What Does Xi Jinping’s China Want?: With Scott McDonald

When China’s Xi Jinping first came to power ten years ago, some observers thought he might be a figure like Mikhail Gorbachev, whose policies contributed to the unraveling of the Soviet Union. But since then, China has grown more authoritarian, a fact evident in its pervasive censorship, mass surveillance of the population, and ongoing “zero Covid” lockdowns.

Last month, at the Chinese Communist Party’s Congress, Xi Jinping secured a norm-breaking third five-year term as leader. What does his continued leadership mean? What role do Communist ideas have in shaping today’s China, which has avidly built the world’s second-largest economy? How should we understand China’s regional ambitions and its global “Belt and Road” initiative?

For answers to these and related questions, I turned to Scott McDonald, a scholar of Chinese political thought. A thread running through our conversation is the danger of misreading China. McDonald argues that American observers have projected their own priorities and political assumptions onto China, in defiance of the facts about the regime’s actual aims and conduct.

McDonald comes to the topic with an in-depth understanding of China, and I learned a lot from the conversation. We touch on many issues, including:

• The function of the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress;
• The role of Communism in animating the ruling Party;
• The place of economic liberalization in the Party’s agenda;
• The regime’s treatment of entrepreneur Jack Ma;
• The expectation that Xi Jinping might be a Gorbachev-like figure;
• The moral-political relationship of the individual to the state under the Communist Party;
• The goal behind China’s brutal takeover of Hong Kong;
• China’s mass internment of the Uighur minority;
• China’s investment in infrastructure projects in foreign countries;
• Weaknesses in China’s economic model;
• Understanding the Party’s influence over ostensibly private China-based corporations;
• China’s campaign to set the global standards for emerging technologies.

There were more questions than time to answer them, and I hope he’ll join us for a follow-up conversation in the future.
This episode was recorded on October 27, 2022.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:58 CCP’s National Congress
0:03:25 Communism in the Party
0:07:50 Economic liberalization
0:13:50 Jack Ma
0:15:15 Xi Jinping and Gorbachev
0:19:15 The individual in China
0:30:15 Takeover of Hong Kong
0:35:50 Uighur minority
0:38:56 Investing in foreign countries
0:42:16 China’s economic model
0:43:47 Party and private corporations
0:47:31 Standards for new technologies
0:49:00 Summary

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[richardzierer]

Awesome to see another show with Scott! Loving the China content lately, please give us more!

[Paul...Ego_sum_ergo_aedifico]

Thank you for this education.
How little it seems that we Americans - starting with myself - know about China. I have a hunch that they know a lot more about us.

[LucretianObjectivist]

Does anyone know of books Scott McDonald has written on the subject? I couldn’t find any..

[NarendraKumar-hqbv]

OMG!! This is awesome..yeah, "a lot of fun!" and beats any mega movie one can see!! But scary too. But reality...

[raguramramamoorthy]

i have a question will AI replace cheap labour in the value chain in near future and also why america has lost its ability to manufacture modern phones or automobiles within America itself

[richardcory]

The Chinese wanted an emperor and they got one.

[Gorboduc]

Very interesting stuff, but... Why do you guys never mention Ayn Rand? 🤔

[pipesnmics]

The imperialists and domestic reactionaries will certainly not take their defeat
lying down and they will struggle to the last ditch.- Mao