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US-China relations
China

Xi Jinping’s iron grip on power brings new form of corruption, China experts tell US congressional advisory panel

  • There is a pervasive sense in China that the only way to rise through the ranks in the Xi era is to show all-out loyalty to the leader, experts say
  • The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which advises members of Congress, heard testimony on Thursday

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Experts on Chinese politics warned a US congressional panel about the ramifications of Xi Jinping’s iron grip on power. Photo: AP
Jacob Fromerin Washington
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on power over the last decade has created a new form of corruption in his country’s government as officials compete to show their loyalty to him above all else, a congressional advisory body on US-China relations was told at a hearing on Thursday.

Experts on Chinese politics at the elite and local levels warned that Xi, who abolished presidential term limits and is widely expected to stay in power when his second term ends this year, has wrung out from many cadres across the country any willingness to innovate new ideas or express honest feedback about how policies are working – all potentially destabilising to China, they said.

“It seems like this really just opens the door to a systematic sense of corruption,” Joseph Fewsmith, a professor of international relations and political science at Boston University, told the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “You promote your allies, and that gets you right back to where you were when this whole campaign against corruption started.”

Washington has watched with alarm as Xi has asserted himself as a powerful authoritarian ruler who has shown an increasing willingness to use Chinese economic and military power around the world to accomplish his geopolitical goals.

The hearing came two days after the US House of Representatives unveiled sweeping legislation targeting China in nearly every aspect of the countries’ tense relationship, from human rights to Taiwan to economic competition.

Congress has spent much of the last year working on a sprawling set of bills that lawmakers say will put the US in a better position to compete against China.

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