Chinese President Xi Jinping has been busy touring the country in recent weeks with his message to the people to remain vigilant to the ongoing threat of Covid-19 while encouraging industry and commerce to do all they can to get the nation’s economy back up and running.
While the purpose of the so-called inspection tours might appear self-evident, some observers say that China’s most powerful leader in decades is also using the personal appearances to promote a new narrative and reinforce the policy agenda of the Chinese Communist Party.
Xi’s most recent trip was to Shanxi province on Monday and Tuesday, during which he urged local party officials to stay alert to the risk of a second wave of coronavirus infections, while working hard to achieve their development goals for the year.
He also encouraged them to speed up the diversification of the local economy to reduce dependence on traditional industries like coal and energy.
One of the most pressing targets for Xi is achieving the first of two “centenary goals” – to commemorate the 100th anniversaries of the party’s creation in 2021 and founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 – by becoming a “comprehensive well-off society” by the end of this year.
Xinhua said in a commentary published during Xi’s Shanxi trip that while the task had been made more difficult by the coronavirus outbreak, “not a minute should be wasted”.
Gabriel Wildau, a senior vice-president at advisory firm Teneo Management Consulting, said that shifting the agenda away from virus control to development goals “sends a message that China has conquered the virus and has the confidence to focus on other areas”.
Xi also appeared to be signalling that the “affluent society” target could be redefined using measurements other than just gross domestic product, he said.
“So it’s possible for him to declare that the objective has been achieved by citing progress in areas like environment or technology.”
Xi’s visit to Shanxi was his fourth inspection tour since he travelled to Wuhan – the city at the epicentre of the initial Covid-19 outbreak – in March. He has also visited Zhejiang and Shaanxi provinces in recent weeks, while other party leaders, including Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPC) chairman Wang Yang and disciplinary chief Zhao Leji, have travelled to other parts of the country.
Wildau said that getting access to reliable information was a challenge for China’s top leaders, including Xi, whose advisers “naturally tend to offer him a rosy view of the situation”.
“Xi’s recent visits around the country seem designed to show that he is taking the pulse of different regions and segments of society,” he said.
“In Shanxi, it looked like he was focused on agriculture. He’s methodically going through each segment of the society to show that he’s paying attention.”
The latest visit came less than two weeks before the start of this year’s delayed “two sessions” – the informal name for the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and CPPC.
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said that Xi was using the provincial tours to sell “a new narrative about China in the post-Covid era” ahead of the upcoming meetings.
The central message of the narrative was that while the rest of the world, and particularly democratic Western countries, had struggled to contain Covid-19, “the steadfastness of the central leadership and superiority of the party state” had lifted China out of crisis, he said.
“The serious threat that Xi and other top leaders saw in February has made it even more important for the party to reassert its leadership and credibility,” he said.
Deng Yuwen, a former senior editor of party newspaper Study Times, said that the Covid-19 outbreak had also provided an opportunity for leaders to “test their ability to control society in an emergency situation”.
“Except for the initial panic … there have been no major problems,” he said. “They were able to carry out large-scale mobilisations, quickly refit factories … and the Chinese people were largely cooperative.”
Amid reports of a new cluster of coronavirus infections near its borders with Russia and North Korea, Xi said at a Politburo meeting on Thursday that China would not concede its hard-earned results in controlling the epidemic.
Yuqing Xing, director of Asian economic policy at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, said that if Beijing wanted to restart its economy and deliver on its goals, it would have to tolerate small-scale outbreaks, and allow regional officials some flexibility in implementing control measures.
“Beijing has so far had zero tolerance for outbreaks, and some local officials have been sacked for reporting even one or two infections. Under such conditions, cadres will prioritise their containment efforts rather than allow a freer flow of economic activity,” he said.
“The Chinese leadership will have to adjust to a new balance in the post-Covid era … as the virus will continue to coexist with us for many years.”