On Xi Jinping: How Xi's Marxist Nationalism is Shaping China and the World

An exhaustively researched analysis of Xi Jinping and his impact on not only China, but the world itself. A serious book that needs to be read and used as a framework for gaining some insights into how , going forward, China is likely to behave and what to look for as clues about the direction China is taking on the key issues of today. There’s a lot going on. If the US has any real hope of continuing to prosper and provide a safe and secure environment for its citizens it’s important its citizens educate themselves about who they’re dealing with. This book is a great place to start or improve one’s knowledge and awareness of what’s coming down the road. Read it carefully and reflect on what it says.

The most in-depth book on politics, economics and governance in China. Presents quite clearly the change that has happened and continues to happen in China under the leadership of Xi. Few people in the West know and understand China as deeply as Kevin Rudd. I am personally in the world of investments and the book clearly sets out for me the concept regarding investments in China.

On Xi Jinping is Kevin Rudd's second book on China and its leadership's priorities in the last few years. This work is an extension of his Doctoral Thesis he recently submitted on the study of Xi Jinping and his ideological priorities of expanding Marxist-Leninism within the Party while also moving China to the right on a foreign policy agenda. It is a very thorough work surveying the public works of Xi as well as inclusive of diplomatic commentary on the change of nature in diplomatic encounters with China. It is largely a work of academic political science and so is quite dry to read at times. Overall the book contains a thorough message that China's ideological move to the left is both substantial and will be persistent under Xi with all moves away from this direction ultimately being tactical. It also contains the message that China's international ambitions will continue to grow as its domestic strength has and its belief in its own wisdom for global governance norms will be on display to a greater and more forceful degree than the past.On Xi Jinping is an expansive book covering most aspects of Xi Jinping thought and how it influences governance through 16 chapters. The author begins with a historical overview of what he is discussing and what the terminology definitions are. There is a long legacy of Marxist intellectual infrastructure which is used by the party to frame its policy initiatives as well as the framework for analyzing history. The author thus discusses dialectic materialism and the role of contradictions for framing the Party's world view and in particular Xi Jinping's views on the current challenges China faces as a function of its past decisions. The longer cycles of history are thus more deeply embedded in Xi's ideology than the business cycle focus of much of the West at the expense of coherent long term strategy. One novel quote which the author clears up as an effective mis-quote is that by Zhou Enlai when asked about the French Revolution with the response being we need more time to assess in which Zhou was apparently assuming the query was about recent French protests rather than the French Revolution. The author moves in to how China's world view started to measurably change under Xi with increased clampdowns domestically followed by more abrasive behavior externally. These were a distinct shifts marked a break from the operating model under Deng and inherited by Hu and Jiang Zemin. Domestically the increased materialism and inequality inducing growth that was introduced in the reform periods was deemed to have gone too far and relying on the Marxist historical analysis framework was leading to new contradictions which needed to be addressed. Xi in particular felt that the party's credibility was deeply at risk by the rising corruption within the party and the growing inequality in society. The response to this was a dramatic anti-corruption and rectification agenda that continues to this day.These beliefs about the causes of China's growing domestic incoherence with the original governing philosophy of the party led to a significant re-orientation of priorities to embedding the state back into the economy more aggressively and containing the animal spirits of the private sector. The book details all that went into this and at some level Xi tried to address much of the concerns that are prevalent everywhere but with little concern or regret for all of the unintended consequences of trying to re-engineer the political economy. This is deemed to be a necessary evil and as such is a core message of the book, the actions being taken are ideological over practical and the beliefs of Xi are driven by ideology rather than results. Of course the leadership pays attention to results but only to adjust tactically and there is an acknowledgement that the adjustment will be painful but inescapable. This is the main takeaway but it is also not particularly insightful as it is where the consensus is and has been for 2 years now.The author moves on to the move to the right on promotion of nationalism and projection of power abroad. This is another multi year and multi-faceted agenda to increase the role of China in governing world affairs. Here the author argues that China under Xi is trying to re-orient the global governance structure away from US centric and towards one where China's wisdom is deferred to and it's interests are not contested. The author includes personal discussions with diplomats on their real world analysis of the changing diplomatic exchanges with China and the increased abrasiveness of them.Overall there are several different weaved aspects of how Xi's governing philosophy is affecting how China interacts with itself and with the world that are to the left from the Deng era domestically and to the right globally with the rise of nationalism. This is deeply strategic under Xi and tactical deviations are merely to manage a path but the ideologically determined strategic goals will not waver under Xi. After many years of managing mini-crisis with partial resolutions being the norm, most people see this as obvious now and those hoping for any dramatic shift back to greater market involvement and westernization are dismissed easily. As such this book is largely just summarizing from a political philosophy perspective why the agenda has been set as it has and how to interpret it. From that lens it is an informative read.