Xi Jinping broke with historic discretion and projected China as a global leader

Upon taking power in China, Xi Jinping broke with the basic principle of the country’s political structure: “keep a low profile”. It was a proverb reinforced by the father of Chinese capitalism, Deng Xiaoping, and followed to the letter by his successors. For them, the Asian nation had too many problems internally to participate in global discussions or for its leaders to be featured prominently in the media.

Xi’s predecessor, for example, Hu Jintao, was known for his discretion. Even close allies of the former Chinese leader knew few personal details about him. Along the same lines of humility, Hu enjoyed being photographed sharing simple meals with peasants.

The lack of glamour, however, had nothing to do with China’s growing economic and political influence. It was under Hu that the country spent billions of dollars on construction for the 2008 Olympics and became the second largest global economy. Such accomplishments, however, did not inhibit criticism about its lack of aggressiveness in domestic politics, leaving aside political reforms and the fight against corruption.

The economic rise was even fundamental in the change of posture adopted by Xi, elected in 2012.

“He inherited a country that was already very well resolved internally, with an open economy and inserted in the international system. He realized that it was time to go abroad and play an important role in the global scenario”, explains Felipe Heiermann, a researcher at the Federal of Santa Catarina (UFSC)

An example of this is the role acquired by China in the United Nations under Xi. Last year, Beijing headed a third of the 15 UN agencies – a position unimaginable decades ago. The country also began to use its veto power more frequently in the Security Council. From 1971, when it became a permanent member of the body, until December last year, China vetoed 15 resolutions, eight of them under the current leadership.

Xi took his stand with the intention of peacefully sharing the lead in global discussions with the United States. One of his first official trips as a leader was to the US, where he met with Barack Obama in 2013. At the time, the two leaders ruled out the possibility of a cold war between the two countries – a compromise that time led to failure.

For Marcos Caramuru, former Brazilian ambassador to China, even Xi’s wife’s dresses denote the change in the leader’s attitude towards the discretion of his predecessors. “Chinese leaders never took their wives on an international trip; but Xi started doing that, and his wife started wearing Chinese designer clothes.”

The detail, says the diplomat, shows a different approach to the traditional approach between public and private life. “It was with Xi that China presented itself to the world in a more confident and self-confident way.”

Under Xi’s leadership, Chinese companies have increased their investments abroad, and China has become the main economic partner of more than 120 countries. In this field, however, the influence of the current leader is limited. According to experts, it was natural for Chinese private enterprise to seek business in other nations since domestic development had already reached its peak in previous years.

At the same time, –and then, yes, under Xi’s direct influence– China changed the way the global community viewed Beijing’s economic policy. Until then, Hu’s administration had reinforced the opening up of the country’s economy, making it similar to that of Western powers. But Xi preferred to adopt very interventionist policies.

One example is the mandatory participation of Communist Party members in large companies in the country. The rule even affected British bank HSBC, which this year had to install a party committee at its subsidiary in China.

The changes, in any case, may have impacted the social numbers of the Xi administration. Last year, for example, he announced the eradication of extreme poverty in the country – when he took power, 17% of the population was in this category, according to the World Bank. Furthermore, Xi annually sees the gap between rich and poor shrink in the Asian nation.

“For the Xi government, the quality of economic development becomes more important than quantity,” says Larissa Wachholz, a former special adviser to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture for China-related issues.

This goal, however, takes a heavy toll on the Chinese population. One example is the strict government control of the country’s internet. Under Hu, China was already considered by Reporters Without Borders to be “the world’s largest prison for digital natives”, but surveillance under Xi has grown even greater. Last year, Freedom House gave Beijing a zero on internet freedom.

Xi also tightened the siege against the Uighurs, a Muslim minority who occupy the western region of Xinjiang. Historically embroiled in tensions with Beijing, the ethnic group has been the target of “counterterrorism and counter-extremism” operations by the Xi administration – mechanisms that the UN considers violations of human rights.

Be that as it may, in a land where proverbs are part of the culture, Xi may have ignored some of Deng’s, but he assimilated an acquaintance from Chinese history: “If you don’t change direction, you’ll end up right where you started.”