
The Thoughts of Chairman Xi - princetman
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Thoughts_Chairman_Xi
======
tristanj
It's also worth reading the leaked 2009 US diplomatic cables about Xi
published by Wikileaks. They're cited by the BBC story and give a lot of
background. The source is from a former close friend of Xi who is currently a
professor at a U.S. university.

[https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIJING3128_a.html](https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIJING3128_a.html)

I found this section quite interesting.

    
    
      Familiarity with the West and Taiwan
    
      ------------------------------------
    
      25. (C) Based on personal experience, the professor noted, Xi 
      is very familiar with the West, with a sister in Canada, an 
      ex-wife in England, a brother in Hong Kong, many friends 
      overseas, and prior travel to the United States.  As far as 
      the professor can discern, Xi's family and friends have had a 
      good experience in the West.  The professor contrasted Xi's 
      experience and attitudes toward the West with those of people 
      sent to the United States by their work units, such as the 
      nationalist and sometime anti-U.S. Tsinghua University 
      scholar Yan Xuetong.  Xi was the only one of his immediate 
      family to stay behind in China, the professor noted, 
      speculating that Xi knew early on that he would "not be 
      special" outside of China.
    
      26. (C) Xi is favorably disposed toward the United States, 
      the professor maintained, and would want to maintain good 
      relations with Washington.  The professor said Xi has "no 
      ambition" to "confront" the United States.  During Xi's visit 
      to Washington, D.C., in 1987, he told the professor that he 
      had no strong impressions of the United States.  Although Xi 
      was not particularly impressed by the United States, he had 
      nothing bad to say about it either.  Xi took a detached 
      stance, as if observing from a distance, viewing what he saw 
      as just a normal part of life, not strange, the professor 
      said.

~~~
germinalphrase
It's an aside - but is there a way to read quotes like this on a smartphone
without constantly scrolling left and right?

~~~
mcny
25\. (C) Based on personal experience, the professor noted, Xi is very
familiar with the West, with a sister in Canada, an ex-wife in England, a
brother in Hong Kong, many friends overseas, and prior travel to the United
States. As far as the professor can discern, Xi's family and friends have had
a good experience in the West. The professor contrasted Xi's experience and
attitudes toward the West with those of people sent to the United States by
their work units, such as the nationalist and sometime anti-U.S. Tsinghua
University scholar Yan Xuetong. Xi was the only one of his immediate family to
stay behind in China, the professor noted, speculating that Xi knew early on
that he would "not be special" outside of China.

26\. (C) Xi is favorably disposed toward the United States, the professor
maintained, and would want to maintain good relations with Washington. The
professor said Xi has "no ambition" to "confront" the United States. During
Xi's visit to Washington, D.C., in 1987, he told the professor that he had no
strong impressions of the United States. Although Xi was not particularly
impressed by the United States, he had nothing bad to say about it either. Xi
took a detached stance, as if observing from a distance, viewing what he saw
as just a normal part of life, not strange, the professor said.

I think the best thing is to just disable pre in mobile.

:%le

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
> I think the best thing is to just disable pre in mobile.

