On Sunday October 16th, Chinese president Xi Jinping opened the highly anticipated 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) which is ongoing at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. In his 105 minutes speech, President Xi who doubles as CPC party Secretary General put Chinese people at the centre of his speech and broadly his governance.
In his report entitled “Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects,” President Xi explained, “this country is its people. The people are the Country. As the Communist Party of China has led the people in fighting to establish and develop the People’s Republic, it has really been fighting for the people’s support and bringing benefits to the people is the fundamental principle of governance,” President Xi emphasised.
The central point here is that, President Xi clearly knows that to lead well his country and help it move to what CPC sees as the ideal step, or to successfully start and walk CPC’s dream of a “New Journey of the New Era” and accelerate the creation of a new development pattern while pursuing high-quality development which he mentioned, ultimately, he needs the support and cooperation of people and thus, he promised that Chinese government would do all it takes to serve interests of the citizens. “We must strive to realize, safeguard, and advance the fundamental interests of all our people. To this end, we must do everything within our capacity to resolve the most practical problems that are of the greatest and most direct concern to the people. We will continue to improve the system of income distribution, implement the employment-first strategy, improve the social security system, and advance the Healthy China Initiative,” Xi stressed.
Further, President Xi told the delegates that CPC is committed to promoting and supporting advancement of “Whole-Process People’s Democracy” and ensuring that the people run the country. “We will continue to strengthen the institutions through which the people run the country, fully develop consultative democracy, actively develop democracy at the primary level, and consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front,” Xi emphasised.
From historical perspective, China’s concept of whole-process people’s democracy is not new. It is actually a major proposition put forward by CPC’s General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward based on the development of democracy in China and it is included in the communique of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC arising from its sixth plenary session held from 8th to 11th, November 2021.
While China has at times been criticised especially by the west claiming that Beijing is not a democracy, China has always argued that Democracy is not an exclusive patent of Western countries and therefore cannot and should not be defined and dictated by Western countries. Xu Lin, the deputy director of the publicity of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of State Council Information Office argues that after reviewing the gains and losses of political development at home and abroad, CPC keenly realised that China’s political civilisation and political system must be deeply rooted in China’s society and that it cannot work for China to copy the political systems of other countries. Xu Lin maintain that democracy is, “at its core, all about the people running the country.” If critically analysed, this may explain why in his speech Xi maintained that people must be at centre-stage of running affairs of their country.
Another key observation from President Xi’s report to CPC’s ongoing national conference is his diction. In language and communication, choice of words used by speaker(s) matter. And in International Relations, words of a leader matter. In his close to two hours address, at no time did president Xi use the word “I”. His speech was largely characterised by “we” signalling that despite being the President and party Secretary General, Xi is not running a one man’s show. Put differently, it means as a party in government, when it comes to making decisions and governance, CPC is inclusive and arguably follows democratic principles of consulting, listening and working with majority than one individual. Going by words of Peter Drucker; Xi is an effective leader and a team player: “The leaders who work most effectively, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team,” and their challenge is to make their team deliver.
On the international scene, president Xi indicated China’s readiness in promoting Global Peace and Development and Building a Human Community with a Shared Future. At a time when the world is faced challenges such as Ukraine crisis, sky rocketing energy prices and experts predicting poor economic recovery this year and the coming year, what the world needs to listen too are commitments from global leaders committing to support and protect peace and global development, consultation, and win-win cooperation; Leaders who are against group politics and block confrontation, conflict, coercion and zero-sum games. Put differently, the world needs to hear leaders who speak and promote dialogue and diplomacy not block formation and or cold war mentality. On this, arguably, President Xi directly spoke wishes of peace and development lovers which signals statesmanship.
While he spoke for peace and dialogue in addressing issues, President Xi also exhibited a picture of a leader who is ready to guard and protect interests of his country vowing to uphold and improve the Policy of One Country, two systems and promoting national reunification.
The biggest applause throughout his speech came when he stated: “The wheels of history are rolling on toward China’s reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Complete reunification of our country must be realised, and it can, without doubt, be realised.” Citing
1971 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 and other historical facts, China maintains that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and always wants to unite it with the mainland. Chinese people cast this as a sacred mission which should be completed. “We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary,” Xi declared. All this shows that China is willing to do anything it takes to complete its unification be peaceful or otherwise.
Conclusively, President Xi’s speech largely focused on people, development, peace, democracy and environment as China seeks to cooperate and work with the world to build a Human Community with a Shared Future and common prosperity.
Allawi Ssemanda,PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at Development Watch Centre.
