Original subtitles

MAN: No-one in the world today,

anywhere, in any other country,

is more powerful than President Xi Jinping.

(MAN SHOUTS IN MANDARIN)

MAN: He has declared himself Chairman for life.

I call him Chairman of everything,

Chairman of everywhere, Chairman of everyone.

(CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS)

STAN GRANT: China's President Xi Jinping

sees himself as a man of destiny.

He commands a country on the cusp of becoming

the biggest economy the world has ever seen

and he's building an army to defend it.

(CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM CONCLUDES)

(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS)

If you were to sum him up, what words come to mind?

Messianic. Um, ruthless.

WOMAN: I think he's really very focused on control, right?

He's very focused on control over the Party, control over the country.

WOMAN: We are turning more towards authoritarianism under Xi Jinping.

He has centralised the power around him.

To make China great again,

Xi Jinping is upending the global balance of power.

MAN: If any armed conflict

breaks out between China and the United States,

it will be catastrophe for mankind.

It may become Armageddon for humankind.

Xi Jinping is a name that's become familiar to us all,

this son of the Communist Revolution who rules his country by force.

He dreams of reviving China's lost glory

and overcoming a history of humiliation.

The United States has named China its biggest strategic threat

and Australia is caught in the crosshairs.

Tonight, Four Corners asks,

"Who is Xi Jinping?

"What drives him and what does his rise mean for the world?"

Madame Speaker, the President of the People's Republic of China.

(APPLAUSE)

Madame Speaker, Mr President...

..it is a joy to have friends come from afar.

In 2014, Xi Jinping was on a charm offensive.

He was in Canberra for the honour of addressing

the joint houses of the Australian parliament.

(SPEAKS MANDARIN)

TRANSLATION: China has always viewed Australia as an important partner.

During my visit,

the two sides have decided to elevate our bilateral relations

into a comprehensive strategic partnership.

As China grows, so does Australia grow.

And why wouldn't you want to hitch yourself to that wagon?

That, of course, was the time when we...about the time

when we were sealing the Free Trade Agreement as well,

which was of great benefit to us.

And we thought we could have it all.

We could have a bountiful economic relationship

and a steady political relationship.

And, of course, that's not the case,

and it won't be the case for a very long time.

Our politicians were basking in the presence of a dictator

who crushed dissent, jailed opponents,

and lead a nation accused of ethnic cleansing.

But money talks.

We had things to sell, and China is our biggest customer.

Xi Jinping had his own agenda.

(SPEAKS MANDARIN)

TRANSLATION: We Chinese are striving to achieve the Chinese dream,

which is the great renewal of the Chinese nation.

The Chinese dream

is about enhancing the strength and prosperity of the nation

and the wellbeing of the Chinese people.

We were so naive

and, you know, I put my own hand up for that as well.

I was as naive as the next parliamentarian.

(SIGHS) It was wishful thinking.

We wanted China to be a kind of a nation more like us.

And more like us meant democratic.

Xi Jinping was at least mouthing the right words.

TRANSLATION: We have set two goals for China's future development.

The first is to double the 2010 GDP.

The second is to turn China into a modern socialist country

that is prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious

by the middle of the century.

(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)

At a state dinner that night,

Tony Abbott startled China watchers

with a monumental misreading of what Xi really meant by "democratic".

I have never heard a Chinese leader declare

that his country would be fully democratic by 2050.

I have never heard a Chinese leader commit so explicitly

to a rule-based international order

founded on the principle

that we should all treat others as we would be treated ourselves.

(APPLAUSE)

MAN: I was there.

I helped actually write a bit of Tony Abbott's

formal speech response to Xi Jinping.

Tony Abbott got up in particular

at that...at that banquet in the Great Hall

and said he was so delighted

'cause Xi Jinping had said

by 2049 China would become a modern democratic society.

He was so delighted.

Our ambassador to China was absolutely mortified by it.

Ganbei.

CLIVE HAMILTON: It's easy now for us to laugh at Tony Abbott

when he referred to Xi Jinping as a proto-democrat,

but Tony Abbott was by no means alone when he made that statement.

There are many statements

that political leaders have made about China,

the Chinese Communist Party, and Xi Jinping

that now look ridiculous.

