Scanning the Post-Xi Jinping Political Landscape: Towards an Analytical Framework of Generational Leadership Change in China

Chinese President Xi Jinping has engineered a massive regression to communist orthodoxy, resurrecting ideological indoctrination, tightening control of the media and cracking down on freedom of speech. The sharp swing to the left is surprising and has provoked many in the West to confront and contain what seems to be a renewed communist threat. Although ensuring the regime's survivability is the ultimate motive, the rationale of Xi's left turn cannot be logically derived from the socio-economic changes on the ground. It is more of a generational phenomenon associated with Xi and his generational cohort. In the longer run, it may lack sustaining power because of the widening generational gaps in the Chinese society.