All language subtitles for Xi Jinping China’s president and his quest for world power Four Corners.eng.eng

MAN: No-one in the world today,

anywhere, in any other country,

is more powerful
than President Xi Jinping.

(MAN SHOUTS IN MANDARIN)

MAN: He has declared himself
Chairman for life.

I call him Chairman of everything,

Chairman of everywhere,
Chairman of everyone.

(CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS)

STAN GRANT:
China's President Xi Jinping

sees himself as a man of destiny.

He commands a country
on the cusp of becoming

the biggest economy
the world has ever seen

and he's building an army
to defend it.

(CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM CONCLUDES)

(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS)

If you were to sum him up,
what words come to mind?

Messianic. Um, ruthless.

WOMAN: I think he's really
very focused on control, right?

He's very focused on control over
the Party, control over the country.

WOMAN: We are turning more towards
authoritarianism under Xi Jinping.

He has centralised the power
around him.

To make China great again,

Xi Jinping is upending
the global balance of power.

MAN: If any armed conflict

breaks out between
China and the United States,

it will be catastrophe for mankind.

It may become Armageddon
for humankind.

Xi Jinping is a name
that's become familiar to us all,

this son of the Communist Revolution
who rules his country by force.

He dreams of reviving
China's lost glory

and overcoming
a history of humiliation.

The United States has named
China its biggest strategic threat

and Australia
is caught in the crosshairs.

Tonight, Four Corners asks,

"Who is Xi Jinping?

"What drives him and what does
his rise mean for the world?"

Madame Speaker, the President
of the People's Republic of China.

(APPLAUSE)

Madame Speaker, Mr President...

..it is a joy to have friends
come from afar.

In 2014, Xi Jinping
was on a charm offensive.

He was in Canberra
for the honour of addressing

the joint houses
of the Australian parliament.

(SPEAKS MANDARIN)

TRANSLATION: China has always viewed
Australia as an important partner.

During my visit,

the two sides have decided
to elevate our bilateral relations

into a comprehensive
strategic partnership.

As China grows,
so does Australia grow.

And why wouldn't you want to
hitch yourself to that wagon?

That, of course, was
the time when we...about the time

when we were sealing
the Free Trade Agreement as well,

which was of great benefit to us.

And we thought we could have it all.

We could have
a bountiful economic relationship

and a steady political relationship.

And, of course, that's not the case,

and it won't be the case
for a very long time.

Our politicians were basking
in the presence of a dictator

who crushed dissent,
jailed opponents,

and lead a nation
accused of ethnic cleansing.

But money talks.

We had things to sell,
and China is our biggest customer.

Xi Jinping had his own agenda.

(SPEAKS MANDARIN)

TRANSLATION: We Chinese are striving
to achieve the Chinese dream,

which is the great renewal
of the Chinese nation.

The Chinese dream

is about enhancing the strength
and prosperity of the nation

and the wellbeing
of the Chinese people.

We were so naive

and, you know, I put my own hand up
for that as well.

I was as naive as
the next parliamentarian.

(SIGHS) It was wishful thinking.

We wanted China to be
a kind of a nation more like us.

And more like us meant democratic.

Xi Jinping was at least
mouthing the right words.

TRANSLATION: We have set two goals
for China's future development.

The first is to double the 2010 GDP.

The second is to turn China
into a modern socialist country

that is prosperous, democratic,
culturally advanced and harmonious

by the middle of the century.

(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)

At a state dinner that night,

Tony Abbott startled China watchers

with a monumental misreading of what
Xi really meant by "democratic".

I have never heard
a Chinese leader declare

that his country would be
fully democratic by 2050.

I have never heard a Chinese leader
commit so explicitly

to a rule-based international order

founded on the principle

that we should all treat others
as we would be treated ourselves.

(APPLAUSE)

MAN: I was there.

I helped actually write
a bit of Tony Abbott's

formal speech response
to Xi Jinping.

Tony Abbott got up in particular

at that...at that banquet
in the Great Hall

and said he was so delighted

'cause Xi Jinping had said

by 2049 China would become
a modern democratic society.

He was so delighted.

Our ambassador to China
was absolutely mortified by it.

Ganbei.

CLIVE HAMILTON: It's easy now for us
to laugh at Tony Abbott

when he referred to Xi Jinping
as a proto-democrat,

but Tony Abbott was by no means
alone when he made that statement.