The world has changed

and it's only fools and apologists

who continue to defend Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.

(APPLAUSE)

WOMAN: The darker aspects have always been there.

Ever since the establishment of People's Republic of China,

China was never democratic,

so with the elevation of Xi Jinping, that hasn't changed.

(CHEERING)

Xi and his wife travelled to Tasmania

where they were met like royalty.

Ni hao.

Hello! Ni hao!

WOMAN: We knew that if we could get

the President of China to visit Tasmania,

it would put Tasmania onto the map within China,

that the Chinese people watch every step of their leader

and they follow what he says to do.

Oh, xie xie ni! Xie xie.

You speak Chinese very good. Thank you.

Yes, they have a different value system to us,

but part of what life is,

is trying to get to know other people and what makes them tick,

and how we can work together to make the world a better place.

And one way you make the world a better place is through trade.

With Tony Abbott in tow,

Xi met politicians and business leaders.

It was all about what Xi could do for the Apple Isle.

MAN: ..increase in trade and investment opportunities

between China and Tasmania, in particular.

Over the next five years,

Tasmania's business with China would boom,

topping $1 billion a year.

CLIVE HAMILTON: Tasmania's really a remarkable case study

and I've spent quite a bit of time down there

and working with people who are very concerned about it.

In Tasmania, there's been a downside

that certainly many Tasmanians have become alarmed about.

For example, the huge amount of investment funds

flowing in from China to buy up prime agricultural land,

horticulture, dairy operations.

And people are starting to think, "Well, is it really in our interest

"to have our best primary resources owned by Chinese companies?"

It was all smiles as Xi Jinping left Australia.

Our leaders were happy with the Free Trade Agreement

and the Chinese President had his eyes on the long game -

extending China's influence and building its power.

RICHARD McGREGOR: I think China has been on a sort of

mostly a single track,

but, you know, it takes opportunities where it can.

With Australia, I think Australia is important as a US ally,

it's important as a US intelligence partner,

it's important as a big diplomatic player

in the Asia-Pacific or the Indo-Pacific, if you like.

And in that respect, it was worth putting time into Australia,

perhaps to neutralise it as a US ally in the region.

I mean, that's the long game in that respect.

It's about China being the most dominant country in the region.

Xi Jinping was born into a country of war and revolution

on June 15, 1953.

His father was a Communist Party hero -

a right-hand man of Mao Zedong.

Xi is Party royalty -

what is in China called a 'princeling',

but as he prefers, 'a man of the people'.

When he was a boy, his country was starving.

The great famine that began in the late 1950s

is estimated to have killed more than 30 million people.

By his teens,

China was in the grip of the Cultural Revolution.

As Mao set loose his Red Guards to drive out his enemies,

Xi's father was purged,

something Xi would not forget.

MAN: He's the person for the Cultural Revolution in 1966

when it started in China.

And so basically, he was on his own.

I think his father was put under house arrest a few years before

and so he was really kind of left as, almost like a political orphan.

And I think that generation, you know, for the next few years,

it really made them very tough, in a way,

very resilient and self, you know, kind of self-supporting.

16-year-old Xi Jinping

was one of a generation of urban Chinese youth

Mao banished to live among the rural poor.

Xi was sent to Shanxi Province in north-west China.

RICHARD McGREGOR: When he initially went out into the countryside,

he was scared, frightened.

To use the Western vernacular, freaked out by what was happening.

In other words, his political family was under threat

and, in fact, were being marginalised.

So it both hardened him,

it also gave him a real sense of the ups and downs of power.

And I think that's one reason why he's so ruthless himself.

He lived in a dusty village not far from the city of Yan'an,

where decades earlier

Mao Zedong led his supporters on the fabled Long March

during the civil war against the American-backed Nationalists.

These were formative years for Xi,

in the heartland of the communist revolution.

He could have rejected the Party, but in fact, he embraced it even more.

I think it is...would be very difficult

for anyone at the time to reject the Party.

And I can see why,

for someone who has suffered under the Cultural Revolution,

they might actually want to embrace the Party even more.

Really?

That even though he and his family suffered,

he would want to embrace the Party even more?

