Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, October 25, 2010

Xi Jinping and guanxi

“Guanxi” literally means "relationships"… in China it is the right "Guanxi" that makes all the difference…

Much is made of the importance of guanxi in China. As this profile of the future Party Secretary and President makes clear, guanxi can lead to being "sent down" or even to prison as well as to great success.

Xi Jinping: A princeling and future king

As Xi Jinping rose through the ranks of the Communist Party of China, he has often been defined – and sometimes derided – as a “princeling,” one of a clutch of rising party stars who owe at least some of their success to the fact they are children of revolutionary heroes…

But don't confuse Mr. Xi with Kim Jong-un, the 27-year-old tabbed inherit power from his ailing father in neighbouring North Korea. Unlike the Kim family, it wasn't always a political asset to be the son of Xi Zhongxun.

Mr. Xi was 10 years old when his father, a former comrade-in-arms of Mao Zedong's and a hero of the fabled Long March who rose to be a vice-premier, was suddenly denounced and jailed as an enemy of the revolution. As a teenager, Mr. Xi himself was sent to a rural commune in Shaanxi province to work as a labourer, deemed a “reactionary student” largely because of who his father was. He was jailed four times and publicly humiliated…

After Mao died and Deng Xiaoping rose to replace him, Xi Zhongxun was rehabilitated and entrusted with the key post of governor of the southeastern province of Guangdong…

But a decade later, Xi Zhongxun was again a political pariah after speaking out publicly against Mr. Deng's decision to use the army to crush pro-democracy demonstrations on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989…

The Beijing-born Mr. Xi, who studied both chemical engineering and law at Tsinghua University, is in many ways a blank slate whom the various factions within the Communist Party all appear comfortable with, even as he belongs firmly to none of them. He won the top job largely because he was one of the few acceptable to both the supporters of outgoing President Hu Jintao and the loyalists of his predecessor and rival, Jiang Zemin…

Before his rapid ascension, Mr. Xi was best known as the husband of Peng Liyuan, one of China's best-known folk singers and a long-time staple on the televised galas that ring in the Chinese New Year…

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Labels: China, leadership, political culture, politics