ABSTRACT
Xi Jinping rose to power in 2012. Since then, he has systematically dismantled and rolled back the political reforms of Deng Xiaoping that guided China’s leaders for the past four decades, namely fixed term-limit and enforced retirement rules for leaders and cadres, relative tolerance of intellectuals and limited dissent, and no personality cult around the leader. Thus, researchers have pointed to the rise of a new Maoist authoritarianism in China under the Xi regime. However, this chapter contends that Xi’s apparent authoritarian rule rests fundamentally on the authority of the Communist Party of China. Thus, the chapter aims to address the following three concerns:
to delineate the distinctive features of Xi’s authoritarian regime
to explain the rise of a new Maoist authoritarian regime and its relationship to the Communist Party of China over the past several years
to explore the implications of this authoritarian regime for China and the world.
