Xi's New Motto for Governing China: My Way or the Highway

Chinese leader Xi Jinping secured a new term and a thoroughly loyal cabinet, which will enable him to carry out his nationalist and confrontational policy agenda over the next five-to-ten years. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) appointed its new leadership at the 1st Plenum of its 20th Central Committee on Oct. 23, which comes after the CCP amended the Party constitution to consolidate Xi's position during the closing of China's 20th Party Congress on Oct. 22. Xi will remain the leader of the CCP for the next five years after gaining another term as General Secretary. The entire seven-person Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), effectively Xi's cabinet, is now composed of loyalists who either owe their careers to Xi's patronage or whose views align with his policy agenda. Moreover, Xi still has no designated successor, as the youngest member of the new PBSC (from which the next CCP leader will likely...