# PROFILE: Xi Jinping, Architect of the Multipolar World — How Beijing Seduces in Silence

> In 2026, Beijing has become the world's most visited capital by world leaders. Over a span of six months — January to June — more than a dozen presidents and prime ministers made the trip to the Chinese capital to meet Xi Jinping. The list speaks for itself: Vladimir Putin (Russia), Keir Starmer (United Kingdom), Donald Trump (United States), Mark Carney (Canada), Lee Jae-myung

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Profile
- Published: 2026-06-27
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/portrait-xi-jinping-l-architecte-du-monde-multipolaire-comment-pekin-seduit-en-s

## Introduction: The Court of Beijing, 2026 Edition

### A dozen leaders in six months

In **2026**, **Beijing** has become the world's most visited capital by world leaders. Over a span of six months — January to June — more than a dozen presidents and prime ministers made the trip to the Chinese capital to meet **Xi Jinping**. The list speaks for itself: **Vladimir Putin** (Russia), **Keir Starmer** (United Kingdom), **Donald Trump** (United States), **Mark Carney** (Canada), **Lee Jae-myung** (South Korea), **Yamandu Orsi** (Uruguay), and in late June, new Bangladeshi Prime Minister **Tarique Rahman**. A list that says something about the state of the world.

This procession of leaders to **Beijing** is not explained by a sudden admiration for the Chinese model. It reflects something more pragmatic and more troubling: in a world made unpredictable by **Trump's America**, by the war in **Ukraine**, and by global trade shocks, nations of every political stripe are seeking to stabilize their relations with the world's second-largest economy. And **Xi Jinping** is exploiting this necessity with a skill that deserves to be scrutinized — not admired, but scrutinized.

### Xi Jinping: the man behind the strategy

**Xi Jinping**, born in **1953**, grew up in the upheaval of the **Cultural Revolution**, survived a difficult adolescence as the child of a purged official sent to work in the countryside, and built his political career in the provinces before reaching the apex of the **Chinese Communist Party** in **2012**. That journey forged a man whom his collaborators describe as disciplined, strategic, and convinced that **China** is destined to reclaim its place as the world's central power — a "national renaissance" he calls the **"Chinese Dream."**

Understanding **Xi Jinping** means understanding that he does not improvise. Every visit he receives, every agreement he signs, every diplomatic initiative he launches fits into a long-term strategy. The **charm offensive** he practices in **2026** toward "middle powers" is not opportunistic improvisation — it is the execution of a doctrine formalized over years, whose contours have become more visible with the rise of American unpredictability under **Trump**.

*I will be transparent from the outset: I am not an admirer of Xi Jinping or of the regime he leads. Beijing's authoritarianism, the repression in Xinjiang, the crackdown on Hong Kong, the threats against Taiwan — these are realities that any honest analysis must name. But understanding them does not imply approving of them. And understanding them is indispensable for responding effectively.*

## The Doctrine of the Multipolar World: Origins and Evolution

### From theoretical discourse to diplomatic practice

The idea of a **multipolar world** — in which global power is distributed among several poles rather than concentrated in a single American hegemony — is not an invention of **Xi Jinping**. It has roots in Chinese foreign policy from the **1980s and 1990s**, and in the Russian-American rivalry of the post-Cold War era. What distinguishes **Xi**'s version is its systematization into official doctrine, its translation into concrete initiatives, and its articulation with the frustrations of many nations toward the international liberal order.

The **47-page joint declaration** signed by **Xi Jinping** and **Vladimir Putin** at the **May 2026** summit in **Beijing** is the most formalized expression of this doctrine. Both leaders affirmed their shared commitment to "establishing a multipolar world" and "international relations of a new type." The phrase "unilateral and hegemonic counter-currents that are raging" — in **Xi**'s speech at the summit — leaves no doubt about the identity of the targeted hegemony.

### Xi's Global Governance Initiative

In **September 2025**, **Xi Jinping** formally launched his **Global Governance Initiative**, built around five pillars: commitment to sovereignty and the equality of states, primacy of international law, multilateral approaches, centrality of the human person, and results-oriented governance. These five pillars may seem innocuous — who could be against sovereignty or international law? But in the context of Chinese foreign policy, they function as a systemic critique of the Western liberal order, which sometimes subordinates sovereignty to human rights and multilateral approaches to Western-led coalitions.