There are many statements

that political leaders
have made about China,

the Chinese Communist Party,
and Xi Jinping

that now look ridiculous.

The world has changed

and it's only fools and apologists

who continue to defend Xi Jinping
and the Chinese Communist Party.

(APPLAUSE)

WOMAN: The darker aspects
have always been there.

Ever since the establishment
of People's Republic of China,

China was never democratic,

so with the elevation of Xi Jinping,
that hasn't changed.

(CHEERING)

Xi and his wife travelled to Tasmania

where they were met like royalty.

Ni hao.

Hello!
Ni hao!

WOMAN: We knew that if we could get

the President of China
to visit Tasmania,

it would put Tasmania
onto the map within China,

that the Chinese people
watch every step of their leader

and they follow what he says to do.

Oh, xie xie ni! Xie xie.

You speak Chinese very good.
Thank you.

Yes, they have a different
value system to us,

but part of what life is,

is trying to get to know other
people and what makes them tick,

and how we can work together
to make the world a better place.

And one way you make the world
a better place is through trade.

With Tony Abbott in tow,

Xi met politicians
and business leaders.

It was all about what Xi could do
for the Apple Isle.

MAN: ..increase in trade and
investment opportunities

between China and Tasmania,
in particular.

Over the next five years,

Tasmania's business
with China would boom,

topping $1 billion a year.

CLIVE HAMILTON: Tasmania's really
a remarkable case study

and I've spent quite
a bit of time down there

and working with people
who are very concerned about it.

In Tasmania,
there's been a downside

that certainly many Tasmanians
have become alarmed about.

For example, the huge amount
of investment funds

flowing in from China
to buy up prime agricultural land,

horticulture, dairy operations.

And people are starting to think,
"Well, is it really in our interest

"to have our best primary resources
owned by Chinese companies?"

It was all smiles
as Xi Jinping left Australia.

Our leaders were happy
with the Free Trade Agreement

and the Chinese President
had his eyes on the long game -

extending China's influence
and building its power.

RICHARD McGREGOR: I think China
has been on a sort of

mostly a single track,

but, you know, it takes
opportunities where it can.

With Australia, I think Australia
is important as a US ally,

it's important as
a US intelligence partner,

it's important
as a big diplomatic player

in the Asia-Pacific
or the Indo-Pacific, if you like.

And in that respect, it was worth
putting time into Australia,

perhaps to neutralise it
as a US ally in the region.

I mean, that's the long game
in that respect.

It's about China being the most
dominant country in the region.

Xi Jinping was born into a country
of war and revolution

on June 15, 1953.

His father was
a Communist Party hero -

a right-hand man of Mao Zedong.

Xi is Party royalty -

what is in China called
a 'princeling',

but as he prefers,
'a man of the people'.

When he was a boy,
his country was starving.

The great famine that began
in the late 1950s

is estimated to have killed
more than 30 million people.

By his teens,

China was in the grip
of the Cultural Revolution.

As Mao set loose his Red Guards
to drive out his enemies,

Xi's father was purged,

something Xi would not forget.

MAN: He's the person
for the Cultural Revolution in 1966

when it started in China.

And so basically, he was on his own.

I think his father was put under
house arrest a few years before

and so he was really kind of left
as, almost like a political orphan.

And I think that generation,
you know, for the next few years,

it really made them very tough,
in a way,

very resilient and self, you know,
kind of self-supporting.

16-year-old Xi Jinping

was one of a generation
of urban Chinese youth

Mao banished
to live among the rural poor.

Xi was sent to Shanxi Province
in north-west China.

RICHARD McGREGOR: When he initially
went out into the countryside,

he was scared, frightened.

To use the Western vernacular,
freaked out by what was happening.

In other words, his political
family was under threat

and, in fact,
were being marginalised.

So it both hardened him,

it also gave him a real sense
of the ups and downs of power.

And I think that's one reason
why he's so ruthless himself.

He lived in a dusty village
not far from the city of Yan'an,

where decades earlier

Mao Zedong led his supporters
on the fabled Long March

during the civil war against
the American-backed Nationalists.

These were formative years for Xi,

in the heartland
of the communist revolution.

He could have rejected the Party, but
in fact, he embraced it even more.

I think it is...would be
very difficult

for anyone at the time
to reject the Party.

And I can see why,

for someone who has suffered
under the Cultural Revolution,

they might actually want to
embrace the Party even more.

Really?

That even though
he and his family suffered,

he would want to embrace
the Party even more?

