China’s Xi Jinping grabs more power, pushing Asia closer to war

China’s Xi Jinping grabs more power, pushing Asia closer to war

A messianic ruler, already considered the world’s most influential figure, is about to get absolute power over the planet’s most-populous state. 

What happens next will be remembered for generations. Chances are, Chinese President Xi Jinping will lead China into war.  

The drama begins at the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, which starts Sunday. At the Congress’s first plenum, which convenes immediately after the Congress ends, the members of the new Politburo Standing Committee will be revealed as they walk from behind a curtain. Everyone expects Xi to lead the pack as ruler for the next five years. Moreover, most think he will be able to exercise essentially unrestrained power during this term. 

What will Xi do with such power? Among other things, he wants to redraw the map of the world, with force if necessary. During his decade-long tenure as supremo, China has stepped up efforts to take territory from neighbors, especially India, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. 

His ambitions extend far beyond China’s neighborhood, however. Xi is a revolutionary. He speaks in benign-sounding phrases, such as “a community of shared future for mankind.”  

His words, however, cloak breathtaking ambition. As subordinates make clear, Xi has been promoting the imperial-era notion that Chinese rulers not only had the Mandate of Heaven over tianxia — “All Under Heaven” — but they also had an obligation to rule the world. 

“The Chinese have always held that the world is united and all under heaven are one family,” Xi Jinping declared in his 2017 New Year’s Message. 

But why stop with Planet Earth? In 2018, Chinese officials talked about the moon and Mars as sovereign Chinese territory.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/china-xi-jinping-grabs-more-power-pushing-asia-closer-war