This initiative was presented at the **St. Petersburg International Economic Forum** in **June 2026** by a Chinese representative, underscoring the Sino-Russian strategic partnership in reshaping international institutions. This is not rhetoric — it is a coherent strategy to build an alternative legitimacy to the one the **West** still dominates in institutions such as the **IMF**, the **World Bank**, and the **UN**.

*The "multipolar world" according to Beijing is not the plural, democratic world some might imagine. It is a world where autocratic powers can exercise their power without being constrained by human rights norms or democratic transparency. It is freedom for authoritarian regimes, not for peoples. These speeches must be read through that lens.*

## The Strategy of Seducing "Middle Powers"

### Who these middle powers are and why they matter

The **"middle powers"** that **Xi Jinping** targets with his charm offensive form a heterogeneous group. They include countries like **Canada**, **Australia**, **South Korea**, **Brazil**, **South Africa**, **Indonesia**, and **Turkey** — mid-sized economies that have deep commercial ties with **China** while being allies or close partners of the **United States**. These countries are the key to the global geopolitical recomposition.

If **China** manages to shift these middle powers away from their pro-Western anchor — even partially, even temporarily — it transforms the balance of power in international institutions, economic forums, and geopolitical alignments. The votes of these countries at the **UN General Assembly** can make the difference between **Russia**'s isolation over **Ukraine** and a gradual normalization of its position. The technological choices of these countries can make the difference between a free internet and a splinternet.

### The strategy in action: concrete offers, not rhetoric

What distinguishes **Xi Jinping**'s charm offensive from rhetorical diplomacy is its systematic translation into concrete offers. **Canada** receives investments in its critical industries. **South Korea** gains supply guarantees for critical materials. **Bangladesh** benefits from concessional loans for its infrastructure. **Uruguay** signs **12 cooperation agreements** across areas as varied as science, the environment, and agricultural exports. Every visit concludes with a list of signed agreements, funded projects, and granted access.

Canadian **Prime Minister Mark Carney** described his visit to **Beijing** as an opportunity for medium-sized nations to "forge autonomous links with Beijing in a context of unpredictable United States." That formulation is remarkable: a head of government of a **NATO** member country, the United States' closest partner, explicitly describes his visit to **China** as a means of reducing his dependence on Washington. It is a sign that **Xi**'s diplomacy is working.

*I understand the pragmatism of Canada, South Korea, or Bangladesh in facing a Trumpist America whose decisions are unpredictable and whose tariff threats are omnipresent. But orienting toward Beijing as an alternative is not without its own risks. China is not a partner without conditions — it simply demands its conditions differently, less visibly and more slowly.*

## The Profile of Xi: The Man and the System

### Power without precedent in modern Chinese history

**Xi Jinping** has consolidated personal power without precedent in the history of the **People's Republic of China** since **Mao Zedong**. The removal of the two-term presidential limit, the concentration of key decisions in the hands of a tight inner circle, and the enshrinement of his "thought" as the **Party**'s official doctrine embedded in the Constitution: all are signs of a personalization of power that is both a strength and a vulnerability.

It is a strength because it enables strategic coherence and speed of decision that democratic systems struggle to match. It is a vulnerability because it concentrates the risks of error in a single person and makes course correction more difficult. The history of autocratic regimes shows that the successes of this logic are real in the short term and fragile in the long term — but **Xi** thinks in decades, not quarters.

### Xi Jinping as seen from the inside: what his interlocutors observe

Leaders who have met **Xi Jinping** — both allies and adversaries — generally describe a deeply prepared man who masters briefings in their details, who listens more than he speaks in the opening phases of conversations, and who knows exactly what he wants before entering the room. His negotiating style is described as patient, precise, and grounded in a long-term vision that can seem disconnected from immediate urgencies to interlocutors accustomed to short political cycles.

This meticulous preparation shows in how visits to **Beijing** are orchestrated. Every protocol detail is calculated to project Chinese power and confidence. The choice of meeting venues — the **Great Hall of the People**, but also historically charged symbolic sites such as the **Temple of Heaven** for top-tier presidential visits — is part of a staging of Chinese civilization of which **Xi** positions himself as heir and continuator.