Yes, it is...a quite common
experience amongst people in China

that you want your suffering
to mean something.

This is where Xi Jinping
built his myth,

sleeping in a cave
carved from the hillside

and working alongside
peasant farmers,

a story he's promoted
time and again.

GEREMIE BARME: So he was actually
re-educated just as Mao wanted.

Just as Mao wanted.

He wanted to re-educate
China's young people in the 1960s.

Most people think
the Cultural Revolution

was merely a power struggle
and a purge.

Yes, it was. But it was also more.

It was about Mao trying to train up
a generation of younger people

who would, in the end, be Party
ideologues and supporters

who would help maintain the ethos
of Party control and the revolution

far beyond his day.

Like Mao, Xi saw China's peasant
farmers as his pathway to power.

He calls himself
a "son of yellow earth".

This yellow earth mythology
fed into the party's belief

that our true origins
are in the countryside,

with eternal China's past.

MAN: Xi Jinping, I think,
always sort of talks as though

he's really connected to

the kind of people
who live in the rural areas,

and they're not forgotten.

He's a populist in that sense.

He's really trying to show
that he is, you know, kind of the...

Like a kind of an earthly emperor.

Mao died in 1976,

ending the Cultural Revolution.

Xi's father was rehabilitated

and helped his ambitious son
with party connections.

Marriage to a famous singer

who performed
with the People's Liberation Army

boosted his popularity.

Xi worked his way through the ranks,

becoming governor of Fujian province.

He was seen by party power brokers
as a safe option...

..loyal to the party,
uncontroversial,

straight-faced and stoic.

In 2008, he was made Vice President.

RICHARD McGREGOR:
Xi was the heir apparent.

And, by the way, he was the first
Chinese leader since 1979, 1980

who had not been chosen
by Deng Xiaoping,

so it was quite a big deal.

Xi Jinping was elected President
in 2012,

forming the next great link
in the chain after Chairman Mao

and the man who kickstarted China's
economic revolution, Deng Xiaoping.

There's a saying in China
that Mao made the country one,

Deng made the country rich,

Xi is making the country strong.

This is the third revolution,
as it were.

Certainly, I think he would be
attracted to that view himself,

because it gives him great agency.

It makes him a figure of history,
of historical change,

an agent of history.

And I think, certainly,
he sees himself like that.

(APPLAUSE)

Xi Jinping revealed
his vision for China -

what he called the China Dream.

What Mao started he would finish,
the final stage of the revolution,

to return China to the apex
of global power.

(APPLAUSE)

On the national level,

China Dream means
the revitalisation of China.

After all, China was humiliated
for more than 100 years,

ever since the first Opium War,

and China need to rise up,
and this a continuous process.

China by today is already the second
largest economy in the world

and in less than 10 years' time,

China will be the largest economy
in the world,

and China needs to project
its own image onto the world

as a force for peace and stability
and economic development.

When we first heard China Dream,

a lot of us thought it was going
to be a lot like the American dream,

which is basically
a very individualist vision

of having a lot of
material prosperity,

a lot of freedom
to do what you want,

and living as a citizen
in a powerful state,

but one that doesn't
intrude too much.

So that was the American dream.

And the China dream,
I think people initially thought

that that was being offered.

But it's become very clear that
what Xi means by a China dream

is really a state,

a Chinese state dream.

It's not an individual dream.
It's not a dream for citizens.

It's a vision of a state,
a Chinese state,

that's very strong
that's internationally respected,

that can throw its weight around
internationally if it needs to

and that is in no way inferior
to anybody else.

As President, Xi Jinping
moved quickly

to consolidate his hold on the party
and the country.

RICHARD McGREGOR: The moment
he came into power,

it was pedal to the metal,
if you like.

He accelerated on all fronts
to eliminate dissent,

to eliminate rivals,
to eliminate corruption.

Now, his family had been involved
in lots of deals as well.

That's been well documented.

There was nothing that made
Chinese people more angry

than seeing officials around them,

be it in a township, city,
province, wherever,

high on the hog, getting rich,

and frankly, getting rich
in very nefarious ways,

you know, stealing farmers' land,
getting cuts on deals,

promoting their relatives,
etc, etc.

China was very corrupt.

It probably still is,
not like it was.

And so, Xi Jinping used
the anti-corruption campaign

both as a populist measure
and to purge his rivals.

Xi widened the net,

locking up dissidents -
lawyers, writers and artists.

