Assessing Xi Jinping’s Impact Following Three Years at the Helm

Introduction to the Special Forum

Xi Jinping, indisputably, is the most consequential Chinese leader since the period of Deng Xiaoping. Much has been written, usually from a short-term perspective, about how he is transforming China, The five articles that follow aspire to a wider-ranging understanding of his impact. First, Ezra Vogel, biographer of Deng Xiaoping, offers a comparative perspective on Xi’s leadership qualities. Se..

Editorial Staff
October 15,2015

Xi Jinping Compared to Deng Xiaoping: Two Consequential Leaders of China

An Interview with Ezra Vogel, September 28, 2015 Author of the preeminent biography of Deng Xiaoping, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, Ezra Vogel agreed to draw comparisons with Xi Jinping. We presented widely shared impressions of Xi and asked Vogel to assess the similarities and differences from Deng. EDITORIAL STAFF: Xi Jinping is often compared to Deng Xiaoping as a vigorou..

Ezra Vogel
Century of humiliation , hegemony , National identity , Regionalism
October 15,2015

Xi Jinping as Historian: Marxist, Chinese, Nationalist, Global

“Only by having a correct recognition of history can it be possible for us to open up a better future. … Forgetting history signifies betrayal.”1 In February 2014, a little over a year after Xi Jinping ascended to power as the secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and then the president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the National People’s Congress (NPC) rati..

Alison Kaufman
China Dream , China's national rejuvenation , Chinese history , Chineseness , National identity , Victory Day
October 15,2015

Xi Jinping’s Impact on China’s Legal Development: Domestic and International

When Xi Jinping came to the United States for a state visit in September 2015, questions about China’s posture toward the rule of law, domestically and internationally, were scattered across Washington’s agenda. The perennial question of human rights had again become an urgent and law-related concern, with the crackdown on rights protection lawyers in mid-2015, and with a pending law on NGOs, ..

Jacques deLisle
Legalist repression , National identity , Rule of law , Top-down government , UNCLOS
October 15,2015

Dreaming Big, Acting Big: Xi’s Impact on China’s Military Development

Xi Jinping emerged from his recent US visit with no meaningful new constraints on the development, deployment, and use of China’s military. Constructively, as part of a larger UN support package, he unveiled a Chinese plan to establish a police squad and 8,000 standby troops for UN Peacekeeping. Despite an ambiguous statement of intent to respect international law and not “militarize” featur..

Andrew Erickson
Asymmetry , China Military Dream , Kill-Chain , National identity , Sino-American military tensions , South China Sea
October 15,2015

Grading Xi Jinping’s America Policy: C-

President Xi Jinping has dealt with the United States for almost three years as relations have declined. His bold and assertive actions in areas sensitive to US interests departed sharply from past restraint and put an aroused America on guard. It is hard to give these results a passing grade. As they did in Washington on September 24-25, the two leaders continue to meet and achieve agreements in ..

Robert Sutter
Chinese assertiveness , National identity , Sino-American interdependence , Sino-American rivalry , US rebalance