Commentary
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping’s internal civil war against his party rivals in the build-up to the 20th Party Congress—now likely to occur in November 2022—took on a new dimension with the visit to Taipei on Aug. 2–3, 2022, of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
The strong reaction by Xi’s officials to the visit indicated the level of uncertainty that the Xi camp was apparently feeling about the bid by Xi to be reelected for an unprecedented third term as General Secretary of the Party. His bid had, a year earlier, been seen as a certainty by many observers, but domestic chaos, mainly over economic issues—China is in major decline—empowered Xi’s less Maoist opponents within the CCP….