Xi Jinping Quotes

“There is no foreseeable scenario under which Beijing will back away, either rhetorically or in practice, from its territorial claims in Taiwan and in the South and East China Seas. As Xi Jinping told the then US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in June 2018, China will not give up 'even an inch' of its territory, which includes its expansive maritime claims and a large land area disputed with India. Within the Chinese system, any leader who stepped back from these claims would be committing political suicide. The internal sensitivity of the territorial issue helps explain the bellicose way Beijing handles these disputes outside of its borders. China constantly schools its Asian neighbours on its red lines in territorial disputes, all the while rapidly building up its military capability and regional diplomatic sway to entrench them. With the possible exception of Vietnam, smaller countries have taken to either submitting or swerving in the face of Beijing's pressure.

Yet it is far from game over, if history is any guide. Total capitulation in international relations is rare. Behind the scenes in Beijing, there has always been recognition that it was dangerous for China to bully its way to regional domination. 'The history of contemporary relations does not provide any precedent of a large country successfully bringing to its knees another country,' wrote Wang Jisi, formerly of Peking University, and for many years an informal government adviser. Wang pointed to America's experience in Vietnam and more recently Afghanistan, where its vastly superior military firepower couldn't drag it out of a military and then political quagmire. Wang was writing in 2014. Such strategic humility is rare in Beijing these days, either because the Chinese themselves have become cockier or because the country's diplomats fear being caught out of step with the temper of Xi's times. Nonetheless, the point stands. Beijing cannot bully its way to superpower status without engendering a strong pushback from other countries, which is exactly what is happening.”
― Richard McGregor, Xi Jinping: The Backlash

“Today's China is not just a geopolitical challenge to the West. It is a real-time, empirical experiment challenging the West's post-Cold War ascendancy. Far from being a pre-modern throwback to discredited authoritarian ways, Xi's project is taking shape as a post-modern phenomenon, a surveillance state with a fighting chance of success at home and the potential to replicate its core elements abroad.

If Xi, and whomever takes over from him eventually, does manage to sustain the system, China will have decisively rebuffed any notions that democracy is the sole system capable of building a successful, rich country. This is not so much the end of the end of history. Xi's China marks the start of history all over again.”
― Richard McGregor, Xi Jinping: The Backlash

“The debate in Australia over China has long been framed by a number of influential essays by Hugh White, a former bureaucrat and academic. White’s thesis is summed up by the title of one of his books, The China Choice, which argued that Australia’s refusal”
― Richard McGregor, Xi Jinping: The Backlash