Xi Jinping Is Returning to Soviet-Style Leadership

But President Xi Jinping is engaged in a zero-sum game, similar to Soviet leaders. "For long, Xi's zero-sum instincts and his entourage, no different than that of Communist leaders from the Soviet era, were successful in navigating the Western liberal rules-based system of trade and international institutions," he told International Business Times in an email. "Recent events (e.g., the opaqueness regarding the pandemic's origins, the war in Ukraine, and China's non-commitment to greenhouse commitments) and repeated threats to Taiwan appear to have spooked even the most dovish U.S. administration in recent memory." Moreover, Professor Colares thinks Xi Jinping's Soviet-style leadership has not helped China overcome the middle-income trap. In this situation, an emerging market economy slows down, failing to transition to a high-income and become a developed economy.