*I think about the difference between the power Xi Jinping exercises and the democratic legitimacy he does not possess. His capacity to make rapid and coherent decisions is real. But it is not grounded in a renewable popular mandate, a free press that can criticize him, or an opposition that can replace him. That is a fundamental difference — not a rhetorical one.*

## The Xi-Putin Relationship: Circumstantial Alliance or Durable Partnership?

### 47 pages for a new world

The **May 2026** summit between **Xi Jinping** and **Vladimir Putin** in **Beijing** produced a **47-page joint declaration** on "establishing a multipolar world and international relations of a new type." This declaration is the culmination of a relationship built over several years, which has intensified since **Russia**'s large-scale invasion of **Ukraine** in **February 2022**.

Both leaders signed **20 additional agreements** at that meeting, covering trade, energy, science, education, sports, and media. They declared that the Russo-Chinese partnership had reached "a truly unprecedented level." The **Power of Siberia 2** pipeline — a gas pipeline project connecting **Siberia** to **China** through **Mongolia** — still had no definitive timeline despite the announcements, but its advancement was declared a priority.

### What this relationship is and is not

Analyzing the **Xi-Putin** relationship requires nuance and precision. It is not a formal military alliance — there is no Article 5 equivalent between the two countries, no commitment to defend each other. It is a strategic partnership relationship founded on a shared interest: maintaining a space of autonomy from the international order dominated by the **West**. **Beijing** needs **Moscow** to counterbalance American pressure. **Moscow** needs **Beijing** to survive economically under Western sanctions.

But this relationship also has its tensions. **China** does not want **Russia** to drag it into a direct conflict with the **West**. It has not supplied lethal weapons to **Russia** — a deliberate choice that allows it to maintain its commercial ties with **Europe**. It has facilitated **Russia**'s access to Asian markets and certain dual-use technologies, but has refused to extend its assistance beyond what would risk triggering secondary Western sanctions against Chinese companies.

*The Xi-Putin alliance is real and dangerous — but not for the reasons sometimes assumed. It is not that the two regimes share a common ideology (they do not, really). It is that they share a common interest in weakening the liberal international order. And that shared interest is sufficient to maintain a strategic coordination that complicates life for the West.*

## Xi's Africa Policy: Building a Global Base

### Zero tariffs for 53 nations: a gift that doesn't say its name

**Xi Jinping**'s announcement in **February 2026** of a zero-tariff policy for imports from **53 African nations** — effective from **May 1, 2026** — is the perfect example of Chinese charm diplomacy in its most accomplished form. On paper, it is a generous gesture, without precedent in the history of economic relations with **Africa**. **China** foregoes approximately **$1.4 billion** in annual customs revenue. Countries like **Kenya**, **Egypt**, **Nigeria**, and **South Africa** — which had paid customs duties of up to **25%** on processed goods — suddenly find their exports to **China** facilitated.

But beneath the generous gesture lies a clear strategic logic. **China** is thereby building a network of economic dependencies and diplomatic credit with **53** of **54** African nations — the sole exception being **Eswatini**, which recognizes **Taiwan**. These nations, many of which sit in international institutions — the **UN**, the **WTO**, the **IMF** — are valuable votes in the forums where the international order is decided. The zero-tariff policy is, on this reading, an investment in an international support base that will pay diplomatic dividends over the next decade.

### Africa's diplomatic debt: a well-oiled mechanism

The zero-tariff policy fits within a broader context of Chinese economic presence in **Africa**. Loans from the **China Development Bank** and the Chinese **Exim Bank** have funded infrastructure in dozens of African countries — roads, ports, railways, power plants. These loans have provided real infrastructure, but also created **diplomatic debts**: countries indebted to **Beijing** that find it difficult to vote against its interests in international forums.

This mechanism — often described as "debt diplomacy" — is real, though its exact contours are more nuanced than some catastrophist analyses suggest. Not all African countries indebted to **China** automatically vote with **Beijing**. But **China**'s massive economic presence in **Africa** creates a context in which African governments regard Chinese positions with particular consideration — a diplomatic advantage that the **West**, with its governance conditions and discourses on democracy, struggles to match.

