Is Xi's rule under threat? Not for now - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

China not only has been doing very well over the past decades, but any systematic opposition is lacking, even not triggered off by the Hong Kong protests. Although it does not mean president Xi Jinping is having no problems, says political analyst Ian Johnson to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Sydney Morning Herald:

To be sure, Hong Kong's protests aren't exactly an existential threat to Xi and his cohort. The 70th anniversary of the people's republic means China's single-party government has lasted a year longer than the Soviet Union - and it shows no sign of cracking yet. 

The rise of "a true opposition movement would take a systemic crisis - say, a real economic meltdown or a climate-induced catastrophe - that doesn't yet seem likely," Beijing-based journalist Ian Johnson noted. "And so, superficially at least, the Communist Party seems to go from strength to strength, relying on China's capable civil service to make sure the high-speed trains run on time, the highways hum with new cars and the aircraft carriers get built."

But there's a tension burrowed inside this seeming stability, Johnson concluded: "It is precisely this return to prosperity that has given people the opportunity to contemplate a century-old question: what exactly holds their country together other than brute force?"

More at the Sydney Morning Herald.

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