Who Will Replace Communist China’s Xi Jinping?

With one-man rule, the replacement for Xi may depend on the state that China is in.

China’s leader Xi Jinping attends a meeting with Tunisian President Kais Saied (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 31, 2024. Tingshu Wang/ AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

Contemplating who would replace Chinese leader Xi Jinping and what would happen after he dies or steps down is speculative, of course, but necessary, given China’s position as one of the dominant countries on Earth. Although China’s rise as an emerging power in recent times is new, the country’s experience dealing with the exit of an all-powerful supreme leader isn’t.

Will History Repeat Itself in China?

That was certainly the case with Chairman Mao Zedong, who ruled the People’s Republic of China with absolute and unrivaled power from 1949 to 1976. His political paranoia and crackpot ideas for industrialization and farming resulted in monstrous events in the country, from mass starvation to collapsing productivity and mass purges. His willingness to starve or kill tens of millions of his countrymen through man-made famines and other horrendous events—even plunging the country into civil war (carefully branded as “The Cultural Revolution”) to hold onto power—provided a stark warning to China that comes with one-man rule.