*I can see the real benefits of Chinese investment in Africa — the infrastructure is real, the jobs created exist, and the economic growth enabled is documented. And I can see the costs — the debts, the dependencies, the subtle diplomatic pressures. Analytical honesty requires acknowledging both dimensions rather than choosing between Beijing's propaganda and Washington's panic.*

## Competition With the West: Rhetoric Against Facts

### Xi versus Trump: two world visions that met

The **Trump-Xi** summit of **May 2026** in **Beijing** was one of the most important diplomatic events of the year — and also one of the most opaque. The two leaders met for more than **two hours** in a private session, in addition to informal engagements at carefully chosen historical sites. The public results were thin: an announcement of "fantastic trade deals" without verifiable details, a declaration of common understanding on **Iran**, and a notable absence of concrete concessions on structural questions.

The contrast between the staging — **Trump** and **Xi** flanked by an American CEO delegation including **Jensen Huang of Nvidia**, **Tim Cook of Apple**, and **Elon Musk of Tesla** — and the concrete substance is telling. **Beijing** carefully orchestrated the summit to project an image of parity between the two great powers, in a dialogue of equals. For **Xi**, the summit's success was not in the agreements concluded — it was in the legitimacy it conferred on **China** as an indispensable interlocutor for the sole global superpower.

### What the West still doesn't understand about Xi

Part of the **West** continues to analyze **Xi Jinping** through the lens of economic convergence — the idea that **China**'s enrichment and integration into the global economy would gradually lead it to adopt more liberal norms. That theory has been disproved by the facts. **Xi Jinping** has increased the **Party**'s control over the economy, tightened its grip on civil society, and explicitly rejected the Western liberal model.

Another common misunderstanding is projecting onto **Xi** a logic of short-term economic maximization. **Xi** thinks in terms of **centuries** — or at least decades. The **"national renaissance"** he promises **China** is a civilizational project, not an economic one. This means he will accept significant economic costs for long-term strategic gains — a logic that analysts trained in neoclassical economic thinking find difficult to integrate.

*The greatest strategic mistake the West could make with Xi Jinping would be to treat him as an interlocutor whose "economic incentives can be managed." Xi is not playing by those rules. He is playing a long game, with clearly defined objectives, and he has no intention of changing those objectives in exchange for temporary trade concessions.*

## Taiwan: The Red Line of the Xi Era

### The objective that structures everything

Any serious analysis of **Xi Jinping** must confront the Taiwan question. The reunification of **Taiwan** with the **People's Republic of China** is not one option among others in Chinese foreign policy — it is an **existential red line**. **Xi** has declared on multiple occasions that this reunification is inevitable and will happen within the current generation. He has refused to exclude the use of force. The increase in Chinese military exercises around **Taiwan**, incursions by the navy and air force into the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone, and the logistical preparations of the **PLA** have all been documented.

Analyzing the probability and timing of a Chinese military action against **Taiwan** is one of the most important and most disputed exercises in the international security community. Estimates vary considerably — from those who see the risk as imminent (within **3–5 years**) to those who believe that logistical, economic, and strategic obstacles make military action unlikely in the near term. What is certain is that **Xi** has turned the Taiwan question into a domestic political imperative — which reduces his capacity to accept the status quo indefinitely.

### The Western response: sufficient or insufficient?

The Western strategy of deterrence on **Taiwan** rests on ambiguity — officially, the **United States** does not explicitly commit to militarily defending **Taiwan**, but signals clearly that a Chinese military action would be unacceptable and would have massive consequences. This **strategic ambiguity** policy has worked for decades — but some strategists wonder whether it remains credible against a militarily and economically stronger **China** than when it was conceived in the **1970s**.

American arms sales to **Taiwan**, naval exercises in the **Taiwan Strait**, and American declarations on the necessity for **Taiwan** to be able to defend itself — all are deterrence signals. But the fundamental question remains: if **Xi Jinping** decides the moment has come to act, will deterrence hold? This is not a rhetorical question. It is the central security question of the **21st century**.

*I refuse to pretend I know what Xi Jinping will do on Taiwan. I believe that he himself does not yet know — it will depend on variables he is monitoring closely: the solidity of the American alliance, the state of the Chinese military, domestic economic conditions. What I do know is that the West cannot afford not to prepare for every scenario.*

## Xi's Economic Vision: A Distinct Political Economy

### The Party-directed mixed economy

The economic model **Xi Jinping** has consolidated since **2012** is distinct from his predecessors' state capitalism and even further from Western liberal capitalism. It is a mixed economy in which the **Chinese Communist Party** sets strategic priorities, state enterprises execute political mandates in key sectors, and the private sector is tolerated or even encouraged in non-strategic domains — but always under **Party** surveillance and potential control.

