Decades of hope that China might join a global liberal order are dashed. He can be president for life, as China becomes more dominant in the world.
The changes seem to ensure that Mr. Xi will continue pursuing his agenda, which has begun to lift millions of people out of poverty, reformed state-owned enterprises, protected the environment and built strategic industries. If all goes according to plan, he could preside over the transition when China eclipses the United States as the world’s largest economy in absolute terms within two decades.
Diverging from the free-market path, Mr. Xi has involved his government more deeply in economic affairs, reining in China’s private firms and insisting on more market access abroad for Chinese firms while limiting opportunities for foreign companies in China. That’s a major reason the Trump administration formally declared China a strategic competitor and is preparing to impose tariffs on some Chinese imports and to limit Chinese technology investments in the United States. The two sides will have a chance to discuss the matter when China’s top economic strategist, Liu He, visits Washington this week.
In a break from his predecessors, Mr. Xi is also pushing a more aggressive foreign policy that includes establishing military bases in the Western Pacific and Africa, modernizing the military and starting a $1 trillion program to develop roads, bridges and power networks across Asia, Europe and Africa. He has worked to dilute international norms on human rights and interfered to an alarming extent in Australia’s political and economic life.
