President Xi Jinping: China's New Dictator for Life

By 

Jordan Sekulow

|
November 12, 2021

5 min read

Foreign Policy

A

A

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has announced President Xi Jinping as the dictator for life. This would allow him to rule until at least 2027. There have only been two people in the CCP who have led China as the dictator for life prior to him. When it comes to how the United States plans to treat China, the U.S. has given up the idea of trying to contain an adversary for economic reasons only.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan – whose credibility, as we noted yesterday, is at a minimum diminished – stated what the Administration’s goal is for dealing with China:

The goal here is not containment, it is not a new Cold War. It is rather a favorable disposition in which the U.S. and its allies can shape the international rules of the road on the sorts of issues that are fundamentally going to matter to the people of our country and to people everywhere.

When China gets this kind of international power and influence, they tend to use it as aggression. One thing the U.S. should be worried about is aggression towards Taiwan. The U.S. has agreements with Taiwan to defend them. ACLJ Senior Military Analyst and former Colonel Wes Smith explained China’s growing intent to become the only superpower in the world:

This Chinese Communist Party leader – behind that smiling exterior in his tailor-made suit – he is the most aggressive Communist Chinese leader they have had since 1949 when they took over the mainland. Chairman Mao, basically his attitude was we want to live in our own little world, leave us alone. They were not aggressive and not much engagement with the world . . . . Xiaoping was suspicious of engagement with the world, but still modest gains towards a somewhat capitalistic society. When we get to the present Chinese leader President Xi, he is aggressive. He wants to make China the only superpower in the world. He wants to surpass the United States in military, intel, and cyber capabilities, and he is well on the way to doing that. And the idea that we aren’t going to contain them, but peacefully coexist, is a naïve proposition.

We know of the human rights abuses that happen inside China. Yet, we still don’t want to contain China. ACLJ Director of Policy Harry Hutchison explains this incompetent strategy:

The United States policy with respect to China is grounded essentially in one goal only and that is surrender – surrendering U.S. sovereignty, surrendering our concern for human rights violations. And what do we get in exchange? Perhaps an incredibly weak climate change deal. Wherein the Chinese government will continue to flaunt those rules and will continue to increase its footprint in genocide, and we will stand by and engage in something that the Biden Administration is intimately familiar with that is self-congratulatory instead of clear policy analysis. So, I think at the end of the day, what Jake Sullivan has done, what John Kerry has done essentially is allowed the Chinese government to basically advance its agenda. . . . We refuse to confront China. This opens the door to what? Chinese aggression potentially in Taiwan and the rest of the international space and we’ve achieved virtually nothing, but perhaps we feel better about ourselves.

President Biden described the relationship between the U.S. and China as he is preparing to meet with China’s president:

I’m not looking for, I don’t anticipate there will be a need for – to be – there to be physical conflict. But, you know, as you’ve heard me say this before – my dad had an expression. He’d say, “The only conflict worse than the one that’s intended is one that’s unintended” – one that’s unintended. And so, in my meetings with him virtually coming up – we haven’t set the exact date yet – I want to make sure there is no misunderstanding. It is competition, not conflict.

While President Biden is scrambling to figure out how to handle China, leaders like Ric Grenell are stepping up internationally. ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell is currently in Serbia to bring economic development in the Balkans. He described his goals while he is there:

The good news is that in theory Joe Biden has kept the same Donald Trump policy of economic development in the Balkans, so we are happy to hear that, but it’s very true that we need more leadership in the Balkans. I don’t think the Biden Administration is concentrating on this area enough. We have these four economic development agreements. . . . Now we are in the implementation phase. So, I am over here from a private citizen, private sector side trying to help bring development to a region [which] has experienced lots of hostility over the last 20 years. It is time that the people move on, everyone look forward, and try to bring some stability to the Balkans through economic development.

We need to see implementation when it comes to foreign policy in the Balkans and when it comes to containing China. It’s been reported that President Biden will be holding a virtual summit with the Chinese president on Monday in the first type of face-to-face meeting between the two.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of China’s new dictator for life and what this means for the United States. 

Watch the full broadcast below.

Support the work of the ACLJ – as we continue to bring you expert analysis on the issues that matter most. Have your Tax-Deductible gift DOUBLED through our Matching Challenge.