This structure has produced considerable economic successes — **China** lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in a matter of decades. But it also has significant structural vulnerabilities: debt at every level of the economy creating systemic financial risks, a real estate sector in crisis since **2021**, and export dependence that makes it vulnerable to trade shocks. The Chinese economy under **Xi** is stronger than its adversaries would like — and more fragile than its defenders admit.

### Economic diplomacy as an instrument of power

**Xi Jinping**'s economic diplomacy — zero tariffs for **Africa**, infrastructure loans for **Southeast Asia**, free trade agreements for **Latin America** — is the primary instrument of his construction of global influence. Unlike military power, which is costly and risky to project, economic power can be deployed progressively, silently, and can be withdrawn or intensified depending on political circumstances.

This approach has an inherent limit: it works best during periods of sustained Chinese economic growth. If **China** enters a period of significant economic slowdown — which some economists anticipate — **Xi**'s capacity to distribute commercial generosity will shrink. The question is whether the dependencies created will by then have hardened sufficiently to maintain influence without the economic incentive.

*There is an irony I note without malice: Xi Jinping's China practices an industrial policy and economic diplomacy that many left-leaning economists would applaud in other contexts. Infrastructure investments, preferential tariffs for developing countries, state coordination of economic policy — all of this resembles what development advocates have been calling for decades. The difference is the authoritarian framework in which it is embedded.*

## Human Rights: The Blind Spot in the Profile

### Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet: what the profile cannot erase

Any portrait of **Xi Jinping** that aims to be complete must include what his regime does to its own citizens. In **Xinjiang**, the policy of mass surveillance and internment of the **Uyghur** minority has been documented by investigative journalism, survivor testimonies, satellite data, and internal leaks. Estimates of the number of people who have spent time in "political re-education" centers range from a few hundred thousand to more than one million.

In **Hong Kong**, the national security law imposed in **2020** transformed a vibrant civil society into a stifled political space. Hundreds of activists, journalists, and pro-democracy politicians have been arrested, convicted, or fled into exile. The free press that characterized **Hong Kong** no longer exists in its former form. These are not political allegations — they are documented by credible human rights organizations, democratic governments, and international tribunals.

### Strategic blindness and the question of values

The temptation, when facing a trading partner as significant as **China**, is to mute human rights in favor of economic interests. This temptation is understandable — and dangerous. Understanding why it is dangerous requires thinking beyond the immediate horizon. An international system in which one can violate human rights on a massive scale without serious diplomatic consequences is a system in which those rights no longer hold any guarantee value. It is a system that suits authoritarian regimes and that ultimately threatens democracies themselves.

The **West** must find a way to maintain commercial relations with **China** while continuing to name and document these violations. This is not hypocrisy — it is complexity. Serious diplomacy consists of managing this complexity, not resolving it through simplification.

*I will say something many avoid: Western complacency on human rights in China, motivated by economic interests, has contributed to the consolidation of Xi Jinping's power. Every time a Western leader put human rights in parentheses to close a trade deal, they sent the signal that those rights were negotiable. That signal has had consequences.*

## Xi's Strategic Intelligence: Lessons for the West

### What Xi does well that the West should learn from

Analyzing **Xi Jinping** honestly means acknowledging what he does well, even if the objectives being pursued are problematic. His capacity to maintain a **long-term strategic vision** despite short-term turbulence is remarkable. His use of **economic power** as an instrument of preventive diplomacy is sophisticated. His understanding that **international norms** are arenas of competition as much as constraints is clear-eyed.

For the **West**, these lessons do not mean authoritarian methods should be imitated. They mean that strategic consistency and temporal horizon should be matched. Liberal democracy has its own assets — popular legitimacy, decentralized innovation, the capacity for self-correction — but it must also be capable of thinking long-term and maintaining coherent strategies beyond electoral cycles.

### What distinguishes Xi from his predecessors — and what this implies

His predecessors — **Deng Xiaoping**, **Jiang Zemin**, **Hu Jintao** — had adopted a doctrine of international discretion: "hide your strength and bide your time." **Xi Jinping** has abandoned that doctrine. He no longer hides anything. He asserts **China**'s ambitions openly, projects military power in the **South China Sea**, and declares the decline of American dominance a historical certainty.

