Westerners extolling all-powerful Xi Jinping are missing three important points

Niall Ferguson says America’s decline has left Western observers awed by Xi Jinping’s authority, even though they have no idea yet how effectively, or ruthlessly, he may use that power

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Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a press conference in Beijing last Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 1:51pm, 30 Oct 2017Updated: 7:18pm, 30 Oct 2017

An emperor who is a dotard. A population in the grip of opium addiction. An economy held back by bureaucracy and crumbling infrastructure. A culture fixated on past greatness but hopelessly decadent. This was how Westerners in the 18th and 19th centuries regarded China. It is how the Chinese (and most Europeans) now regard the United States.

Ever since President Xi Jinping’s triumphant appearance as defender of free trade and champion of globalisation at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, there has been a trend: commentators most averse to Donald Trump tend to be most gushing in their praise of his Chinese counterpart.

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To The Economist, Xi is now “the world’s most powerful man”. Xi offers a “long-term view of China’s ambition”, declared The Financial Times last week. “This president has an iron grip on power and a strategy to reach global pre-eminence.”

Fareed Zakaria, of CNN, wrote almost rhapsodically about the implications of the 19th party congress, which ended last week: “This party congress made clear that [Xi] is no ordinary leader. For the rest of his life, Xi and his ideas will dominate the Communist Party of China.”

US President Donald Trump congratulated Xi Jinping on his “extraordinary elevation” at the 19th party congress. Photo: AP

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To the author of The Post-American World, the implications are clear. “These changes are ... occurring against the backdrop of the total collapse of political and moral authority of the United States in the world. China [has] signalled that it now sees itself as the world’s other superpower, positioning itself as the alternative, if not rival, to the United States.”