That sounds great, do you know how to do this? I'm on Firefox mobile so user
styles might be an option

~~~
EvilTerran
If you have uBlock Origin installed, you can tweak styles with its "My
Filters". I have these in there:

    
    
      news.ycombinator.com##.comment code:style(white-space:pre-wrap)
      news.ycombinator.com##.comment pre:style(max-width:none!important)
    

The first line makes code blocks in HN comments word-wrap (while still
preserving whitespace otherwise); the second lets them expand to the width of
their containing comment.

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
That works great, thank you! I never realized uBlock could do CSS modification
like that, though in hindsight it is probably a simple enough extension of how
the thing works in the first place.

------
corford
This is a fairly devastating passage:

"And money talks. When Xi visited Seattle in 2015, America’s technology giants
allowed themselves to be summoned

The bosses of Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Amazon all stood alongside Xi
in the front row of a group photograph. All have since embarked on multiple
partnerships with China despite its commitment to perfecting internet
censorship.

Also prominent in that photo was Mark Zuckerberg, but despite a charm
offensive which included inviting the Chinese Communist leader to suggest a
name for his baby, and praising Xi’s book on governance, Facebook is still
barred from China. Google’s founders were not even invited to be in Xi’s
photo.

Xi has ambitious plans for control of the internet and that means leverage
over foreign companies.

Facebook’s messaging tool Whatsapp is increasingly blocked in China and Apple
has now removed from its China App Store the VPNs which once gave Chinese
users access to social media tools in the West, including the YouTube channel
which gave the gleeful Guo Wengui such a devastating platform to discredit
Xi’s rule.

To fully control China’s cyberspace, Xi has had to take action against the
world’s."

------
norswap
I find the parallels between Xi and Putin fascinating: both had "modest"
origins (or modest spells in the case of Xi) and much publicize them. Both
were not really accounted for much, simply managing to rise through the ranks
without making a wave, and always scrupulously deferring to authority. Both
were nominated to the head of their respective party as a compromise or a
strawman. That is until they took power, after which they both consolidated
their grasp quickly, much to the surprise of everyone.

Interesting that the leaders of two of the world's superpowers (and the two
formerly communist ones at that) share such a similar journey.

~~~
Iv
Can someone explain to me why Xi is considered to have "consolidated his
grasp"? This seems to be a well accepted idea but I don't see what
substantiates that. He starts his second term as prime minister of China, and
serving two terms has been the norm in recent times.

I did not remark China becoming more authoritarian under his rule. I do not
see indications that he may stay after 2022, his scheduled depart. What did I
miss?

~~~
forapurpose
> I did not remark China becoming more authoritarian under his rule.

Xi greatly suppressed political dissent, online and off. There was a
burgeoning, very interesting online debate about democracy and governance,
full of thoughtful ideas, brilliant satire, and more. AFAIK, that's mostly
gone. You can read about it here:

[http://chinadigitaltimes.net/](http://chinadigitaltimes.net/)

He also arrested and otherwise suppressed many political opponents, at least
in large part under the guise of an 'anti-corruption' campaign.

He's also revived Communist ideology and a Mao-ish cult of personality for
himself. In contrast, Deng Xiaopeng avoided it - my understanding is that he
even was cremated and had his ashes scattered at sea so there would be no
shrine to him.

Finally, he has helped create an intense wave of nationalism.

(I will say, in fairness, that cults of personality and nationalism are trendy
in other countries too, such as the U.S. I don't know how everyone forgot the
evil that those things lead to.)

~~~
Iv
> Xi greatly suppressed political dissent, online and off.

But was that different from his predecessors?

> He also arrested and otherwise suppressed many political opponents, at least
> in large part under the guise of an 'anti-corruption' campaign.

That I would like to know more about. Most of the times, people just quote Bo
Xilai (who seem to have been a genuinel crime ring boss) and his successor. I
have a hard time understanding why the official version is just dismissed.

> and a Mao-ish cult of personality for himself.

