• Burmese
Friday, June 13, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
27 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

China’s Xi Amasses Power to Tackle Grim Challenges

Gillian Wong by Gillian Wong
March 4, 2014
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0 0
A A
China's Xi Amasses Power to Tackle Grim Challenges

Since taking over the ruling Communist Party a year ago

3.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BEIJING — Xi Jinping looks more powerful than any Chinese leader in recent decades as his government prepares to deliver its first one-year report card Wednesday, but a deadly weekend slashing spree by alleged separatists was a reminder of the serious challenges facing his administration.

In recent weeks, Xi has put himself in charge of three policy-setting panels: a new top-level party committee focused on steering state security, a panel on driving sweeping economic reforms, and another on cybersecurity. Meanwhile, he has burnished his populist image with unannounced public strolls to mix with ordinary folks and provide photos ops.

The moves come as Xi tries to better position the Communist Party to respond to grave challenges that test his leadership. Key among them is escalating ethnic unrest in the far west that spread to a southern city on Saturday in an attack that killed 29 people. The party also needs to tackle entrenched obstacles to tough economic reforms, slowing growth and rising territorial tensions with neighbors.

RelatedPosts

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

June 13, 2025
21
March Quake to Drive 2.5% Drop in Myanmar GDP, Says World Bank

March Quake to Drive 2.5% Drop in Myanmar GDP, Says World Bank

June 13, 2025
43
Air India Flight Crashes in Ahmedabad with 242 Aboard

Air India Flight Crashes in Ahmedabad with 242 Aboard

June 12, 2025
88

When the annual session of the largely rubberstamp legislature opens this week, the administration is expected to sum up its response to these and other challenges, and outline next steps. Premier Li Keqiang delivers the administration’s work report to the National People’s Congress on Wednesday.

Only a little over a year in office, Xi is already seen as having consolidated more power than his predecessors. His leadership roles in the three policy-setting panels give him influence over police, intelligence and military operations, the reform effort and Internet controls.

He’s also waged an expansive anti-corruption campaign that has felled high-level officials around the country, winning him kudos from the public.

“Xi Jinping is a man in a bit of a hurry who really wants to do something,” said Steve Tsang, a political scientist at the University of Nottingham. “The general secretary of the party is using the party to take control and deliver.”

Xi’s moves make him a more aggressive leader than his predecessor Hu Jintao, regarded as bland and increasingly weak toward the end of his decade in power while stymied by factional infighting. Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, also was regarded as merely a “first among equals” in the Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power.

As head of the state security committee, Xi will be better placed to command law enforcement agencies in responding to emergencies such as those involving a simmering anti-Chinese rebellion among the Turkic-speaking Uighur (pronounced WEE’-gur) ethnic minority in Xinjiang. Tensions spread to Kunming, a city more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) southeast of the region, on Saturday when assailants went on a slashing rampage at a train station.

Few details about the committee have been released other than that it is headed by Xi, with the country’s No. 2 and No. 3 leaders as his deputies, making it a law enforcement coordination super-agency with unprecedented powers.

“On the one hand the events in Kunming show that the current security apparatus was not doing its job properly. At the same time, Xi Jinping could use this as a justification to convince the NPC of the need to set up this monster organization,” Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Even as he amasses power, Xi has also been tirelessly fashioning himself as a man of the people — a challenge for someone who as the offspring of the party’s revolutionary elite enjoys “princeling” status.

He visited a subway control room in Beijing last week and called on factory workers, one of whom was moved to tears. He strolled along traditional alleyways and chatted with residents in their living rooms, asking them afterward if they wanted “a group photo.”

“I grew up near here, so today I’m here to see the old neighborhood,” Xi said.

Last month, he put on padded winter military fatigues and braved frigid temperatures and deep snow to shake hands with army troops patrolling China’s border with Mongolia.

Hu Xingdou, a political economist at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said Xi’s appearances generate enthusiastic coverage by Chinese state media not because Xi is trying to build a personality cult, but simply because he’s much more congenial than his predecessors.

“It is clear that Xi wants a certain kind of authority, otherwise it will be difficult for him to get his policies carried out,” Hu said.

Experts said Xi’s confidence is unlikely to change the basic way China is ruled — by a collective leadership. Their consensus-based decision-making at the highest levels has been seen as the best way to prevent a party chief from becoming a dictator.

“Certainly, he has the guts to do some things that some other leaders, collective leaders, would not do,” said Cheng Li, aChina expert at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

“But the goal is not to change the nature of the collective leadership and return to strong man politics, it only makes him able to be quite bold and tough and try to get things done,” Li said.

Among things the party needs to tackle: curb corruption, push market reforms and clean up polluted waterways and choking smog.

In November, the party released a sweeping reform plan to rejuvenate the state-dominated economy. The blueprint for the coming decade also pledged legal, social and other improvements, such as giving more property rights to farmers and curbing the use of torture to extract confessions.

Xi has acknowledged the difficulties.

“In facing problems that have already appeared or might appear in the reform process, difficulties must be overcome one by one, problems must be solved one after another,” he said at a reform panel meeting in January.

“Have both the courage to make a move as well as be adept at responding to moves, so as to be ‘swift and steady.’”

Your Thoughts …
Gillian Wong

Gillian Wong

The Associated Press

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
98.3k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public
Burma

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

by The Irrawaddy
February 7, 2024
89.2k

People’s Defense Force says junta troops told every household in the village to send one member to witness the double...

Read moreDetails
Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State
War Against the Junta

Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
November 29, 2023
87k

Brotherhood Alliance member says it now has complete control of Kokang’s northernmost section after the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 125...

Read moreDetails
Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks
Burma

Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks

by The Irrawaddy
December 4, 2023
59k

The junta said deserters would not be punished for minor crimes, highlighting the military’s shortage of troops as resistance offensives...

Read moreDetails
As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
46.8k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.6k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post

Thai Police Arrest French Drug Smuggling Suspect

Gay Couple Weds in Rangoon

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

The Hidden Fallout From China’s Cross-Border Crime Crackdown in Myanmar

The Hidden Fallout From China’s Cross-Border Crime Crackdown in Myanmar

4 days ago
1.4k
How the Myanmar Military’s Propaganda Efforts Have Evolved Over the Decades

How the Myanmar Military’s Propaganda Efforts Have Evolved Over the Decades

2 days ago
901

Most Read

  • Civilians in Need as Arakan Army Advances on Kyaukphyu

    Civilians in Need as Arakan Army Advances on Kyaukphyu

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Advances into Karenni State

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Jade Hub Burns as Junta Counteroffensive Penetrates Hpakant

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • China Defends Myanmar Junta on Human Rights at UN

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Reinforces Kyaukphyu as AA Nears China-Backed SEZ Hub

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.