Editorial: Obama - Xi Jinping Has Consolidated Power Quickly and Comprehensively

Chinese President Xi Jinping (File Photo)

By Ankit Panda

Xi Jinping’s leadership style concerns the U.S. president.

In an unusually candid set of remarks delivered on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama expressed concern that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s fast and comprehensive consolidation of power could lead to human rights violations and increased nationalism in China. Speaking to a roundtable of top U.S. chief executives and business leaders in Washington D.C., Obama said that Xi has “has consolidated power faster and more comprehensively than probably anybody since Deng Xiaoping.” While it has become almost cliche at this point to compare Xi’s consolidation of power to that of Deng Xiaoping, Obama had refrained from making the comparison before. Obama added that “everybody’s been impressed by [Xi's] … clout inside of China after only a year and a half or two years.” 

Read the full story at The Diplomat