Is there a place to read about that?

~~~
forapurpose
>> Xi greatly suppressed political dissent, online and off.

> But was that different from his predecessors?

Yes; I meant to say he greatly increased suppression of dissent

> Is there a place to read about that?

I'd start with the link above. The NY Times covers it occasionally, including
a recent story about Xi's childhood home (AFAICT - I didn't read much more
than a paragraph).

------
yeukhon
This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very
aggressive way. Throughout history those who were oppressed and then made it
to the top would usually end up wanting to seize full control and more
oppressive than their oppressors. Xi looks friendly to the people, but there
is a Chinese saying: 笑裡藏刀 (xiào lǐ cáng dāo)or "smile in hiding knife.” He is
the alpha male of the entire Party.

On one hand I like Xi's effort to clean up the corrupted senior officials. It
was about time, but now he has the absolute power (military, justice, and
executive) under the chair of the Party's control is alarming. I know a lot of
Chinese natives (for what it is worth, I was born and raised in HK until I was
12) who refuse to believe in all the bad things happening in China, and refuse
to recognize tragedy such as Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. They also
become very emotional when it comes to Taiwan's relationship with China. But
China isn't the only country in the world censoring and rewriting history.
Japan tried to cover up its war crime during WW2. Other Western countries
tried too. [1]

I hate the fact today we still have governments and citizens who refuse to
recognize the wrongdoings in their country's history, and fail to work toward
a peaceful resolution once and for all. All the fights for territories and
borders, all the ethic group fighting over historical hates and war crimes
(e.g. Myanmar vs Rohingya). Time to wake THE FUCK UP...

If we let go of our pasts, and our irrational prides, especially those we
inherited from generations before us, then this world would finally have
peace. Of course, the sad reality is we won't and will never be able to. Money
prints off blood, and power is measured by the number of coffins and the fall
of oppositions. Make no mistake, we can't compromise human values in exchange
for stability. But this is how Xi and every leader in the world thinks of
governance. Forgive, and be more compassionate. What is more important than
saving lives and make people feel they are humans again, and not a war
machine?

[1]: [http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--
9_Bennett.html](http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html)

~~~
dmoy
You're not wrong about some mainland Chinese refusing to believe (or never
learning in the first place) anything about 6/4\. My wife is among them, or
used to be at least. Then again if you ask the average US freshman if the US
military shot and killed a bunch of student protestors, you'd find a number
who wouldn't believe you. Difference is in the US a trivial we search answers
that question for you, while in China all record of 6/4 is scrubbed, and even
acronyms that you use to mention it get scrubbed, etc.

~~~
mslate
For everyone else who doesn't know what "6/4" refers to, it refers to the date
of the Tiananmen Square protests:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989)

~~~
swang
A Day To Remember. A short video where they ask Chinese University students,
"what day is today." Filmed in 2005...

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPkkGArVy4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPkkGArVy4)

I watch this clip a lot around the 6/4 anniversary. This is not the original
copy, that's somewhere on Vimeo I think.

~~~
mslate
Wow, the discomfort is intense. How much is that from being video recorded w/o
consent?

------
beautifulfreak
This article mentioned China's debt as a problem, which I've seen before, so I
finally looked it up. One article I found said China has added $24 trillion in
debt in the last ten years alone, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 300%. With
so much money appearing out of thin air to finance this or that program or
development or expansion, it's easy to imagine opportunities for corruption.
Add to that giant spigot all the smaller ones, as banks participate in the
boom indirectly. It's no surprise then that Xi would have to address
corruption overtly, given how it must be a daily temptation for party members
to steer the wealth this way or that. Considering the scale of China's growth,
it's remarkable how smoothly things are going. If there's any fractiousness
within party ranks, it doesn't translate into churn we can see that slows
things down. [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4091155-update-china-
debt?p...](https://seekingalpha.com/article/4091155-update-china-debt?page=2)

------
pmontra
The story was formatted with Shorthand [1]

Does anybody know an open source equivalent? Thanks.

[1] [https://shorthand.com/](https://shorthand.com/)

~~~
pimlottc
Unfortunately this article has an annoying habit of jumping position when
changing scroll for me (iOS Chrome). Makes going back to re-read a paragraph
tricky.

------
partycoder
Problem with leaders that consolidate power is that one successor will
eventually be a weak link and things will go wrong.

------
ausjke
Xi graduated from middle school and his leading style is more like culture-
revolution-movement than anything else. he is probably the least capable but
most ambitious leader there since Mao, thus the most dangerous, just wait and
see.

------
68c12c16
Another article on New Yorker (published in 2015), "Born Red", is quite
interesting as well on this subject.

