Xi Jinping's One Vulnerability - Steve Tsang

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Steve Tsang is a political scientist, Director of the SOAS China Institute and the author of 'Xi Jingping's Political Thought'. On Tuesday 27th January, We sat down with Steve as Keir Starmer landed in Beijing for the first visit of a British Prime Minister in China since 2018.

With the Davos consensus of globalisation and free seamless trade becoming a relic of modern history, how should Britain hedge its strategic bets in a bipolar world of Chinese and American competition? Does a third way even exist between these two undeniable superpowers?

In the UK and the West more broadly, we suffer from a paucity of understanding when it comes to the world's second largest economy. China is enormous, deeply complex and hidden behind a veil of propaganda and posturing from the ruling Communist Party.

Over the past decade, China's president Xi Jinping has consolidated absolute power in the executive, undoing many of the consultative reforms under previous regimes. But has this move, while making Xi omnipotent, actually made China vulnerable?

On the day before Starmer set off to Beijing, it was reported that General Zhang Youxia, one of Xi's most loyal acolytes, had been purged. The official story from the CCP was that he had passed on state secrets about China's nuclear deterrent to the United States. What seems more likely is that Zhang had a base of power that would not be tolerated by the supreme leader...

China's irrepressible rise to superpower status has been driven by its ruthless execution of long-term modernising policies. It's not merely a story of manufacturing dominance. Half a billion people have relocated from the countryside to the cities in 25 years. In 2025, they amassed a trade surplus over $1 trillion. And now they lead the world in electrification with giant leaps in solar technology, much to the chagrin of European counterparts who devised the 'Green New Deal'.

Indeed, there is much to admire about China, and with its economic dominance, much to fear. So what lessons should we learn from China's rise and what caveats must we bear in mind, when forging a path forward for Britain as a middle power in a world without rules...

Chapters

00:25 - Intro

01:16 - What Starmer Must Know About China

05:21 - Xi Jinping’s Total Control of China

16:36 - Have We Forgotten The Post-War Lessons?

24:42 - Is Freddie Chinese In The Eyes of Xi Jinping?

32:20 - The Two Tories Accused of Spying for China...

40:26 - What Western Narratives of China Get Wrong

51:05 - Xi's Purges + Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution

1:04:41 - Inequality From China's Economic Supremacy