YUN JIANG: I remember back

when Xi Jinping was first elevated
as a leader.

There was actually quite a lot
of expectation placed on Xi Jinping.

We are seeing a turning more
towards authoritarianism

under Xi Jinping.

He has centralised the power
around him

and also we're also seeing that

there's increased concerns about
human rights in China as well,

in Hong Kong with regards to

pro-democracy activists
and legislators,

and in Xinjiang with regards to

what the Chinese Government
has been doing to Uyghurs

and other ethnic minority groups.

CLIVE HAMILTON: What we didn't see,

except for a very small handful
of close observers,

is that Xi Jinping
wasn't the great liberator.

He wasn't going to be
the man who would continue

the liberalising trend.

In fact, he was
exactly the opposite.

He was a return,
in a very decisive way,

to the oppressive Leninist
party control freakery

that we had so feared.

And it's only now as some

of the more insightful
and longstanding China analysts

have started to expose
what Xi Jinping was saying

way back at the end
of 2012 and in 2013.

They were starting to say, "Oh. We
were just so wrong about this man."

Xi Jinping has relentlessly crafted
his own cult of personality.

Chinese audiences are fed a constant
diet of propaganda on state-run media

about Xi and his China Dream.

VOICEOVER: Through his firm resolve,
charisma and intelligence

he's brought the world closer
to China.

Worldwide there's now
a better understanding of China

as a major country.

This new historical course
charted by President Xi Jinping

is the fundamental direction
of Chinese diplomacy in the new era.

The cult of Xi is everywhere
in the media.

There's Xi, the beaming
father of the nation...

..and Xi, the man
of the common people.

With long memories
of the brutal Mao years,

some in the party have grown nervous.

RICHARD McGREGOR: One of the things

that the party elders have
admonished him for

at different times

is the personality cult,

because for them,
it's too much like Mao.

It's too much like a single
capricious ruler who is everywhere.

But Xi seems to think it works,

and this is another reason,
I think, why he sort of values Mao,

because whether you think
he got things done well or badly,

the only way to get things done
is to be a dictator in China.

(RHYTHMIC CLAPPING)

In 2018, Xi made a dramatic
power grab

that shocked China and the world -

he would now effectively
be President for life.

YUN JIANG: I think at that time, it
was quite a surprise to many people,

because the presidential term limit
was set precisely

because Mao Zedong's rule,

that those mistakes
will not happen again.

But then it was removed,

seemingly paving way for one person

to have a lot of power
around himself,

which means that potentially
that could create

a problem for
the Chinese Communist Party.

So that is a problem
the Chinese Communist Party

obviously recognised itself
before...

..but now it has been
completely removed.

And it is, I think, quite
shocking to a lot of people,

even inside China as well.

VICTOR GAO: President Xi Jinping is
now the paramount leader of China,

is the president of
the People's Republic of China,

is the general secretary
of the Communist Party of China,

and he's the chairman of
the central military commission.

So he is vested with the most
important powers for China

as a government leader,
military leader, and party leader.

He declared himself
chairman for life,

I call him chairman of everything,

chairman of everywhere,
chairman of everyone.

The President for life
enshrined his name and doctrine

in the constitution.

(APPLAUSE)

Xi Jinping Thought
became the guidebook

to propel the country
into its new era.

(FANFARE PLAYS)

I think Xi Jinping Thought
says that the party rules all,

and that China is on a path
to inevitable greatness

and that everybody better get used
to that.

Universities run compulsory courses
in Xi Jinping Thought.

Saturation media coverage
even includes a TV show

where contestants are quizzed

on their knowledge of Xi's life
and thought.

(MAN SPEAKS MANDARIN)

How far is Xi Jinping prepared to go?

He's now president for life.

What will he do to achieve
what he wants for his country?

Well, the mission is to create
a powerful, strong China.

So, 2021 is the 100th anniversary
of the Communist Party.

So, we'll see a bit more
of this vision.

The problem for Xi Jinping is that,
domestically, nationalism works.

You know, his nationalistic
message of a strong, powerful China

is something that I think
almost all Chinese sign up to.

But externally it doesn't look good.

I mean, this is something
that scares people.

They look at this and think,

"Wow, what is this bellicose-
sounding nationalistic country

"that's so big and so unknown?"

So, this is going to be
a big, big challenge

that's going to need
pretty good diplomacy.

(GENTLE FLUTE MELODY)

At home, Xi knows
that poverty eradication

among China's
1.4 billion-strong population

is critical to keeping
the party in power.

