Xi Jinping, Beijing’s authoritatian leader, and Ho Jintao, his predecessor, made a debate in front of world’s television cameras  in a 2022-rated as commercial box office. 

Xi and Hu sitting before massed ranks deputies at the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, a convention which is held once in five years. Xi used the Congress to secure a third term as head of the party, at distinction that effectively meant he was set up to become China’s leader for life.

Hu reached to take a red folder in front of him. Xi signalled an orderly who grabbed Hu under an armpit and escort him from  the auditorium. On the way out, Hu touched the shoulder of Li Keqiang, China’s premier, a former protege, but the premier offered him only the merest of acknowledgements. As Hu was hustled out, ironically none of the top officials even so much as turned to wish him well. 

Understanding what is really meant by Xi’s community with a shared future for humankind,  Chinese Dream, dual circulation and several other slogans is part of demystifying process. 

“In Short, Xi’s version puts the Party led by himself front and centre to forge a single powerful country with all its people united in the ambition of restoring China to its historic place as the centre of the world. Thus Xi’s circumlocutions end with a single ambition “ One country, One people, One Ideology, One Party, One Leader.”

Anything or anybody who gets in the way  as Hu apparently did that day- is death with sternly.  The reason that Hu was prevented from opening the red folder, Tsang, and Cheung say, is that the dossier inside would have revealed his protege Hu Chunhua, had failed to secure promotion to the politburo. With this move Xi was amputating his predecessor’s power base.

The Political Thought of Xi Jinping by Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung, Out £22.99/ $29.95, 272 pages.