West extends olive branch to China: Report
Feb 10, 2023
Beijing [China], February 10 : Chinese President Xi Jinping cannot take confident steps towards his new foreign policy unless the West extends an olive branch to China, according to a report by Policy Research Group (POREG).
According to the report, Xi is expected to witness creeping doubts about his leadership until he tackles China's relations with the United States.
China's ties with the US are currently at their lowest. Neither side is making efforts to improve the ties.
According to POREG, the tide, for the time being, is against Xi with the West and its sanctions keeping China's hunger for new tech toys like semiconductors unsated.
The unrest in China over COVID, was a challenge to Xi's leadership like never before. It spread across the country, from urban areas to rural areas, as people of all ages, party faithful and dissidents, came together to make their protests heard.
With COVID behind him, Xi is currently trying to bring the economy back to pre-COVID times. This will, however, take some time, but he is expected to reach there given the iron hand with which he has been handling the economic affairs in the last few months.
The Chinese leader, according to POREG will gradually announce major policy measures which he will want his people to see as his style of economic dynamism. He had already given proof of his unchallenged power when he made a quick u-turn on his Zero-COVID policy.
The leader has since been opening up on the international front, his visits abroad indicate his urge to make China an intrinsic and contributing member of the international community.
The Singapore Post recently reported that Xi has been the subject of increasing amounts of praise and adulation in the country in recent years. There are growing concerns about the extent to which this praise is being "forced and manufactured" as the cult of personality around Xi Jinping continues to rise.
The message from state media to local officials is 'Xi is a transformative leader who is steering China towards a brighter future.' It is pertinent to analyse how Xi Jinping is using his power to "tighten his grip on the Chinese Communist Party and promote a cult of personality that rivals those of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping," as per The Singapore Post report.
In 2023, party secretaries in Fujian, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Anhui, and Yunnan praised Xi Jinping in the state media outlet People's Daily, as per the news report. The competition to showcase loyalty to Xi Jinping by blindly lauding his accomplishments and ideology is almost disappointing.