LONDON ¨C Dictators do not like others grading their performance. Any sort of assessment of such leaders¡¯ successes or failures, even by their close colleagues and advisers, is a big step toward undermining them. Permitting criticism, let alone encouraging it, is out of the question.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party of China¡¯s most powerful boss since Mao Zedong, must feel particularly strongly about this. In 2022, Xi will seek the endorsement of the CPC¡¯s 20th Congress for his plan to remain in power for a third term, thereby abolishing the two-term limit established by Deng Xiaoping and adhered to ever since.
That arrangement was in part an attempt to prevent any return to Mao-like dictatorship, and it succeeded in collectivizing the CPC¡¯s leadership. But one only has to look at the personality cult established by Xi and penetrate the meaning of ¡°Xi Jinping thought,¡± which has now been incorporated into the Party¡¯s constitution, to understand the current Chinese president¡¯s intentions.
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