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Ian Explains: Xi Jinping's nationalist agenda is rebuilding walls around China

April 12, 2024
Ian Bremmer
Ian Explains: Xi Jinping's nationalist agenda is rebuilding walls around China | GZERO World

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It’s been a rough few years for China’s economy. Between harsh “Zero Covid” policies that shut China off from the rest of the world and major Communist Party crackdowns on private sector industries, the country is in desperate need of an economic jolt. So President Xi Jinping has been on an international charm offensive outside China, hoping to attract foreign investment. But if you look inside China, Xi’s vision is one of extreme nationalist messaging and centralized control that’s hurting his message abroad.

On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down how Xi Jinping is turning China inwards at a time when it can’t afford to close itself off. Since assuming the presidency in 2012, Xi has consolidated power within the Communist Party to become China’s most dominant ruler since Chairman Mao Zedong. Under Xi’s watch, China has rolled back democratic rights in Hong Kong, implemented crackdowns on the powerful tech, finance, and real estate sectors, restricted English in schools, and even expanded the definition of espionage so broadly that basic interactions with foreigners are viewed as suspect.

President Xi’s nationalist vision has become so dominant that it's written into the Constitution and official history of the People’s Republic. But will that vision make China hostile to the very ideas that fueled its economic transformation in the first place?

Watch the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television (check local listings) and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
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