The 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) offered no surprises. Xi Jinping extended his tenure as paramount leader of the party and the country for “a third term,” which we must assume means the rest of his life. The fact that much of the reporting on the congress has been about whether Xi would “be elected” to “an unprecedented, third five-year term” proves that the world has much to learn about what it should not do any longer: Namely, understand and respond to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in terms of the CCP playbook.
That Xi has turned the PRC into a totalitarian state in which every sector must pay fealty to the Communist Party is now obvious to all. Democratic governments around the world, global business, the media, and others should stop acknowledging and repeating Beijing’s terms or frames of reference (e.g, “elected” to a “five-year term”). The period ahead demands clarity and truth-telling because following the CCP playbook will only help the totalitarian regime.
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