That's the deal -

that the Chinese people will
sacrifice freedom for wealth.

So far it has worked.

The reality is that Xi Jinping
and his colleagues

believe themselves
as the agents of history

and the history that is about making
China one of the great powers

that is also a prosperous
stable society

that will contribute
to humanity as a whole,

and if in that process,

a few individuals must be
crushed or silenced,

a few dissidents must be
thrown into jail,

a few national minorities
in Tibet and Xinjiang

and their religious,
aberrant religious beliefs

must be corralled, contained
and reformed,

well, that's simply the price

that the great collective
of the Chinese people,

which I, Xi Jinping,
and my colleagues represent,

that's just the price
they all have to pay.

And it's for their good,

because, after all,
I am a patriarchal leader

and I know what's best for
all of you.

The creation myth of Xi Jinping

draws tourists
from across the country

who travel to the village where
he spent seven long years in exile.

Everything here is a shrine to Xi
and all he represents.

Posters of Mao Zedong
hang in the cave where Xi slept.

Marxist texts and books
which influenced him are on display.

Party publications documenting
his rise through the provinces

are for sale.

Locals sing his praises.

The nearby city of Yan'an,
critical to the Xi myth,

is a must-see
for revolutionary tourists.

Guesthouse manager Li Ming

makes his living
from party mythology,

dressing up in the uniform
worn by Mao's troops.

I think
the Communist Party of China,

with almost 100 million members,

are fully behind him

and the Chinese nation
of 1.4 billion Chinese people

are also rallying
behind President Xi Jinping

in domestic, economic development,

as well as
on the international stage.

Victor Gao is a party insider

who has been as close
as possible to power.

As official translator,
he was trusted by the man

who ignited China's economic
revolution, Deng Xiaoping.

He now works
for a pro-government think tank.

I would say
by my personal calculation,

no-one in the world today,

anywhere in any other country,

is more powerful
than President Xi Jinping,

in terms of
the country he is leading,

in terms of the level
of responsibilities he's exercising,

in terms of
his level of responsibility

for the job he's doing,

taking care of the welfare and
the wellbeing of the Chinese nation,

but also contributing
to peace and development.

And also fighting against
all kinds of false accusations

and distortions,
mostly created by Washington

in terms of the rise of China.

(ROUSING MUSIC PLAYS)

VOICEOVER: Under the guidance
of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism

with Chinese Characteristics
for a New Era,

the PLA has thoroughly implemented

Xi Jinping Thought
on strengthening the military.

(BAND PLAYS)

Xi Jinping is building a military
as powerful as his economic might.

Officially he spends around
$250 billion a year on defence.

Others estimate the real figure
may be double that.

(SPEAKS CHINESE LANGUAGE)

(TROOPS CHANT)

Images of his battle-ready troops

are pumped out for international
and domestic consumption.

(ALL CHANT)

LUCY HORNBY: Certainly, in China
the sense of nationalism

has channelled
the sense of resentment

and this sense of past humiliation

which funnels
a sort of aggressive nationalism.

China is a meteoric rising power,

and the US
is a colossal ruling power

and when a rising power

is displacing or threatening
to displace a ruling power

from its position at the top
of every pecking order,

basically, things get worse,
and then they get worse.

To the US, Xi Jinping's China
is its biggest strategic threat.

As long as China continues achieving

or trying to achieve the China dream

that Xi Jinping has laid out
quite vividly,

and as long as the US,

attempts to maintain the position
it's enjoyed for an American century

as the leading power in the world,

and as the architect of a very
successful international order,

there's going to be a...
a grand contest,

and it will
discombobulate everything,

from American politics,
as we've seen here,

to international relations.

As an American ally,

Australia is caught between its
economic interests and its security.

VICTOR GAO: As far
as China's concerned,

Australia has been
even more agitated than Washington

in many situations.

And from the Chinese perspective,

what the Australian government
has been doing

over the past several years

has been very much demonstrating
hostility against China

as a country,
against the Chinese people,

and against
the Chinese political system.

Xi Jinping has made it clear -

on his watch,
Australia needs to mind its step.

In less than 10 years' time,

China will be larger than
the United States as an economy,

and by the middle
of the century,

the size of the Chinese economy's
expected to be double

the size of the United States.

That gives more opportunity
for countries like Australia

to engage with China
on a peaceful basis,

and to do more business with China.

