Personality Order and Disorder

Michael Sheridan appeared in Bangkok to promote his book, The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China (2024). I couldn’t get past the opening pages, in which Sheridan proclaims Xi as “the ruler of a modern country but... a man whose mind is very, very old.” It may be fashionable for Western journalists to be pro-democracy and therefore anti-monarchy, but when they conflate China’s “emperor” with a system of “totalitarian control,” unique insights into China probably won’t be forthcoming.

Unsurprisingly, Sheridan’s interview was dull and predictable. He called Russia’s Putin a “gangster” in charge of a “mafia state.” He claimed people are in jail in China for mailing or sending copies of newspaper articles. He praised Xi Jinping’s first wife, Ke Lingling, as “elegant,” a rare compliment perhaps only because of the short marriage. Without irony, and without mentioning the United States, Sheridan indicated Xi is appalled at the depths of corruption in his country, but is using the corruption as justification to target political enemies.

Sheridan’s only interesting statement all night was pseudo-profound: “In China, money is not power—power is power.” In other words, the private sector and its product, money, are less important than political loyalty and political membership. Yet, is this actually true for any Chinese person not interested in politics? Another empty zinger was that “Xi is a risk-taker but not reckless.”

Regarding Taiwan, Sheridan said Xi strongly desires Chinese re-unification but his command to the military to be “in a state of readiness” was not the same as advocating an invasion by force.

Regarding civil unrest in 2019 Hong Kong, Xi apparently wanted to send troops but his advisors appealed for patience. What would we [the West] have done if troops were sent? “Nothing,” said Sheridan, not mentioning that “President Trump [in 2020] announced that the United States would be revoking Hong Kong’s special [administrative] status.” 

During the Q&A session, I asked about impediments to closer Chinese-Russian social and economic ties. Sheridan answered that Russia has taken more land from China than any other colonial power and has no interest in returning any of it. Regarding China’s New Silk Road, Sheridan lamented the West’s failure in promoting its [allegedly] superior model overseas.

My overall takeaway, despite the anti-Chinese rhetoric, was that China is not suffering from a “cult of personality” at the same time the United States seems to be replicating the Soviet Union’s mistakes. Also, regardless of labels given to differing economic models, both East and West are now driven primarily by military leadership and military objectives. Not coincidentally, Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, joined the People’s Liberation Army (aka the Red Army), engaged in combat, and dictated Tibetan policy. Xi Jinping and his eldest son, like all of us, are products of a world soaked in military culture, which disdains nonconformity. If criticism be levied, it ought not target a specific world leader, but diplomats, bankers, lawyers, and judges who’ve made “civilian meritocracy” an oxymoron, thereby opening all doors to jackboots. Our teachers must have known when civilian leadership loses credibility, the holder of the latest version of gun rules. If only they’d taught us better. And so it goes. 

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (February 20, 2025)