A prominent Chinese Communist Party researcher recently spurned a surprise chance to openly declare fealty to the Party chief—a brief moment of intransigence that goes some way to revealing the current state of power politics in China.
When asked by a reporter from Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Daily on the sidelines of an annual political conclave about what he thought of Chinese leader Xi Jinping as China’s new “core” leader, Shi Zhihong, a deputy director to a top advisory body, and former deputy head of a Communist Party think tank, rebuffed him with: “I’ve already answered that question. Go read that article by me; my opinions are all there.”
As the reporter readied a camera, Shi said “No pictures,” and held out his hand to block a clear shot. The result was a meme-worthy image of a pouting Shi, with what appears to be a food stain on his blazer, in a pose that would impress most Chinese traffic police.
The unwillingness of Shi, sometimes called “Zhongnanhai’s brain trust” in news reports, to openly back the Party chief, highlights a dictum of Chinese politics: when a Party leader demands loyalty and uniformity, it means he doesn’t yet have it. Shi Zhihong’s career trajectory owes much to one of the key Party elders obstructing Xi Jinping’s rule, and his open defiance of the untrammeled leadership of Xi suggests that he still retains high-level backing.
One ‘Core’
Since January, dozens of provincial and senior Communist Party leaders have publicly endorsed Xi Jinping as China’s “core” leader, or “he xin.” Historically, only Party leaders who wielded near total control over the entire Party machinery—Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin—have been hailed as “core” leaders.
But Shi Zhihong has expressed his opposition to the relatively early coronation of Xi Jinping. In the article he claimed to have written—really an interview with Phoenix Television, a pro-Beijing Hong Kong news outlet, on March 3—Shi made three points: The Party is “core” in leading China towards socialism with Chinese characteristics; the Party Central Committee, particularly the Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee, is the focal “core” of Party leadership; and the Politburo Standing Committee “collective leadership core” must be “universally acknowledged and satisfactory to the people.”