Yes, it is...a quite common experience amongst people in China

that you want your suffering to mean something.

This is where Xi Jinping built his myth,

sleeping in a cave carved from the hillside

and working alongside peasant farmers,

a story he's promoted time and again.

GEREMIE BARME: So he was actually re-educated just as Mao wanted.

Just as Mao wanted.

He wanted to re-educate China's young people in the 1960s.

Most people think the Cultural Revolution

was merely a power struggle and a purge.

Yes, it was. But it was also more.

It was about Mao trying to train up a generation of younger people

who would, in the end, be Party ideologues and supporters

who would help maintain the ethos of Party control and the revolution

far beyond his day.

Like Mao, Xi saw China's peasant farmers as his pathway to power.

He calls himself a "son of yellow earth".

This yellow earth mythology fed into the party's belief

that our true origins are in the countryside,

with eternal China's past.

MAN: Xi Jinping, I think, always sort of talks as though

he's really connected to

the kind of people who live in the rural areas,

and they're not forgotten.

He's a populist in that sense.

He's really trying to show that he is, you know, kind of the...

Like a kind of an earthly emperor.

Mao died in 1976,

ending the Cultural Revolution.

Xi's father was rehabilitated

and helped his ambitious son with party connections.

Marriage to a famous singer

who performed with the People's Liberation Army

boosted his popularity.

Xi worked his way through the ranks,

becoming governor of Fujian province.

He was seen by party power brokers as a safe option...

..loyal to the party, uncontroversial,

straight-faced and stoic.

In 2008, he was made Vice President.

RICHARD McGREGOR: Xi was the heir apparent.

And, by the way, he was the first Chinese leader since 1979, 1980

who had not been chosen by Deng Xiaoping,

so it was quite a big deal.

Xi Jinping was elected President in 2012,

forming the next great link in the chain after Chairman Mao

and the man who kickstarted China's economic revolution, Deng Xiaoping.

There's a saying in China that Mao made the country one,

Deng made the country rich,

Xi is making the country strong.

This is the third revolution, as it were.

Certainly, I think he would be attracted to that view himself,

because it gives him great agency.

It makes him a figure of history, of historical change,

an agent of history.

And I think, certainly, he sees himself like that.

(APPLAUSE)

Xi Jinping revealed his vision for China -

what he called the China Dream.

What Mao started he would finish, the final stage of the revolution,

to return China to the apex of global power.

(APPLAUSE)

On the national level,

China Dream means the revitalisation of China.

After all, China was humiliated for more than 100 years,

ever since the first Opium War,

and China need to rise up, and this a continuous process.

China by today is already the second largest economy in the world

and in less than 10 years' time,

China will be the largest economy in the world,

and China needs to project its own image onto the world

as a force for peace and stability and economic development.

When we first heard China Dream,

a lot of us thought it was going to be a lot like the American dream,

which is basically a very individualist vision

of having a lot of material prosperity,

a lot of freedom to do what you want,

and living as a citizen in a powerful state,

but one that doesn't intrude too much.

So that was the American dream.

And the China dream, I think people initially thought

that that was being offered.

But it's become very clear that what Xi means by a China dream

is really a state,

a Chinese state dream.

It's not an individual dream. It's not a dream for citizens.

It's a vision of a state, a Chinese state,

that's very strong that's internationally respected,

that can throw its weight around internationally if it needs to

and that is in no way inferior to anybody else.

As President, Xi Jinping moved quickly

to consolidate his hold on the party and the country.

RICHARD McGREGOR: The moment he came into power,

it was pedal to the metal, if you like.

He accelerated on all fronts to eliminate dissent,

to eliminate rivals, to eliminate corruption.

Now, his family had been involved in lots of deals as well.

That's been well documented.

There was nothing that made Chinese people more angry

than seeing officials around them,

be it in a township, city, province, wherever,

high on the hog, getting rich,

and frankly, getting rich in very nefarious ways,

you know, stealing farmers' land, getting cuts on deals,

promoting their relatives, etc, etc.

China was very corrupt.

It probably still is, not like it was.

And so, Xi Jinping used the anti-corruption campaign

both as a populist measure and to purge his rivals.

Xi widened the net,

locking up dissidents - lawyers, writers and artists.

