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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Disasters & Emergencies

Xi Jinping Criticized for Prioritizing Historical Legacy Over Disaster Relief

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Context piece
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping has not personally visited disaster sites, drawing criticism from commentator Ai Disheng.
  • Ai Disheng argues Xi prioritizes his historical legacy and grand national goals over addressing immediate public suffering from disasters like floods and landslides.
  • The article contrasts Xi's approach with previous leaders who visited disaster zones, suggesting Xi views individual lives as secondary to abstract national objectives.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's consistent absence from disaster sites, even amid frequent natural calamities like the recent Guangxi floods that killed 39 and a Gansu landslide claiming 21 lives, has drawn sharp criticism from commentator Ai Disheng. Ai argues that Xi prioritizes his historical standing and grand national ambitions, such as the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," over the immediate well-being of ordinary citizens facing natural disasters.

Xi Jinping cares about grand goals like the 'great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation' and his historical status, disregarding the people's lives when facing natural disasters.

— Ai DishengCommentator Ai Disheng's critique of Xi Jinping's absence from disaster sites.

Ai Disheng contends that Xi views such tragedies as "local problems" or "phase-specific difficulties," subordinate to larger state objectives. This contrasts sharply with the approaches of past leaders like Jiang Zemin, who visited the Yangtze River flood in 1998, and Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, who were present at the Wenchuan earthquake site in 2008. While acknowledging the potential political performativeness of those visits, Ai notes they at least signaled a commitment to standing with the people during crises.

The death toll is often not a statistical figure, but a political figure; disaster information is first and foremost political resources, not public information.

— Ai DishengAi Disheng's analysis of how disaster information is managed and presented in China.

In the Xi era, the commentator observes, such direct engagement has largely vanished. Instead, official reports typically mention Xi issuing "important instructions" or "important directives" from Beijing. Ai suggests this pattern reflects a deeper political value system where abstract national goals and historical legacy take precedence over the concrete lives and suffering of individuals. The frequent use of the term "people" in Xi's rhetoric, Ai argues, refers to an abstract political entity rather than concrete citizens with individual rights and dignity, leading to a situation where individual lives can become secondary to the pursuit of grand national projects.

For such a ruler, the most important issue is not 'how the people are living today,' but 'how history will evaluate me.'

— Ai DishengAi Disheng's characterization of Xi Jinping's political motivations.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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