Rather than, for example, blindly,

without exercising your own
judgement, and your own brain,

for example, to refuse to see
the mega trend coming,

and refuse to embrace the rise
of China as an opportunity,

but really doing the suicidal thing
to cut off yourself from China,

from the Chinese nation,
and from the Chinese market.

Xi has drawn battle lines
across the region.

Chinese and Indian troops clashed
on their border last year,

with casualties on both sides.

For Xi Jinping,
it was a propaganda coup.

Then there is the South China Sea,

where the US and China
stare each other down.

Xi Jinping has ignored
international court rulings

and built military installations
on disputed islands.

1,2, 3 ,6 ,7, 8, 9.

Nine vehicles.

RICHARD McGREGOR: China in
the Indo-Pacific is a reality.

For the US being here,
it's a choice.

China knows that, and over time,

I think China wants to make
the price the US pays for that,

to go up.

In many respects,

I think China is the much more
predictable player here.

China wants to dominate the region.

China wants to be the most powerful
country in the region.

China wants its military to be
the sort of biggest in the region

and the like.

That's just obvious.

Any country would want
to do that of China's size,

be it a communist party
or a democracy.

(SHOUTING, GUNFIRE)

In Hong Kong, Xi has shown the world
how ruthless he can be.

(SHOUTING, GUNFIRE)

He has crushed protest
and introduced new laws

putting a stranglehold on
the former British territory.

(GUNFIRE)

Hong Kong stands
as a warning to Taiwan.

Absolutely central
to Chinese modernisation,

Xi Jinping's program

is restoring
China's territorial integrity.

This is a big deal.

That means Taiwan comes back
and if you think about it,

regaining control of Taiwan,
a self-governing island

of about 25 million people,
a very modern society,

most importantly, democratic,

which does not think of itself

as part of
the People's Republic of China,

which has run itself
for, you know, 70, 80 years,

which has had an independent streak
since the 19th century -

China says,
"We're going to control that."

And I think
Xi wants to do it on his watch.

And Xi declares he will regain
Taiwan, even if it means war.

China has ramped up threatening
military exercises near Taiwan.

If Xi attacks Taiwan,

he could trigger a war
with the United States,

potentially dragging in Australia.

GRAHAM ALLISON: I think if there
were a war, it would be insane.

I think you couldn't be confident
that if a war developed over Taiwan,

and even if it began as a small war,

that it could expand
into a larger war

and that once you
get up the escalation ladder

in a larger war,

that even nuclear weapons
might become part of the conflict.

VICTOR GAO: If any armed conflict
breaks out

between China and the United States,

it will be a catastrophe
for mankind.

It may become Armageddon
for humankind.

For Western democracies,
the battle lines are already drawn.

Can we live in a world
where the dominant economic power

and all of the other power
that comes with that

is one that fundamentally rejects
the values of our society?

Well, we can live in that world,

but it's going to be
a much less comfortable world,

and it's going to be one in which
we'll have terms dictated to us

more than we have them
dictated to us now.

Now, that doesn't mean China
gets its way,

but it means that China
is much more difficult to deal with

and might get its way
on a lot of things.

So, yeah. Life's going to get
harder for us.

LUCY HORNBY: If all you're doing
is sitting around and feeling upset

or fearful or angry that China
is bigger and more powerful

then you've put us
on a very dangerous spiral, I feel.

That's something that worries me,
not only as an observer,

but also as a citizen
of the United States

and also a person,

you know, who doesn't want the world
to go to hell.

Everything in Xi Jinping's life
has led him to this point.

He rules his country
like an emperor.

His China Dream is within reach.

And he's warning the West if they try
to stop him, they'll pay.

CLIVE HAMILTON: Some days
I think the battle is over

and China's influence
is now so great,

and Xi Jinping and the Chinese
Communist Party are so determined

to become the dominant hegemon
in the world

that there's nothing we can do.

But really,
we can't give up like that.

I mean, when you think
what's at stake,

when you think of the freedoms

that we on a daily basis
take for granted and enjoy.

KERRY BROWN: Now we're dealing with

this radically different view
of the world,

which is not a modern one,

I mean it's not like China
is a power that sprung from nowhere.

It's got historic roots
going back many, many centuries,

this is not something
that can be just shifted.

This history we are moving into,

this world we are moving into,
there is no roadmap.

There is no easy roadmap.

Captions by Red Bee Media

Copyright
Australian Broadcasting Corporation