To view the CCP and China comprehensively, we must observe trends and grasp the "grand historical perspective" advocated by Professor Huang Renyu (1) . Since the Third Plenum in July, rumors about Xi Jinping, the "eternal core of the CCP," have been endless. Some say he has suffered a stroke, is under military control, or is under pressure from former Politburo members, including Wen Jiabao and Li Ruihuan, who sat on either side of Xi at the National Day banquet. The most obvious "sign" is that Xi seems to have been forced to abandon his indifferent attitude towards the economic downturn. On September 24, the central bank and other financial institutions "flooded" the market with money, aiming to boost stocks, real estate, consumer spending, and overall GDP. According to online media, similar quantitative easing measures will continue to be introduced.
The CCP’s totalitarian ruling class has not changed anything.
But generally speaking, the CCP's totalitarian ruling class has made no changes, clinging to the centralization of Party and government, embracing Mao Zedong's logic of "East, West, North, South, and Center, the Party leads everything," with the central leadership having the final say. It all goes back to Mao's 1958 poem to the decadent intellectual Guo Moruo: "I urge you to stop cursing Qin Shi Huang... Confucius' teachings are high in reputation, but in reality they are chaff. For centuries, the Qin Dynasty's laws and regulations have been followed." Indeed, from Mao to Xi, the CCP has consistently promoted the Legalist ideology enshrined by Qin Shi Huang, particularly the teachings of its founders Shang Yang and Han Fei. Most notably, Shang Yang's "Five Strategies for Controlling the People" in his book Shangjunshu (The Book of Lord Shang) outlines the "Five Strategies for Controlling the People": "Weakening the People, Impoverishing the People, Exhausting the People, Humiliating the People, and Stupefying the People." Han Fei emphasized that the people will reflexively bow to power and force, advocating "punishment to demonstrate authority" and "rewarding the fullest capacity." This meant using a monarch-made "rule of law" and reward system to tame the masses, who were no more powerful than cattle and horses. Xi Jinping has repeatedly extolled Han Fei's famous maxim: "A nation is neither permanently strong nor permanently weak. A nation is strong when those who abide by the law are strong, and weak when those who abide by the law are weak." The "law" here, of course, refers to the nefarious laws enacted by a supreme ruler, guided by personal interests and the interests of the party-state, rather than the democratic laws passed by a popularly elected parliament based on universal values. Of course, Mao and Xi are masters of "monks holding umbrellas." Both strongmen have illegally amended the constitution and party charter to fulfill their own dreams of long-term stability.
