Kevin Rudd: Xi Jinping's Priorities & Strategies for China

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Avoidable War" by Kevin Rudd. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here.

How did China’s policies change when Xi Jinping came to power? What’s Xi’s vision for China?

According to Australian diplomat Kevin Rudd, Xi Jinping has serious goals in mind for China. They include maintaining the power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), unifying what they perceive as their territory, and increasing their global influence.

Keep reading to learn about each of these priorities and the strategies that Xi is using to achieve them.

Xi’s Priorities & Strategies

As explained by Kevin Rudd, Xi Jinping’s presidency (which began in 2013) led to changes in China’s domestic and international policies. Rudd explains that Xi’s goals—and the shift they represent from previous years—are key to understanding why tensions between the US and China have escalated over the last decade.

Under the previous leadership of Deng Xiaoping from 1978-89, China was focused on growing the economy through increased global trade and opening to foreign investment, which the US benefited from. The transition to Xi’s administration signaled a shift because China had now achieved the economic stability required to expand the scope of its priorities in ways that threaten the global supremacy of the US.

Rudd writes that Xi’s key priorities include keeping the CCP in power through strategic economic reforms, restoring Chinese territory, and increasing China’s global influence. In this section, we’ll describe each of these strategies in more detail as well as how they contribute to China’s power struggle with the US.

(Shortform note: In addition to economic stability, a political shift within China at the end of Deng’s term also contributed to Xi’s priorities. People had turned against Deng politically because of the Tiananmen Square incident in which many Chinese citizens were killed. In addition, despite China’s rapid economic growth, it had also started struggling with corrupt officials profiting from Deng’s financial policies. Because of these two factors, the CCP benefited politically from distancing themselves from Deng’s policies and ideology, leading to less liberal and more state-controlled economic policies.)

Clarifying China’s Political Labels

Several different terms are used in the book to describe Xi’s ideology as well as that of the CCP—for example, communism, Marxism-Leninism, socialism, and socialism with Chinese characteristics. Discrepancies in the language describing China’s government and economic system are partly due to various external interpretations of Chinese politics versus its self-identified labels. For example, one article describes China’s government as a multi-party cooperative system while another describes it as an authoritarian one-party system. Here, we’ll explain the differences between some of the key terms in the book and who uses them:

Communism: This is a political, economic, and social ideology promoting a classless economic system where all property is owned communally or by the state. While communism remains central to Chinese ideology, as evidenced by the ruling party’s name “Chinese Communist Party,” the CCP has adapted communist ideology in ways that are specific to China (explored more in the definition of socialism with Chinese characteristics).

Socialism: Socialism is a political and economic system where resources are controlled communally rather than through private ownership and commerce. In Marxist theory, it’s a transitional stage between capitalism and communism. The CCP self-identifies as having socialist values at its core. However, others argue that China’s system is more aptly defined as state capitalism—a hierarchical capitalist system guided by the central government.

Marxism-Leninism: This is a political and economic framework established by the German philosopher Karl Marx and elaborated on by Vladimir Lenin in the Soviet Union. The key aspect of Marxism-Leninism is a two-part revolution in which working-class wage laborers seize power by force and establish a one-party socialist state where the party controls the “means of production” (the land, equipment, and resources needed to make products). The second part of the revolution is transitioning from a socialist state into a classless, stateless communist society. Rudd refers to Xi as Marxist-Leninist, and the CCP mentions Marxism-Leninism as one of its guiding philosophies among others.

Nationalism: Nationalism is a sense of loyalty and devotion to a nation, often with a connotation of cultural superiority and the promotion of a country’s self-interests over others. This is another general term that Rudd uses to describe Xi’s ideology.

Marxist-Nationalist: This is Rudd’s term based on his analysis of Xi’s particular brand of communism. It means that Xi appeals to the CCP using Marxist-Leninist ideology, but he appeals to the general population of China more through nationalist rhetoric.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics: This term is used by Xi and the CCP itself and was first described by Deng in 1982. It combines China’s underlying socialist ideals with the practical need to allow some private ownership and enterprise to develop China’s economy and meet the material needs of its people in the short term. It combines state ownership and private ownership while retaining overarching control over private enterprise.

Authoritarian-capitalist: This is the term that Rudd uses essentially in place of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” He defines it as a system where the government maintains control over the business sector and prioritizes state-owned enterprises over privately owned businesses. However, the word “authoritarian” also implies that the Chinese government limits individual freedom of thought and action—an argument supported by instances of violence and retaliation against political dissenters and wealthy private business owners.