Chapter 5 Reason Analysis: Situation Misjudgment and Totalitarian Personality (3)

Xi Jinping does not understand economics but he is headstrong and has strong self-opinion. The project is Xiongan New Area is his head-scratching project. He identified the Xiongan New Area as a national development zone and a thousand-year project, at par with Shanghai Pudong and Shenzhen Economic Development Zone. But the project was not rigorously and scientifically justified and ignored its serious geographical shortcomings. Xi Jinping’s good mindset is also reflected in his big spending of money on his foreign trips.

4. Narrow-minded

Xi Jinping served in Zhengding County, Hebei Province, for more than three years from 1982 to 1985. His superior leader at that time was Gao Yang. Gao Yang, former Minister of the Central Ministry of Chemical Industry, was then the first secretary of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee. During that time, rumor has it that Xi Zhongxun wrote a letter to Gao Yang suggesting that Xi Jinping be promoted to the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee. But Gao Yang made the letter public at a meeting of provincial cadres and stated, “This is not in line with the Party’s policy and I am not prepared to do it.” With no good political record but a handout for an official position, such a reputation and no hope for promotion made it impossible for Xi Jinping to stay in Hebei Province. So Xi Zhongxun went to Hu Yaobang privately and begged him. Later, Hu Yaobang placed Xi Jinping as deputy mayor of Xiamen, Fujian Province. Before he left, Xi said goodbye to Gao Yang, who said, “You are a cadre under the control of the central government, you are free to come and go, so there is no need to say goodbye to me.” His words were embarrassing to Xi Jinping.

Some years later, when Gao Yang passed away, Xi, as the later president of the party school and former subordinate, did not bid farewell to the body of Gao Yang, nor did he attend the memorial service. Xi Jinping set up a task force to plan and implement the cross-border kidnapping of a Hong Kong Causeway Bay bookseller because of the gossipy little book “Xi Jinping and His Lovers” .The incident became one of the triggers of the anti-sending back to China movement in Hong Kong in 2019.

In summary, Xi Jinping’s rude, brutal, and vain character dictates that he does not fit into a constitutional democracy. As President Biden has said, he has no democracy in his head. Xi Jinping’s fossilized and rigid personality makes it difficult for him to accept Western civilization. His narrow-minded and petty personality makes him suspicious and difficult to work with.
 
In his article “The Totalitarian Personality and Bo Xilai’s Defeat,” Tong Zhiwei, a professor at East China University of Political Science and Law, summarizes the ten characteristics of the totalitarian personality. According to his article, the totalitarian personality is anti-democratic; contemptuous of human rights; intolerant of dissenting voices; ” aggressive” in interpersonal relationships; obsessed with the will to gain power; vengeful and unambiguous; anti-rule of law; and fervent pursuit of power and behavior without bottom line. Looking at Xi Jinping’s character and behavior, his character is more typical of a totalitarian personality.