Before we dig into the controversy that is surfacing in political China, let us get a small understanding of how the political system in China works.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) or China is a communist country. The landscape of China is governed by a single party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The entire country is led by a single leader, the CCP General Secretary.
The General Secretary is the head of the CCP and the highest ranking official in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The CCP General secretary is the one to take over the presidency of China.
He predominantly governs the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Government, and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
However, the cities of Hong Kong and Macau hold an exception. A multi-party system is rife in these two cities which is different from the single-party governance in the rest of the country.
There are no direct elections in PRC. Elections are carried out only in the lower hierarchical levels and hold zero relevance in the higher tiers of government functioning.
The nominations for the direct elections in the lower levels are whatsoever done by the CCP. The tenure of the CCP General Secretary and President of PRC is five years.
The current Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and the President of the People’s Republic of China is Xi Jinping.
Xi Jinping is currently serving his second term as President of China since 2012.
Ahead of its 20th National Party Congress that is to be held in the month of October 2022, a series of inter-party political unrest is surfacing in China.
Very recently, Xi Jinping attended the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit that was held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan between 15 and 16 September 2022.
This was the Chinese President’s first physical movement after the country was struck by the infamous coronavirus pandemic.
The fact that Xi Jinping hasn’t left his residential territory for a complete two years has already been a fuming topic in the political and global media worlds.
Lately, rumors of Xi Jinping’s house arrest are sprawling rapidly
It was reported that Xi was detained from the Beijing airport on his arrival at the SCO Summit on 16th September and since then is under house arrest.
Xi Jinping was detained by the Central Guard Regiment which is a unit of the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) of the People’s Republic of China.
The Central Guard Regiment also known as the Central Guard Bureau (CGB) is exercised to provide distinctive protection to the President of PRC and all the other members of CCP. But it was the same CBG that detained the current President Xi.
The CCP is witnessing non-cooperation and indifferences among party members for a long time now. There is discontent growing up inside the political group. Even though the rivalries have been very submissive in nature till now, they are surfacing fiercely ahead of the National party congress.
Former President Hu Jintao and Government Premier Wen Jiabao have internally taken over the government recently and seized Xi Jinping’s military authority.
Following this, numerous flights and trains have been canceled and Beijing is fully cut off from the rest of the world.
This move is seen as the initiation of the big shift that political China is going to witness in the coming days.
Hu Jintao predecessor to Xi Jinping who served as the President of China. Wen Jiabao was the premier (Prime minister) of China during the presidency of Hu Jintao.
These two leaders were reform-oriented and had a liberal approach to politics. The relationship between the two political leaders was very good and together they served China the right way.
While Xi Jinping is more authoritarian and rigid with his individual monopoly. His obvious obsession with power and understated dictatorship didn’t seem to align with the CCP Veterans.
Therefore, internal reforms started taking place slowly forcing the power of Xi’s hands.
The internal rivalry inside CCP is so strong that it seems almost tangible. There is a flow of rebellion witnessed against Xi Jinping.
Looks like it is going to be impossible for Xi Jinping to sustain his political power any longer and move into the third term of his service as President of China.
Read More: China is myopic in defending its old nightmare of terrorism
