Xi’s consolidation of power will ultimately be China’s undoing

The president’s increasing authoritarianism is unwise and will only foster dissent and protest in the long-term, says John Lloyd.         

XI Jinping — president of China, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, chair of the Central Military Commission, chief of the military’s Joint Operations Command Centre, chairman of the committees on cyber security, economics and finance, among others — has a new honour that will linger long after he leaves office.

China’s Communist Party has decided to insert his view of the world — ‘Xi Jinping Thought for the New Era of Socialism With Chinese Special Characteristics’ — into the constitution. He will be only the second leader, after Mao Zedong, to be so honoured during his lifetime.