This change of doctrine has practical implications for the **West**: it is no longer possible to reassure oneself by saying that **China** is "not yet" ready to confront the existing order. It is ready — or at least it acts as if it were. What analysts have long treated as a future posture has become the policy of the present.

*I will close this chapter with a personal observation: what worries me most about the Xi Jinping of 2026 is not his power — it is his certainty. A leader who believes history is on his side is a leader who is difficult to deter. And Xi's certainty seems deeper than that of his predecessors.*

## The World According to Xi: The 2030 Scenario

### The coherent vision of a post-American order

If **Xi Jinping** pursued his trajectory without major obstacles through **2030**, what world would result? A world in which **China** would have strengthened its ties with middle powers to the point of making any anti-Chinese coalition economically costly. A world in which international institutions would have been progressively transformed from within to reduce their capacity to constrain authoritarian behavior. A world in which the Chinese digital governance model would have spread to many developing countries.

This is not a scenario of global military domination — that is not **Xi**'s goal. It is a scenario in which American and Western power would be sufficiently diluted to no longer be able to enforce the liberal norms it built. A multipolar world in which every great power does as it pleases in its "sphere of influence" without effective international constraint. That is **Xi Jinping**'s "multipolar world" — and it must be clearly named for what it is.

### The Western response: a window that is closing

The **West** is not without resources against this strategy. **NATO** remains the world's most powerful military alliance. The **European Union** represents the world's largest single market. The Pacific democracies — **Japan**, **Australia**, **South Korea** — are first-tier strategic partners. International financial institutions remain largely dominated by Western capital and norms.

But these resources are not inexhaustible, and their mobilization requires coherence and determination that the internal frictions within the Western camp — trade wars between the **United States** and **Europe**, dissension within **NATO**, hesitation over **Ukraine** — are undermining. The window in which the **West** can build a coherent response to **Xi**'s strategy is open. It will not remain open indefinitely.

*I keep returning to this core conviction: the West is capable of responding to Xi Jinping effectively. Not by imitating him — not by becoming authoritarian in order to beat authoritarianism — but by mobilizing its own assets: technological creativity, democratic legitimacy, the strength of freely consented alliances. But this response requires a political will that too many Western leaders do not yet seem to have.*

## China's Digital Strategy: Internal Control, External Expansion

### China's internet as a laboratory for global digital control

The digital architecture built under **Xi Jinping** — the **Great Firewall**, social credit systems, mass surveillance applications — is not only a tool of domestic control. It is also a **model for export**. Several authoritarian governments — in **Africa**, in **Central Asia**, in **Latin America** — have signed agreements with Chinese companies like **Huawei**, **ZTE**, and **Hikvision** to deploy digital surveillance infrastructure.

This phenomenon, which researchers at the **Carnegie Endowment** call "digital authoritarianism," represents one of the most enduring contributions of the Xi era to global political architecture. If Chinese surveillance AI is deployed in sixty countries by 2030 — as current projections suggest — the impact on global democracies will be structural and difficult to reverse.

### The "Digital Silk Road" initiative and its implications

The **Digital Silk Road** — the technological component of the **Belt and Road Initiative** — specifically targets the internet infrastructure of developing countries: undersea cables, data centers, 5G networks, digital payment systems. By controlling this infrastructure, Beijing is not merely buying economic influence. It is creating structural dependencies that survive changes of government and diplomatic reversals.

The **European Union** attempted to respond with its **Global Gateway** initiative, launched in 2021 with an envelope of 300 billion euros. But disbursements remain slow, communication insufficient, and strategic coherence fragile. Beijing continues to advance while **Brussels** deliberates.

*What strikes me about Xi's digital strategy is its time horizon. It is conceived over twenty, thirty years. Western democracies think in electoral cycles. This asymmetry of strategic temporality may be the deepest vulnerability of the West vis-à-vis Xi's China.*

## The Internal Contradictions of the Xi System: The Limits of Omnipotence

### The slowing economic growth and the broken promise

The social contract of the Xi era rests on a promise: **prosperity in exchange for obedience**. For decades, this contract functioned. China lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But since 2021, the warning signs have been multiplying: a **real estate crisis** with the collapse of Evergrande and hundreds of other developers, **youth unemployment** exceeding 20% in cities, slowing growth, persistent deflation. The economic promises are becoming harder to keep.

