‘Goal Is Total Dominance:’ Republican Lawmakers React to Xi’s Speech, Taiwan Remarks

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (C) is applauded by senior members of the government and delegates as he walks to the podium to make a speech during the opening ceremony of the 20th National Congress in Beijing, China, on Oct. 16, 2022. Xi is expected to secure a third term in power. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

U.S. lawmakers have levied criticism against China’s communist leader Xi Jinping following a speech on Oct. 16 in which he swore Taiwan would be united with the mainland by any means necessary.

Xi delivered the two-hour speech as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its 20^th Party Congress, which takes place every five years. Xi downplayed the widespread suffering and economic fallout of his so-called zero-COVID policies and vowed to force Taiwan into unification with China.

Many in the West, including top Republican lawmakers, took the speech as an overt signal that Xi was preparing to expand China’s transnational repression schemes.

“The Chinese Communist Party claims it has a ‘right’ to use force against Taiwan,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) in a tweet on Oct. 16.

“Taiwan has no interest in reunification—this is a threat—and it’s why we must never back down to this rogue, authoritarian regime,” she added.

During the weeklong Party conference, Xi is set to receive a precedent-breaking third term in power as CCP general secretary, which will make him second in importance only to dictator Mao Zedong in CCP history.

During his speech, Xi said that Marxist communism was the “fundamental guiding ideology” of China’s political leadership, and swore never to renounce the use of force against Taiwan.

The CCP claims that Taiwan is a part of its territory that must be forced into accepting the Party’s authority. But Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949, boasts a thriving democracy and market economy, and has never been controlled by the CCP.

Xi added that Taiwan, like Hong Kong, ought to be brought under full control of the CCP. In recent years, the CCP has imposed a series of draconian measures directed at Hong Kong that has drastically curtailed freedoms and autonomy in the city. The result have left many likening the once-democratic Hong Kong to just another Chinese city.

Xi Bent on ‘Total Dominance’

Blackburn said that Xi’s open dedication to ending the democratic way of life enjoyed by Taiwan, and his apparent celebration of doing so in Hong Kong, was evidence of an increasingly open authoritarian governing style.

“As made evident by his opening remarks, General Secretary Xi Jinping is gearing up like never before to challenge the United States and our freedom-loving partners around the world,” Blackburn said in an Oct. 17 statement.

“As Xi prepares to be reinstated for a third term, the United States must stand firm against this rogue dictator and bolster our national defense to ensure he does not succeed.”

Blackburn said that Xi’s goal was nothing less than “total dominance” and that the CCP’s escalations against Taiwan presented a direct threat to international stability.

Xi’s commitment to expanding the CCP’s surveillance state and military power was front and center on Sunday, with the leader mentioning “security” nearly 90 times in his speech. A fact not lost on Western officials, who warned that Xi was likely preparing to double down on the regime’s repression of minorities and dissidents.

“Xi Jinping’s tenure as the General Secretary of the CCP has been characterized by totalitarianism, genocide, slowed economic growth, and unprecedented aggression against the United States and its allies,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a statement ahead of the Party Congress.

“[W]e should expect a one man-ruled CCP to be more willing to wage war over Taiwan, more repressive at home and abroad, more dominating of business, and more insistent on overturning the U.S.-led rules-based world order.”

Others said that Xi’s speech was an effort to divert attention away from his leadership’s disastrous effects on the Chinese economy by creating enemies in the West—and use this purported threat to rally support behind him.

“It is obvious that security is Xi’s greatest concern,” Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, told Reuters. “His narrative is [that] China faces many dangers, the country is in a war-like state, figuratively, and he is the savior. With this narrative, he can get people to unite around him.”

“In the past, Chinese leaders based their legitimacy on their ability to provide economic growth. Now, with the economy slowing, Xi tries to shift the basis of legitimacy from economic growth to security, [so] that he can be the one who saves and protects China.”

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) believed that the impulse to play the savior could lead Xi into a direct conflict with the United States, particularly so if Washington did not actively deter the CCP from launching an invasion of Taiwan. To that end, Gallagher called for the United States to forward position U.S. military assets in the Indo-Pacific.

“We desperately need a sense of urgency to put hard power in Xi’s path before it is too late,” Gallagher said in an Oct. 16 statement.

“This starts with providing Taiwan with security assistance and moving them to the front of the FMS [forward military sales] line, maxing out munitions production, and augmenting and dispersing American hard power forward in the region.”