An analysis said Chinese President Xi Jinping is purging not only rival factions but also close aides in succession, building the most powerful one-man rule since Mao Zedong.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 4th (local time) that "to extend his long rule, Xi is using the same authoritarian governing methods employed by Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong to eliminate opposition and fill the leadership with loyalists."
The WSJ analyzed that Xi has purged dozens of senior officials, including his own confidants, strengthened a cult of personality, and demanded absolute loyalty. It said the intensity of the purges has especially escalated since he began his third term in 2022.
In fact, three sitting Commissioners of the Politburo, the Communist Party's top decision-making body, have fallen in the past six months. The WSJ said this is the largest purge at this senior level since 1976. The defense minister, the foreign minister, and the minister of agriculture and rural affairs were dismissed or forced out, and military commanders, local leaders, financial regulators, and executives at state-owned enterprises also stepped down one after another.
Xi has also revived some political practices from the Mao era. He ordered Politburo Commissioners to review their work and criticize one another at annual meetings, where not only job performance but also loyalty to Xi was assessed. In his first 10 years in power, he broke the age-based retirement convention for top posts and abolished the two-term limit for the state presidency.
The policy-making process has also become more closed. When drafting past five-year plans, the Chinese government broadly solicited input from outside experts such as the World Bank and foreign economists, but Xi is increasingly sidelining such advice. According to analysis by the Asia Society Policy Institute, the share of proposals adopted from lower-level party and government bodies and external experts also declined in the recent five-year plan process.
Joseph Torigian, a historian at American University who has studied power struggles in the Soviet Union and China under Mao Zedong, said, "The stronger communist leaders become, the more they perceive that opposition forces see them as a threat and seek to eliminate them," adding, "For this reason, they believe they have no choice but to continue purges to maintain power. They view opposition as constantly emerging."