Deng Yuwen, a Chinese political scientist living in the United States, pointed out that China's negative news this year has come one after another, coupled with the failure of epidemic prevention, the authority of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping has suffered a major blow.

Like Mao Zedong back then, Xi Jinping's image is falling from the altar faster than expected.

(Reuters)

[Central News Agency] Deng Yuwen, a Chinese political scientist living in the United States, pointed out that China’s negative news this year has followed one after another, coupled with the failure of epidemic prevention, the authority of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping has been severely hit.

Like Mao Zedong back then, Xi Jinping's image is falling from the altar faster than expected.

Voice of America (VOA) Chinese website published Deng Yuwen's article titled "In 2022, Xi Jinping Falls to the Altar" last night, mentioning that the time is about to enter 2023, and the situation in China is worse than he expected at the beginning of this year.

Four unfavorable factors, including the external environment, the 20 major unfavorable variables of the CCP, the public's resistance to political pressure, and the economic situation, have all emerged.

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Deng Yuwen said that due to the above reasons, Xi Jinping's image is "rapidly falling from the high altar, faster than expected".

He pointed out that the start of 2022 is not good for the Xi Jinping administration.

The incidents of Hunan female teachers Li Tiantian, Peng Shuai, and Xuzhou Iron Chain Girl broke out one after another, and the image of the CCP was severely damaged.

Since then, the failure of epidemic prevention has dealt a huge blow to Xi Jinping's authority, making him seem to be still in power, but to some extent it has become his "political Waterloo".

According to Deng Yuwen's analysis, since Xi Jinping came to power 10 years ago, he completed the establishment of the "core" position in the first 5 years, and also wrote his own thoughts into the party constitution as the guiding ideology. This is something that his predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao could not do.

The 19th Communist Party of China greatly consolidated his power, and he entered his second term in high spirits.

However, when the US-China trade war broke out in 2018, China blocked the US tariff penalty, and Xi Jinping's once-damaged power and authority were partially compensated.

He pointed out that when the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan in 2020, Xi Jinping claimed that he "personally commanded and personally deployed" the epidemic prevention, which was actually a "gamble".

As a result, the bet at this stage was won, relying on the primitive and barbaric city closure measures, and finally controlled the spread of the epidemic and allowed the economy to recover quickly. At this time, other countries in the world, especially Western countries, were deeply mired in the epidemic. In the second half of the year, he was regarded as a model student in the international fight against the epidemic.

Deng Yuwen said that the CCP authorities held an anti-epidemic commendation meeting as early as October 2020, and then ridiculed the West for "copying China's homework."

Xi Jinping's power and authority have not only been fully restored but also "mounted to the altar", and it is reflected in the third historical resolution passed by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in November 2021. His status within the party and in Chinese history is on a par with Mao Zedong.

He said that Xi Jinping "succeeds with the epidemic, but also failed with the epidemic", and failed to effectively use the stage from the Delta to the Omicron variant virus to change in time and loosen the lockdown.

Instead, they were worried about affecting the Beijing Winter Olympics and the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. They continued to insist on "zeroing out", and the local governments stepped up efforts at all levels, which finally aroused strong public dissatisfaction and caused the economy to plummet.

In particular, the unbelievable chaos in Shanghai, which lasted for three months, made people lose their patience.

Deng Yuwen believes that the Xi Jinping authorities finally realized in early November that the virus cannot be prevented, and wanted to use "small steps and slow steps" to withdraw from the zero clearing, and only then launched the 20 optimized epidemic prevention measures.

However, due to the fact that the guiding ideology has not yet been cleared, and the local government is still arbitrarily closed and controlled, it has aroused public anger. The fire in Urumqi that killed 10 people "added a fire", and then the "white paper movement" broke out.

He said that seeing this situation, coupled with the severe economic downturn, the Xi administration has introduced 10 new measures to optimize epidemic prevention and completely abandon the clearing.

However, the tsunami-like infection caught most people off guard. People found that the authorities were not prepared for the release, and even the most basic related medicines were not stocked. Many elderly people died as a result. When necessary, he "abandoned it to the people like weeds" and hurt Xi Jinping's image again.

According to Deng Yuwen's analysis, autocratic leaders are more likely to make wrong decisions, and big mistakes are likely to lead to unmanageable consequences.

No matter how high the authorities praised the dictator before, the fall was as heavy as it was.

Mao Zedong's fall from the altar was caused by the "Great Leap Forward" and the Cultural Revolution. After his death, his line was completely overthrown, including his wife and cronies were also arrested.

He pointed out that Xi Jinping once ascended to the peak of power because of "dynamic clearing", which also indicates that once "dynamic clearing" hits a wall and has to give up, he will fall from the peak of power, just like Mao Zedong.

In addition, the scene where former CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao was taken away at the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also damaged Xi Jinping's image just like the epidemic prevention.

Deng Yuwen believes that the failure of epidemic prevention does not seem to have shaken Xi Jinping's absolute control of power during his third term.

But judging from the example of Mao Zedong, Xi Jinping has passed the peak period of power and authority and "entered the downward channel."

Taking December this year as the watershed when the authorities were forced to abandon the clearing, even if Xi Jinping can still rule China for more than 10 years, he is "already on a downward slope."