Xi Jinping is nothing if not a Leninist ideologue, who has made “struggle” the guiding principle of the Chinese Communist party. In speeches to top party leaders that were kept secret for months before being released in Chinese, Xi denounced the fall of the Soviet Union, and said that “to dismiss Lenin and Stalin…is to engage in historic nihilism: it confuses our thoughts and undermines the Party’s organization on all levels.” Xi has lamented the failure of the 1991 attempt by Soviet hardliners to topple Mikhail Gorbachev: “Nobody was man enough to stand up and resist.” Xi goes on, “Facts have
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