Contact is taking a holiday!

The Wall Street Journal, 29 March 2016

Chinese authorities have detained more than a dozen people suspected of involvement in an anonymous letter that calls on China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, to step down. Published online earlier this month and signed by “loyal Communist Party members,” the letter criticizes Mr. Xi for “gathering all power” and silencing other points of view. The incident is one more sign that China’s internal power struggle isn’t over.

It’s impossible to know for sure, but clues suggest the letter is a product of dissatisfaction within the Party. First, the wording differs from most dissident manifestos, which tend to call for democratic reform and the end of censorship. Instead the letter uses the jargon of the Party, blaming Mr. Xi for “unprecedented problems and crises in all political, economic, ideological, and cultural spheres.” It also contains an implicit threat, advising Mr. Xi to resign “out of consideration for your personal safety and that of your family.”

Second, Party stalwarts are beginning to express similar views, albeit in less extreme forms. Jiang Hong, a delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, told Caixin magazine, “The rights to speak freely must be protected.” He and others, such as property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang, who had 37 million social-media followers, have warned that Mr. Xi’s gag on “disloyal” comments within the Party means that policy mistakes will be made. Mr. Jiang’s interview was deleted and Mr. Ren’s social-media accounts have been closed.

Mr. Xi has made plenty of enemies in his three years in power. He used an anticorruption campaign to consolidate his power, though the letter and his Party critics generally laud the campaign. Instead, the nascent revolt of the Party elite hinges on Mr. Xi’s turn away from democratic centralism, the doctrine that decisions should be reached by consensus and after open debate within the leadership.

The debate goes back to Deng Xiaoping’s efforts to reform and open the Party after Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution nearly destroyed it. Deng set down internal Party guidelines to ensure no future leader would monopolize power the way Mao did. These included consensus leadership within the Politburo, the end of personality cults, and the separation of party and government. He also committed China to a moderate foreign policy that respected the international rules of the road.

Mr. Xi has begun to chip away at Deng’s precedents. The state media encourage adulation of the first couple, Uncle Xi and Mama Peng. A recent song is titled “If You Want to Marry, Marry Someone Like Uncle Xi.” Earlier this month, Tibetan delegates to the legislature wore badges with Mr. Xi’s picture, a throwback to the Mao badges that all Chinese were required to wear in the 1960s. Some delegations called Mr. Xi the leadership core, a title last granted to Jiang Zemin after the 1989 Tiananmen protests.

Mr. Xi has also taken unprecedented control over the key “central leading groups” within the Party that set policy. The Party now micromanages state companies, ministries in Beijing as well as provincial governments. As a result, the quality of governance has declined and officials are paralyzed with fear. Mr. Xi has also used China’s growing power to flout international norms abroad and exploit nationalist sentiment at home, causing neighboring countries to strengthen ties with the U.S.

The irony is that Mr. Xi argued for and won undisputed power so that he could push economic reforms after a decade of factional struggles that paralyzed decision making. So far he has accomplished little on the reform front despite some impressive rhetoric. Instead he focuses most of his energy on crushing “improper discussion” within the Party.

That may now be backfiring. The Communist Party’s remarkable resilience after the upheaval of 1989 was a result of economic growth but also a balancing of political repression against the need for greater openness and professionalism in decision making. Mr. Xi has upset this balance, and cadres who fear a slide to one-man rule are taking the risk of speaking out. Mr. Xi may defeat his Party opponents, but the backlash against him means that China faces more political turbulence.