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-
red](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red)

According to the article, Xi once said,

    
    
      "People who have little experience with power, 
       those who have been far away from it, tend 
       to regard these things as mysterious and 
       novel. But I look past the superficial 
       things: the power and  the flowers and 
       the glory and the applause. I see the 
       detention houses, the fickleness of 
       human relationships. I understand politics 
       on a deeper level." 
    

I am sympathetic about Xi's early traumatic experience; but I also feel that
if he considers that "human relationship" is essentially "fickle", it would be
quite scary as well, especially for a decision maker at a country's top level,
as he is. I don't know how much trust he has for any one who is not in his
family (or even for his family members); but a society with a very low level
of mutual trust is a horrible place to live -- not to mention its average
interpersonal cooperation cost would be very high, people would even hurt and
damage each other's interest just to obtain a bit more sense of security. The
harsh censorship there is one such example; as well as that in China more and
more people these days are being sent to prison, after some staged trial in a
kangaroo court -- simply because they voiced something that the administration
does not want to hear.

Humanity itself is a quite complex matter. It's true that sometimes, certain
people can be quite cruel, ruthless, or even cold-blooded; but this should not
be a universal trait for the overall human beings -- or otherwise, it would
have been a definition for the concept of "human" many centuries ago. There is
a dynamic motley of benignity and malignity in any individual -- and the
concept of "benignity" or "malignity" can be relative in certain cases. It's
better for us all, if we construct a system that could inspire more benignity
(-- or if possible, maximize ) out of us.

But today, many dealings by the Chinese government seems to simply view its
citizens as objects or even tools, with "fickling" worthiness that does not
lie within themselves but is based on the external perspective of the ruling
party, to perpetuate their ruling.

Perhaps that is why Xi would raise the question to Biden in 2011/2, "why does
the U.S. put so much emphasis on human rights." [1]

Note: [1] see [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-
red](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red) for the details
about that episode...

~~~
justicezyx
> Humanity itself is a quite complex matter

I cannot help to remind you that Xi is the president of a country with 1.3 BB
people. If you think he does not know this fact, you are plain ignorant.

Chinese political sphere isn't any another-world strange thing. It's just like
any such things: human-dealing and power-plays... Xi knows too well how to
deal with people, and how complex they are, otherwise he would not reach his
currnet power at all...

~~~
68c12c16

      > If you think he does not know this fact, 
      > you are plain ignorant.
    

Thanks for reminding me about that...

I won't deny that I am indeed ignorant -- and on that, I would concur in
Socrates' words, "I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance"...

    
    
      > Xi knows too well how to deal with people, 
      > and how complex they are, otherwise he would 
      > not reach his currnet power at all
    

I am not really sure -- bear with my ignorance again -- what you mean by "know
how to deal with people"...

I think everyone knows his own way of dealing with people -- that's the social
aspect of every human being...it's just that their knowledge about that matter
could be very different from each other...

When I state "humanity itself is a quite complex matter", I am just stating
it's complex; and I am not stating _how_ it is complex -- I feel that's a very
very broad and involved matter; and on that, too, different people may have
different opinion and understanding, which could be evolving and changing all
the time...

For instance, you could say that half a century ago another Chinese "power"
leader, Mao Zedong, understood how to deal with people -- for "otherwise he
would not reach his then current power at all" \-- and the manner of his
dealing was to simply destroy or even annihilate those who did not agree with
him; and he termed that dealing as "revolution". It's indeed a great
achievement for Mao to somewhat successfully reach that goal; but this does
not mean that kind of policy really benefited the average Chinese people
living in those days...

------
AnimalMuppet
To me, this sounds a lot like "Make China Great Again".

Temperamentally, of course, Xi is almost the exact opposite of Trump...

~~~
dis-sys
There is actually a group of researchers tasked to measure the progress of
"make China great again", they reported back in 2012 that the goal is 62%
completed.

Chinese source from People's Daily -

[http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2012/0805/c1001-18670287.htm...](http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2012/0805/c1001-18670287.html)

Trump just copied the idea from Hu and Xi.

~~~
Nomentatus
...and Reagan.

