The Chinese communist party is holding its congress after five years. It is a massive gathering and the star player is President Xi, who has consolidated his power. china is not a democracy hence it's a moot point how popular he is among the Chinese masses, but effectively Xi is in control. In a marathon speech lasting over three hours, the Chinese leader outlined the roadmap towards China becoming a Global Power. This news is reported by breakingdefense.com.
China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. For the most part of its almost 4000 years of existence, the Chinese have been an insular nation.
In fact, they were so paranoid of invaders that they constructed the Great Wall over hundreds of miles to keep out the Huns and Mongols. The Chinese have also been involved in many wars with Japan. The Japanese were militarily stronger and in the 20th century occupied vast areas of China. Even earlier China was a helpless giant when the western powers extracted concessions from the Chinese. The Chinese at that time lost control over Shanghai and Hongkong.
Mao and rise of China
The victory of Mao Ts Tung over the nationalists led by Chiang Kai Shek brought China under one-party rule. Mao was a ruthless man and as per conservative estimates accounted for deaths of millions of Chinese. His iron will, however, stood him in good stead as he set about erasing the past record of China.
The clock has now come full circle and China is on the verge of becoming the number one global power.
President X's roadmap
Xi's speech showed the direction China is heading. It rejects all the worlds conventions and treaties as it feels they are fostered by the western powers. It is flexing its muscles in the South China Sea and will invest over one trillion dollars in its One Belt and Road scheme.
It has built is first overseas military base in Djibouti. This shows that China is changing its old insular policy with a grand design to dominate the world. The Americans are worried and that is perhaps the reason that Trump is visiting China before he goes to India or Russia.
Last word
CNN has reported that President Xi is changing the 4000-year-old Chinese history by making it a truly global player.
But unlike the US, China has hardly any friends among its neighbors. It is involved in a dispute with India, Vietnam. Japan and the Philippines. There is no democracy in China and it is in the effect a totalitarian state. This is the drawback that may stop China from reaching its goals. History records that totalitarian states like in Germany and Russia collapsed and it is within the realm of possibility something similar could happen to China.
