Link to article: https://apnews.com/article/china-congress-economy-jinping-beijing-5f80fc62081cb8bd06efc74fd4810972?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
3000 strong National People’s Congress in China near unanimously approves a revised state council law directing China’s “cabinet” to follow Xi Jinping’s vision. Zhao Leji the legislation’s top official urges uniting closer under the communist party’s leadership “with comrade Xi Jinping at its core.” Party leaders used to set economic policies more freely than now, according to Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Xi has been astonishingly successful in consolidating his personal hold over the party, which has allowed him to become the key decisionmaker in all policy domains,” he said. The party is leaning more into communist ideas of the past, though saying that they’re rebuilding to a new and modern wealthy economy. “Greater centralization of power has arguably helped Xi to improve central government effectiveness,” Thomas said, “but the benefits may be outweighed by the costs of stifling political discussion, disincentivizing local innovation and more sudden policy shifts.” The term he uses, being “new quality productive forces,” implies that science and technology will be made a priority. Organic law has been revised, calling for the state council to “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China” in addition to adding the governor of the central bank to the body. Alfred Wu says that the revision makes it hard to reverse previous changes to the law, describing the Congress as a “one-man show” that shows Xi’s determination to create a system in which the party leads on policy, diminishing the role of the State Council and the legislature. “His determination is very clear,” Wu said. “He is willing to change everything.” China’s unanimous decisions as of late heavily contrasts the US’ polarizing politics.
A unanimous congress has been unheard of until now, especially one of the National People’s Congress sizes. It brings into question if there is political corruption beneath the surface to warrant such an overwhelming majority. Xi Jinping’s willingness to change everything about China’s legislature and his overall control over the congress has the potential to shift China’s behavior as we know it. Xi’s ideas don’t stop at policies and will surely lead into a shift for China’s international relations as well. The question of how China will act in the future with these new policies and changes is the big one.
China’s change of legislation to let Xi Jinping run the show is a prime example of how the lack of strong checks and balances can make one branch more powerful than others. A singular leader has its benefits, like the improvement of central government effectiveness, but also has the drawbacks of stifling political discussion, disincentivizing local innovation and more sudden policy shifts. There is a reason that the US, for example, has strong checks and balances for each branch, ensuring one can never overpower the others. The detriments of lacking these checks will likely make themselves known later into Xi’s leadership.