To Save the Party, Xi Is Weakening China
Putting apparatchiks back in charge of day-to-day governing is a recipe for inefficiency, graft, and economic mismanagement.
Leading everything.
Photographer: Feng Li/Getty Images
In new guidance issued earlier this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission warned China-based companies listed in the US to disclose any “material risks related to the role of the government” in their operations. Given how the ruling Chinese Communist Party has steadily expanded its cells in mainland firms, those risks are real. But the fact is, they pose as much of a threat to China as to the companies or US investors.
In his decade in power, Chinese President Xi Jinping has reversed many of the policies adopted by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. One of the most consequential casualties has been the clear division of labor between the party and the state.