ON A PAR WITH MAO

Chinese smartphone users applauded over 800 million times to the speech of their President on the first day of the 19^th Congress of the Communist Party (CPC) held in Beijing on June 18-24. They did not watch the live broadcast of the Congress, but participated in the game Please Clap for President Xi Jinping developed by Chinese company Tencent. Listening to Xi’s longwinded address on 14 principles of "world domination" of China, the players had to tap the clap button as many times as possible.

Without successor

The last congress left a double impression. Xi Jinping's re-election for a second five-year period was predictable. But a substantial renewal of the members in the standing committee of the CPC Politburo (5 of 7) and the absence of a potential successor, who normally should take the reins after five years, indicates that either Xi has not yet decided on his successor, or considers remaining in power even after 2022.

According to the Constitution of 1982, the PRC President can hold the post for no more than two terms (ten years). But the charter of the Communist Party remains silent about the restrictions for the Secretary-General. Xi Jinping is also the chairman of two interrelated and system-forming structures - the Military Council of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC).

If Xi remains on these and other important posts after 2022, he will actually remain as the only head of the country. For example, Deng Xiaoping, who had never held the post of the head of state, was China’s actual leader from the late 1970s to 1990. After resigning from the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission, he still had an influence on China's political life up until his death in 1997.

While Den earned his indisputable authority in the party and among the people during the establishment of the PRC, then Xi, in fact, has to do it now as the leader of the country. After all, in 2012 he came to power as a compromise, a little-known figure, and therefore many of his reforms planned for the first five-year period often stalled, faced resistance in some regions of the country.

Xi Jinping devoted his first five-year term to three main areas. Firstly, the fight against corruption, corroding party and state apparatus from bottom to top. Secondly, economic reforms designed to turn China from a workshop screwing the products of Western companies into a leader in technological innovation, whose economic interests extend far beyond the Asian region. And finally, military reforms, which will make the Chinese army the most advanced in the world by the middle of the century, as Xi said in his address.

Obviously, being a leader is not enough to make China advance successfully in implementing the reforms. Such a leader must get the status of an ideological leader. Xi successfully achieved this status, as the 19^th congress unanimously registered his name on the Charter of the Communist Party, thus advancing him on a par with the Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong, and China's reformer, Deng Xiaoping. No one else in the history of the PRC was honored in such a way. Incidentally, the name of Deng Xiaoping was registered on the Charter only after his death.

Since the charter firmly establishes "the wealth of Xi Jinping's ideas in a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics", Xi’s internal opponents will not dare to oppose him now. Otherwise, it would mean that they oppose the party line.

The words about the "new era" mean the country's transition to the third stage of its development. The first was the reunification of China by Mao Zedong after the civil war. The second is the improvement of the welfare of Chinese people, proclaimed by Deng Xiaoping. The third stage will be the strengthening of China's economic, political and military might, which will help China to play a leading role in the world arena.

The fight against corruption and dissent

The previous 18^th Congress took place in an atmosphere of social tensions, when the nation was extremely dissatisfied with corruption and impunity inside bureaucratic and party apparatus.

After the social experiments of Mao Zedong, when dozens of millions of people died from hunger and the "cultural revolution," Deng Xiaoping had to raise the country's economy at any cost. The party, state and municipal structures at all levels were given broad powers and partial independence. The government had often ignored all the increasing cases of corruption and other manifestations of uncontrolled abuse of power, although never had they allegedly stopped combating bribery.

The first signal from the society came from a severely suppressed student speech in the spring of 1989. For more than 20 years, the Communist Party has secured a quiet life. However, the "fatty" times of double-digit economic growth have passed, and thanks to modern means of communication, the public is aware of any negative actions of the authorities in a matter of minutes. Altogether, this has become a catalyst for social protests.

Xi Jinping actively took up the task assigned to him to restore the party's trust in society. He began with himself. Immediately after his election as the head of the country, he demanded his closest relatives to stop all commercial activities. To demonstrate the determination of his intentions, the authorities soon shut down the IT company, where the sisters of the PRC president worked.

Vowing to crack down on both "tigers" and "flies", Xi is equally serious about anyone be it a Politburo member or an ordinary member of the regional party organization. More than 1.2 million criminal cases were opened over five years, which resulted in executions, life imprisonment or civil rights defeats.

However, the leader of the country is worried not only about corruption. He sees the threat to stability in excessive emancipation of the society itself, when the weakening of control and the strong influence of the Western way of life could lead to the demise of the Communist Party as the leading power in China.

A pilot project was launched in 30 cities in China, when the welfare of citizens depends on scores accumulated for exemplary or suspicious and unworthy behavior. Information about a citizen coming from municipal, commercial, law enforcement, judicial bodies is processed using the big data technology. Residents with good scores become owners of all benefits, while poor scores will mean losing of jobs and poor living conditions. The denunciation is encouraged by scores.

If the experiment proves successful, it will be extended to the whole country. Currently, the population is controlled by other methods, for example, through the Golden Shield project isolating China from the rest of the Internet. Sometimes it is still possible to bypass the barriers with VPN, but the authorities are looking for technical opportunities to cover this loophole. Western companies that do not meet the requirements of the Golden Shield are denied access to Chinese market. One of such companies was Google. Apple, however, remains in the country after having removed all VPN applications from its Chinese App store.

Isolated access to the Internet means it is easy to control it. Violators will face immediate arrest and long-term sentences. Everything is subject to censorship: from the media and bookstores to cinemas and theaters.

Might for the Jubilee

Realizing that the country has practically exhausted domestic resources to maintain high rates of economic growth, the Chinese leadership has been anxious to search for new models of development.

Such global projects as One belt - one way and the Asian Bank for Infrastructure Investments serve this objective. In his address to the congress, Xi Jinping confirmed China's course for further integration into the world economy. The PRC President said that in the next five years, measures would be taken to facilitate access of foreign investors to Chinese market. He also promised that the attitude to all foreign companies registered in China will be "fair and unbiased".

It seems, however, that Beijing’s perception of globalization implies its own foreign economic expansion, expressed in aggressive purchase of industrial assets on all continents.

Thus, in 2016, China increased direct investment in Europe by 90%, particularly in IT companies. The European Union already threatens to draft a law this autumn designed to protect European IT companies from foreign (primarily Chinese) absorption.

Washington is also concerned about it. Cooperation with China is only a few percent of the American GDP, but almost a quarter of all cases currently considered by the Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS) are associated with Chinese companies.

In Africa, China has long ago outstripped U.S. and European investment initiatives. Chinese assets in South America and Australia are also growing. The One belt – One way will help establish China's strong economic ties with 65 countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Despite a marked reduction in economic growth, Chinese economy remains one of the highest in the world. For three quarters of 2017, the economy grew by 6.9%, which is 6.5% more than forecasted for this year. In terms of nominal GDP, China is the second largest economy in the world, second only to the U.S.: $11.2 trillion vs. $18.6 trillion.

According to one of the statements released by the closure of the 19^th Congress, China should become a "moderately prosperous" country by 2021, when the Communist Party will celebrate its centenary anniversary. And by the centenary anniversary of coming to power (2049), China should become a "developed, rich and powerful" country.