Festering CCP problems threaten to put China's economy off-kilter

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has usually used China's economic achievements to denigrate democracy, but festering problems in the CCP, threaten to put the country's economy off-kilter and that could affect President Xi Jinping's goal of the indefinite rule just as he is about to start his third term in office.

Jianli Yang, founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and the author of "For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth", writing in The Hill said that 2022 will be a big year for Xi, but he must fix China's economic slide.

About 10 years ago, China's economic growth rate began to decline. After 30 years of rapid development, a slowdown is normal, but the overlap with Xi's governance may indicate that the decline in economic growth is related to Xi's policies.

Especially in recent years -- whether it was anti-corruption, building a personality cult, tightening the control of ideology and speech, strengthening the party's control over the economy and society, or suppressing capital -- they all may have come at the expense of economic growth, said Jianli.

This month, the political formulation of "keeping economic development as the central task," which had almost disappeared in China's policies in recent years, suddenly resurfaced in its Central Economic Work Conference.

The recent Central Economic Work Conference acknowledged that China's economy faces three pressures: demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations, said Jianli.

Emphasis on China's economy had been an unwritten rule since Deng Xiaoping initiated reforms. However, in recent years, government officials have put less emphasis on economic development, and economic performance has not been a criterion for promotion, reported The Hill.

Xi's anti-corruption campaign and political evaluation of officials have made some officials panic. As a result, they spend time and energy on political studies, political struggles, and dealing with tasks from above and guarding against rivals. Under such an atmosphere, many do not want to work. This inevitably has caused the bureaucratic system to slack, negatively impacting the economy. It has become evident that people cannot eat Xi's "whole process people's democracy."

CCP often has claimed that "Democracy cannot be eaten." Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently portrayed China's political system under his rule as a "whole process people's democracy" -- more democratic, the CCP asserted, than any other democracy in the world.

But many in China, perhaps including Xi himself, have come to realize that Xi's whole process people's democracy cannot be eaten, either, said Jianli.

For sure, China's economy faces a difficult time. However, 2022 could be a special year for Xi. He may enter his third term of leadership, and strive to remain in power, following the 20th National Party Congress, which is expected to be held in October. In light of Xi's current control over the CCP and the Chinese military, no one may be able to stop him from remaining as the party's top leader, unless something unusual and unexpected happens in the coming year, reported The Hill.

Xi likely knows that although no one in the CCP is making noise, many are privately questioning why he wants to change the decades-old system of an orderly succession of top leaders.

Considering the harsh external environment and the difficulties and challenges facing China's economy, Xi Jinping needs to do anything he can to stabilize China's economy, and quickly, said Jianli.

(ANI)