This economic tension creates political pressure that Xi manages with the only tools at his disposal: tightening control, multiplying nationalist campaigns, designating external enemies. **Taiwan**, the **United States**, **Japan**: nationalist rhetoric mechanically intensifies when economic indicators decline. This is a recognizable historical pattern. And it is worrying.

### The systemic risks of excessive power concentration

By concentrating power to a degree unseen since **Mao Zedong**, Xi has eliminated the self-correction mechanisms that the Chinese communist system had progressively developed after the Cultural Revolution's excesses. There is no longer any visible internal counterweight. The technocrats who had been the strength of Chinese governance under Deng and his successors have been marginalized or silenced.

The risk of an **uncorrected error** is therefore considerable. In a system where no one can say "the Leader is wrong," poor decisions persist. The management of the **COVID-19 pandemic** in 2022, with the absurd maintenance of Zero-COVID until its sudden collapse, is an example of what the absence of healthy feedback produces. A mediocre decision, maintained too long, abandoned too abruptly.

*Xi Jinping is the most powerful man on Earth in terms of control over his own society. But this absolute power is also his absolute vulnerability. History is full of leaders who believed that omnipotence protected them from reality. It only did so until reality knocked at the door with too much force to be ignored.*

*This profile of Xi Jinping imposes upon me an uncomfortable honesty: he is simultaneously the most serious strategic adversary the West has ever faced and an actor whose internal constraints we probably do not sufficiently understand. What I know with certainty is that underestimating or caricaturing Xi would be an error as grave as overestimating him.*

## Conclusion: Portrait of a Man Reshaping the World

### Xi Jinping: neither demon nor genius

**Xi Jinping** is neither the demon that some Western commentators depict, nor the infallible genius that **Beijing**'s propaganda celebrates. He is a competent and determined leader pursuing clear objectives in the service of a coherent national project — and who does not hesitate to use authoritarian methods to achieve them. Understanding this — without demonizing or minimizing him — is the condition of an effective strategic response from the **West**.

The charm offensive he practices in **2026** toward middle powers works because it responds to real needs. The American unpredictability under **Trump**, Europe's difficulty in speaking with one voice, the persistent inequalities of the international economic order — all are vacuums that **Beijing** rushes to fill. The most effective response is not to denounce the Chinese charm campaign, but to make Western alternatives more attractive, more coherent, and more accessible.

### The real competition: for what kind of world?

The real competition between **Xi Jinping** and the **West** is not commercial, nor technological, nor even military — even if it plays out on all those fields. It is for the type of world that will be the norm in the **21st century**. A world in which the norms of human rights, transparency, and political pluralism carry real force — or a world in which every great power does as it pleases in its sphere of influence without serious constraint. This competition is underway. And its outcome is not written in advance.

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- [Xi Jinping has hosted more than a dozen leaders this year, as 'middle powers' look beyond the US — The Guardian — June 26, 2026](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/26/xi-jinping-china-host-of-world-leaders-middle-powers)

- [Multipolar world: What Xi and Putin announced after Beijing summit — Al Jazeera — May 20, 2026](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/multipolar-world-what-xi-and-putin-announced-after-beijing-summit)

- [Putin and Xi Sign Multipolar World Declaration in Beijing — The Moscow Times — May 20, 2026](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/05/20/putin-and-xi-sign-multipolar-world-declaration-in-beijing-a92796)

### Secondary sources

- [China, centre stage — Lowy Institute — June 1, 2026](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/china-centre-stage)

- [China implements zero-tariff treatment for 53 African countries — Friends of Socialist China — May 7, 2026](https://socialistchina.org/2026/05/07/china-implements-zero-tariff-treatment-for-53-african-countries/)

- [China implements historic zero tariffs for all African nations — Chinese Government — May 1, 2026](https://english.www.gov.cn/policies/policywatch/202605/01/content_WS69f45e35c6d00ca5f9a0ac01.html)

- [China to Grant Zero-Tariff Access to 53 African Nations From May — Bloomberg — February 14, 2026](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-14/china-to-grant-zero-tariff-access-to-53-african-nations-from-may)

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Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/portrait-xi-jinping-l-architecte-du-monde-multipolaire-comment-pekin-seduit-en-s