To rule China, Xi Jinping relies on a shadowy web of committees

DONALD RUMSFELD, a former American defence secretary, once delighted policy wonks everywhere by distinguishing between “known unknowns”—things we know we don’t know—and “unknown unknowns”. China’s political system is a known unknown. We know about the Communist Party and government but not much about how their leaders interact.

China’s system of government also contains something which is closer to an unknown unknown. This is the role of “leading small groups” (lingdao xiaozu): shadowy committees that often eclipse the power of more public political structures. For years, it was not even known how many there were, how often they met, who was in them or what they did. The situation is hardly clearer today. But research conducted by a Chinese scholar and two analysts at a German think-tank called the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) provides fresh insight into the groups and their make-up. It suggests that Xi Jinping, the country’s...Continue reading