YUN JIANG: I remember back

when Xi Jinping was first elevated as a leader.

There was actually quite a lot of expectation placed on Xi Jinping.

We are seeing a turning more towards authoritarianism

under Xi Jinping.

He has centralised the power around him

and also we're also seeing that

there's increased concerns about human rights in China as well,

in Hong Kong with regards to

pro-democracy activists and legislators,

and in Xinjiang with regards to

what the Chinese Government has been doing to Uyghurs

and other ethnic minority groups.

CLIVE HAMILTON: What we didn't see,

except for a very small handful of close observers,

is that Xi Jinping wasn't the great liberator.

He wasn't going to be the man who would continue

the liberalising trend.

In fact, he was exactly the opposite.

He was a return, in a very decisive way,

to the oppressive Leninist party control freakery

that we had so feared.

And it's only now as some

of the more insightful and longstanding China analysts

have started to expose what Xi Jinping was saying

way back at the end of 2012 and in 2013.

They were starting to say, "Oh. We were just so wrong about this man."

Xi Jinping has relentlessly crafted his own cult of personality.

Chinese audiences are fed a constant diet of propaganda on state-run media

about Xi and his China Dream.

VOICEOVER: Through his firm resolve, charisma and intelligence

he's brought the world closer to China.

Worldwide there's now a better understanding of China

as a major country.

This new historical course charted by President Xi Jinping

is the fundamental direction of Chinese diplomacy in the new era.

The cult of Xi is everywhere in the media.

There's Xi, the beaming father of the nation...

..and Xi, the man of the common people.

With long memories of the brutal Mao years,

some in the party have grown nervous.

RICHARD McGREGOR: One of the things

that the party elders have admonished him for

at different times

is the personality cult,

because for them, it's too much like Mao.

It's too much like a single capricious ruler who is everywhere.

But Xi seems to think it works,

and this is another reason, I think, why he sort of values Mao,

because whether you think he got things done well or badly,

the only way to get things done is to be a dictator in China.

(RHYTHMIC CLAPPING)

In 2018, Xi made a dramatic power grab

that shocked China and the world -

he would now effectively be President for life.

YUN JIANG: I think at that time, it was quite a surprise to many people,

because the presidential term limit was set precisely

because Mao Zedong's rule,

that those mistakes will not happen again.

But then it was removed,

seemingly paving way for one person

to have a lot of power around himself,

which means that potentially that could create

a problem for the Chinese Communist Party.

So that is a problem the Chinese Communist Party

obviously recognised itself before...

..but now it has been completely removed.

And it is, I think, quite shocking to a lot of people,

even inside China as well.

VICTOR GAO: President Xi Jinping is now the paramount leader of China,

is the president of the People's Republic of China,

is the general secretary of the Communist Party of China,

and he's the chairman of the central military commission.

So he is vested with the most important powers for China

as a government leader, military leader, and party leader.

He declared himself chairman for life,

I call him chairman of everything,

chairman of everywhere, chairman of everyone.

The President for life enshrined his name and doctrine

in the constitution.

(APPLAUSE)

Xi Jinping Thought became the guidebook

to propel the country into its new era.

(FANFARE PLAYS)

I think Xi Jinping Thought says that the party rules all,

and that China is on a path to inevitable greatness

and that everybody better get used to that.

Universities run compulsory courses in Xi Jinping Thought.

Saturation media coverage even includes a TV show

where contestants are quizzed

on their knowledge of Xi's life and thought.

(MAN SPEAKS MANDARIN)

How far is Xi Jinping prepared to go?

He's now president for life.

What will he do to achieve what he wants for his country?

Well, the mission is to create a powerful, strong China.

So, 2021 is the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party.

So, we'll see a bit more of this vision.

The problem for Xi Jinping is that, domestically, nationalism works.

You know, his nationalistic message of a strong, powerful China

is something that I think almost all Chinese sign up to.

But externally it doesn't look good.

I mean, this is something that scares people.

They look at this and think,

"Wow, what is this bellicose- sounding nationalistic country

"that's so big and so unknown?"

So, this is going to be a big, big challenge

that's going to need pretty good diplomacy.

