Changing Dynamics of Leadership Politics in Xi Jinping’s China
Vortrag von Guoguang Wu, Stanford University
Dienstag, 16. Juni 2026, 18:00 – 20:00 Uhr
KG I, HS 1221
Keine Anmeldung erforderlich.
President Xi Jinping seems one of the most powerful leaders in today’ world. There are significant myths and puzzles, however, around China’s leadership politics under Xi. A latest development (up to April 2026) indicated that, in three and half years following the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party assumed office in October 2022, 12.5 percent of its members were purged. This figure far exceeds the rate 5.32 percent for the 18th Central Committee and the rate 0.8 percent of the 19th Central Committee during their first three and half years at office. Why such an escalation of purge of high-ranking leaders after Xi started his third term in power that is widely viewed as his successful concentration of power? What is happening in China’s leadership politics? Is Xi encountering a powerful challenge to his status and power? How such developments affect governance and development of China? What revelations can be drawn for understanding the Chinese regime? Informed by regime theory and institutionalist analysis of political science, the talk proposes a perspective of revisionist factionalism at attempt to answer these questions.