“If we fight corruption, the Party will fall, but if we don’t the nation will fall”, says Xi. As many old guards recall, the situation was frustrating for the millions of Chinese who thought the party brass were an exclusive club thriving off their blood and sweat, without any accountability, leading to a marked erosion of trust in the government and the party itself.
Xi, according to party officials, viewed this as an existential threat to the Party. He used to begrudge corruption within the Party and the fact that their commitment to the Party ideals were not strong enough anymore. For Xi this was a road to ruin. “If morale is low, organisation loose, discipline and ethics unchecked,” he wrote, “[then] in the end we will not only fail but… the tragedy of the Emperor Yi of Chu (assassinated in 202BC might occur again.”
It is not ancient history that frightens Xi, however. It is the disintegration of the Soviet Union. For him, everything begins and ends with the Party. “East, west, north or south, the Party leads everything,” he wrote. He believes that if it collapses, so will the country. Chinese leaders attribute the Soviet implosion to a failure of self-confidence by Russian communists and are determined that nothing like that should ever occur in China. Chinese also believe in course correction as an absolute necessity for meaningful progress.
Unsurprising therefore that in August 2018 on the Chinese Army Day, Xi bluntly put the top brass of the two million strong army on notice, urging it to scale down or entirely wrap up its commercial activities.
He singled out the PLA’s paid services and called for greater resolve to fight the still rampant practice that sees PLA troops, officers and political commissars become ‘mercenaries for hire.’ They are also known for joining forces with local tycoons and cadres in businesses that profit from the lucrative real estate, logistics, and entertainment sectors.
The military is expected to pull out of all wheeling and dealing, halt all commercial and paid activities, and relinquish or transfer stakes in commercial entities by the end of the year. This is aimed at helping the military ‘purify its political ecosystem and focus on its main mission of battle readiness’, according to the PLA Daily.
This also explains President Xi’s relentless focus on corruption as one of his four primary goals. He believed in passing positive energy to the people and to correct the values’ system bequeathed by Mao and Deng. He also initiated poverty alleviation programs in a very focused and systematic way, thus endearing himself with the common people, giving them a new confidence and restoring their trust in the higher echelons of power.
Lastly, discipline has been central to the way both Mao and Xi ran the party affairs; disciplining themselves, family, friends, and the Party. Their intolerance to corruption also stems from the fact that both have been leaders of personal integrity. Their clean hands served as a deterrent to others and hence, their undisputed status accompanied by authority.
While speaking at the 120th birth anniversary of Mao in 2013, Xi remarked:
“Chairman Mao Zedong once said, “‘Facts’ are all the things that exist objectively, ‘truth’ means their internal relations, that is, the laws governing them, and ‘to seek’ means to study.” He also used the metaphor ‘shooting the arrow at the target, that is, we should shoot the ‘arrow of Marxism at the ‘target’ of China’s revolution, modernization drive, and reform. To seek truth from facts, we must acquire a deep understanding of a matter as it is, see through the surface into the heart of the matter, and discover the intricate link between matters amidst fragmented phenomena… Boasting a vast land of 9.6 million sq. km, a rich cultural heritage and a strong bond among the 1.3 billion Chinese people, we are resolved to go our own way. We have a big stage to display our advantages on, a long and rich history to draw benefits from, and a powerful impetus to push us ahead. We Chinese people – every single one of us – should draw confidence from this.”