(GENTLE FLUTE MELODY)

At home, Xi knows that poverty eradication

among China's 1.4 billion-strong population

is critical to keeping the party in power.

That's the deal -

that the Chinese people will sacrifice freedom for wealth.

So far it has worked.

The reality is that Xi Jinping and his colleagues

believe themselves as the agents of history

and the history that is about making China one of the great powers

that is also a prosperous stable society

that will contribute to humanity as a whole,

and if in that process,

a few individuals must be crushed or silenced,

a few dissidents must be thrown into jail,

a few national minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang

and their religious, aberrant religious beliefs

must be corralled, contained and reformed,

well, that's simply the price

that the great collective of the Chinese people,

which I, Xi Jinping, and my colleagues represent,

that's just the price they all have to pay.

And it's for their good,

because, after all, I am a patriarchal leader

and I know what's best for all of you.

The creation myth of Xi Jinping

draws tourists from across the country

who travel to the village where he spent seven long years in exile.

Everything here is a shrine to Xi and all he represents.

Posters of Mao Zedong hang in the cave where Xi slept.

Marxist texts and books which influenced him are on display.

Party publications documenting his rise through the provinces

are for sale.

Locals sing his praises.

The nearby city of Yan'an, critical to the Xi myth,

is a must-see for revolutionary tourists.

Guesthouse manager Li Ming

makes his living from party mythology,

dressing up in the uniform worn by Mao's troops.

I think the Communist Party of China,

with almost 100 million members,

are fully behind him

and the Chinese nation of 1.4 billion Chinese people

are also rallying behind President Xi Jinping

in domestic, economic development,

as well as on the international stage.

Victor Gao is a party insider

who has been as close as possible to power.

As official translator, he was trusted by the man

who ignited China's economic revolution, Deng Xiaoping.

He now works for a pro-government think tank.

I would say by my personal calculation,

no-one in the world today,

anywhere in any other country,

is more powerful than President Xi Jinping,

in terms of the country he is leading,

in terms of the level of responsibilities he's exercising,

in terms of his level of responsibility

for the job he's doing,

taking care of the welfare and the wellbeing of the Chinese nation,

but also contributing to peace and development.

And also fighting against all kinds of false accusations

and distortions, mostly created by Washington

in terms of the rise of China.

(ROUSING MUSIC PLAYS)

VOICEOVER: Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism

with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,

the PLA has thoroughly implemented

Xi Jinping Thought on strengthening the military.

(BAND PLAYS)

Xi Jinping is building a military as powerful as his economic might.

Officially he spends around $250 billion a year on defence.

Others estimate the real figure may be double that.

(SPEAKS CHINESE LANGUAGE)

(TROOPS CHANT)

Images of his battle-ready troops

are pumped out for international and domestic consumption.

(ALL CHANT)

LUCY HORNBY: Certainly, in China the sense of nationalism

has channelled the sense of resentment

and this sense of past humiliation

which funnels a sort of aggressive nationalism.

China is a meteoric rising power,

and the US is a colossal ruling power

and when a rising power

is displacing or threatening to displace a ruling power

from its position at the top of every pecking order,

basically, things get worse, and then they get worse.

To the US, Xi Jinping's China is its biggest strategic threat.

As long as China continues achieving

or trying to achieve the China dream

that Xi Jinping has laid out quite vividly,

and as long as the US,

attempts to maintain the position it's enjoyed for an American century

as the leading power in the world,

and as the architect of a very successful international order,

there's going to be a... a grand contest,

and it will discombobulate everything,

from American politics, as we've seen here,

to international relations.

As an American ally,

Australia is caught between its economic interests and its security.

VICTOR GAO: As far as China's concerned,

Australia has been even more agitated than Washington

in many situations.

And from the Chinese perspective,

what the Australian government has been doing

over the past several years

has been very much demonstrating hostility against China

as a country, against the Chinese people,

and against the Chinese political system.

Xi Jinping has made it clear -

on his watch, Australia needs to mind its step.

In less than 10 years' time,

China will be larger than the United States as an economy,

and by the middle of the century,

the size of the Chinese economy's expected to be double

the size of the United States.

That gives more opportunity for countries like Australia

to engage with China on a peaceful basis,

and to do more business with China.

