Since Xi Jinping took over as the President of China in early 2013, he has one dream- to have the kind of control Mao Zendong had on the country. In order to make himself the ‘paramount leader’ like Mao, he holds all three major offices of the country- of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (Party leader), President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission– simultaneously, just like the former did.
Time will tell whether Xi Jinping would be able to establish himself comparable to Mao, but with Coronavirus, he might match the Communist icon in the number of killings. During the Cultural Revolution- a socio-political movement started by Mao to purge the Capitalist elements, the Communist party killed somewhat between 1-2 crore people from 1966-1976. The movement, started by Mao Zendong to tighten the grip on the country and party, claimed life of millions of people, and destroyed tens of thousands of families.
Now, Coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan and spread throughout the world due Xi Jinping government’s irresponsible behavior, has already claimed more than 50,000 lives and left more than 10 lakh people sick. Before the pandemic ends, it is estimated that it will claim at least 5-6 lakh lives around the world, and leave many countries poor, destroy their health infrastructure, and create complete chaos.
It has been almost 6 years since Xi Jinping came to power, and he has already started such a large scale destruction. Earlier it was expected that like all the previous leaders of China after Mao, Jinping would vacate the chair in 10 years. But he carried changes to the constitution to become ‘leader for life’, like Mao. Mao ruled the Eastern giant after the victory of Communist party in civil war in 1949 to 1976- when he died. Similarly, Xi Jinping is projecting himself as Mao of Modern China. If the 66 years old leader remains leader for life, he will surely match the killing number of Mao in next few years.
After Mao, he became the first leader to get his thoughts enshrined under the constitution of Communist party of China under the title of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era”.
Given the fact China is a much more powerful country and much integrated in the Global system that what it was in the time of Mao; the results of Jinping’s actions would be global, as seen in the case of Coronavirus. That means people would die not just locally but globally.
Xi Jinping made his and China’s global aspirations very clear in the very first year of tenure, by revealing One Belt One Road or what now is known as BRI project. The all encompassing project aims to turn the Eurasian countries and African continent into colony of China. The efforts to push for dominance in South China Sea also made clear that the aspirations of New China and its leader are not limited to the country.
China has its own version of Christianity, Communism, and social media; to make sure that the Communist government could keep vigilance on citizens. Jinping is being projected as personality cult by the Chinese state controlled media. Previously, it was reported that the portrait of Virgin Mary, installed in a Catholic church, was replaced by the portrait of paramount leader, Xi Jinping.
The Chinisation or Sinisation (as it is popularly known) is not limited to political economy or religion. The country has its own version of Facebook, Twitter, e-commerce; all based on (read copied) from the famous American companies.
If Xi Jinping succeeds in him aim to become like Mao, he will do what the later did to China to world. Death of millions of people would follow, and the world would follow Chinese version of Communism. China has its own version of Communism! The country ranks fairly high in the list of free market economies, and they call it “Communism with Chinese characteristic”.
The global rise of China and the ‘project’of Xi Jinping to make China global superpower is utterly dangerous for the world, because he would ‘sacrifice’ millions of people to achieve his dream, just like Mao did.