China’s Xi Jinping a ‘high water mark’ for authoritarianism

China’s Xi Jinping is a new high water mark for authoritarianism in the country, but will eventually face calls for reform, says former PM John Howard

Former PM John Howard says China will face internal discontent in the future. Picture: Kym Smith

Former Prime Minister John Howard has hit out at China’s President Xi’s administration calling it a “high water of authoritarianism” for China.

In comments to a seminar on US-Australia economic relations hosted by the US Studies Centre on Friday, Mr Howard said Chinese leaders would face growing calls from their increasing affluent population for a greater say in how their country was governed.

He said China also faced a future problem with the ageing of its population which would also cause problems for it as a rising economic power.

“China has a demographic problem of immense proportions,” he said.

“Eventually there will be some kind of denouement inside China, with a growing section of the population who are born into affluence are going to wrestle with being told what to do.”

“There is no sign of it at the moment.

“But you have a high water mark of authoritarianism under Xi Jinping.

“Go forward twenty to thirty years, is that going to be the same when you have a much larger percentage of the China population which has been born into affluence and want a say in their lives?”

Mr Howard also accused China of being a “transgressor” when it came to professing to be a supporter of global free trade.

He said the world had gone through a “golden era of globalisation” in the first decade of the 21 century.

“It covered a period in which more people were lifted out of poverty than an any time since the industrial revolution,” he said.

But he said there was not going to be any “silver bullet return to globalisation and free trade” as there were too many “transgressors” against it, including China.

While he said China’s President Xi Jinping had gone to the Davos economic forum to paint his administration as a supporter of free trade, his government in fact was a “transgressor.”

“China may go to the World Economic Forum in Davos and say we are the new standard bearers of free trade,” he said referring to President Xi’s speech to the forum in 2017 where he talked of China’s support for the World Trade Organisation and free trade.

“Give me a break,” he said sarcastically.

Mr Howard said while the Chinese economy had become increasingly important, it was also facing pressures.

“China has demographic problems of immense proportions.

“In looking at the relationship between China and the US, we have to look at the pressures bearing on both countries.

“The pressures bearing on China is demography and the inevitable denouement in relation to authoritarianism and greater liberty,” he said.

He said these pressures were “probably greater” than those on bearing on the US at the moment.

“The problems facing them (China) are greater than those bearing on the US.”

Mr Howard said he rejected suggestions that America was set for a period of decline.

He said America was facing some problems but it had also faced severe problems during the Vietnam War era in the sixties which it had recovered from.

He rejected the idea that it was inevitable that there would be “some kind of showdown between America and China”.

He said it was possible that there would be a confrontation between the US and China but he didn’t think it was inevitable.

He said there were “inhibiting” pressures bearing on China which would reduce the chances of a major clash with the US.

But he said it was also important for Australia to remember that China was its largest trading partner. “Having said all that, when I am asked to talk about it, I encourage Australia to remember how important China is as an export destination,” he said.