Rather than, for example, blindly,

without exercising your own judgement, and your own brain,

for example, to refuse to see the mega trend coming,

and refuse to embrace the rise of China as an opportunity,

but really doing the suicidal thing to cut off yourself from China,

from the Chinese nation, and from the Chinese market.

Xi has drawn battle lines across the region.

Chinese and Indian troops clashed on their border last year,

with casualties on both sides.

For Xi Jinping, it was a propaganda coup.

Then there is the South China Sea,

where the US and China stare each other down.

Xi Jinping has ignored international court rulings

and built military installations on disputed islands.

1,2, 3 ,6 ,7, 8, 9.

Nine vehicles.

RICHARD McGREGOR: China in the Indo-Pacific is a reality.

For the US being here, it's a choice.

China knows that, and over time,

I think China wants to make the price the US pays for that,

to go up.

In many respects,

I think China is the much more predictable player here.

China wants to dominate the region.

China wants to be the most powerful country in the region.

China wants its military to be the sort of biggest in the region

and the like.

That's just obvious.

Any country would want to do that of China's size,

be it a communist party or a democracy.

(SHOUTING, GUNFIRE)

In Hong Kong, Xi has shown the world how ruthless he can be.

(SHOUTING, GUNFIRE)

He has crushed protest and introduced new laws

putting a stranglehold on the former British territory.

(GUNFIRE)

Hong Kong stands as a warning to Taiwan.

Absolutely central to Chinese modernisation,

Xi Jinping's program

is restoring China's territorial integrity.

This is a big deal.

That means Taiwan comes back and if you think about it,

regaining control of Taiwan, a self-governing island

of about 25 million people, a very modern society,

most importantly, democratic,

which does not think of itself

as part of the People's Republic of China,

which has run itself for, you know, 70, 80 years,

which has had an independent streak since the 19th century -

China says, "We're going to control that."

And I think Xi wants to do it on his watch.

And Xi declares he will regain Taiwan, even if it means war.

China has ramped up threatening military exercises near Taiwan.

If Xi attacks Taiwan,

he could trigger a war with the United States,

potentially dragging in Australia.

GRAHAM ALLISON: I think if there were a war, it would be insane.

I think you couldn't be confident that if a war developed over Taiwan,

and even if it began as a small war,

that it could expand into a larger war

and that once you get up the escalation ladder

in a larger war,

that even nuclear weapons might become part of the conflict.

VICTOR GAO: If any armed conflict breaks out

between China and the United States,

it will be a catastrophe for mankind.

It may become Armageddon for humankind.

For Western democracies, the battle lines are already drawn.

Can we live in a world where the dominant economic power

and all of the other power that comes with that

is one that fundamentally rejects the values of our society?

Well, we can live in that world,

but it's going to be a much less comfortable world,

and it's going to be one in which we'll have terms dictated to us

more than we have them dictated to us now.

Now, that doesn't mean China gets its way,

but it means that China is much more difficult to deal with

and might get its way on a lot of things.

So, yeah. Life's going to get harder for us.

LUCY HORNBY: If all you're doing is sitting around and feeling upset

or fearful or angry that China is bigger and more powerful

then you've put us on a very dangerous spiral, I feel.

That's something that worries me, not only as an observer,

but also as a citizen of the United States

and also a person,

you know, who doesn't want the world to go to hell.

Everything in Xi Jinping's life has led him to this point.

He rules his country like an emperor.

His China Dream is within reach.

And he's warning the West if they try to stop him, they'll pay.

CLIVE HAMILTON: Some days I think the battle is over

and China's influence is now so great,

and Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party are so determined

to become the dominant hegemon in the world

that there's nothing we can do.

But really, we can't give up like that.

I mean, when you think what's at stake,

when you think of the freedoms

that we on a daily basis take for granted and enjoy.

KERRY BROWN: Now we're dealing with

this radically different view of the world,

which is not a modern one,

I mean it's not like China is a power that sprung from nowhere.

It's got historic roots going back many, many centuries,

this is not something that can be just shifted.

This history we are moving into,

this world we are moving into, there is no roadmap.

There is no easy roadmap.

Captions by Red Bee Media

Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation