- This is a Xiaodongese name; the family name is Xi (夕).
Xi Yaotang (Shangean: 夕瑶棠; born 22nd April 1943) is a Shangean is a former Xiaodongese politician. He previously served as Premier of Shangea from 2007 to his resignation in 2014, Vice Premier from 2002 to 2007, Governor of Luoyuan from 1997 to 2002 and Mayor of Kuoqing from 1990 to 1997.
Xi rose rapidly in politics when he was appointed as Mayor of Kuoqing, Xiaodong's third largest city, in 1990 a position he used to ascend to the position of Governor of Luoyuan in 1997 which remains Xiaodong's largest province. Becoming on the more prominent leaders on a provincial level in 2002 Premier Han Guanzheng appointed him as vice-premier due to his expertise in financial and management affairs.
In 2007 Xi succeeded premier Han in the role with his ascent being due to factional manoeuvrings to ensure a reformist continued to hold the premiership. Xi upon coming to power alongside Han and new vice-premier Luo Wenjing implemented the world's largest stimulus package in response to the 2005 financial crisis alongside a series of economically liberal practices that aimed to modernise the Shangean economy. In domestic policy Xi was seen as a "conservative reformist", supporting greater free-market reforms in the economy but being more conservative in regards to political reform. Under his tenure Xi largely focused on the effects of the 2005 crisis pursuing demand-side economics to maintain growth whilst continuing the economic reform agenda of privatisation and deregulation. Under Xi Shangea enjoyed record economic growth continuing the so-called "supply side miracle" during the entirety of the 2000's.
As Premier Xi clashed with State Chairman Yuan Xiannian opposing Yuan's policy of distancing Shangea from strategic arms negotiations with Senria. Xi rather support a strong role for Xiaodong in multilateral institutions and sought to maintain cordial relations with Gaullica and Soravia in his term. Xi supported a two pronged approach to increasing Xiaodong's presence in the global south whilst also expanding its relations with Euclean and Asterian nations. This latter policy was opposed by Yuan and some conservatives who called for more independence from Euclea.
Xi was hesitant to approve Operation Eastern Protection which led to a decline in his popularity. He was seen to lose influence following the operation as Yuan, foreign minister Jiang Zhongyu and general Ren Shaokun stacked the government with Yuan's allies. As a result Xi was active in opposing the policies of the Yuan government leading to conflict between the Premier's Office and the State Chairman.
Xi's response to the 2013 avian flu outbreak was considered largely to be a failure due to what was seen as misinformation at the start of the crisis and allowing the disease to move through to other countries in Coius. Although the government was able to deal with the crisis Xi was seen as largely having done a poor job and to have communicated poorly, leading to his popularity to decline. As a result the ruling party lost its supermajority in the 2014 elections leading to his dismissal from office shortly afterwards.
In 2017, as part of Normalisation Xi was implicated by some in the so-called Lotus Group Conspiracy, an alleged attempted coup d'état by members of the military and the Yundong religious sect. Xi has denied knowledge of the conspiracy and has not been formally accused by legal authorities of any wrong doing, although has since 2018 retired entirely from politics. Xi is said to live under de facto house arrest in his home in Kuoqing.
Xi's tenure is mainly remembered for large-scale economic reforms especially from 2007-2009 that continued the privatisation and liberalisation policies of the Economic Reorganising Programme. The high economic growth Jiang presided over has led to some to comment that under his stewardship Shangea significantly increased in wealth as well as seeing large-scale technological modernisation especially after the more national-security focused atmosphere of the 1990's. However he has been accused of overseeing massive corruption and after initial reforms largely maintained the same political structures of his predecessors. His response to the 2013 avian flu outbreak has also been widely criticised.
Early life and career
Xi was born in the city of Heping the first son of Xi Xingjian and Ma Ling in 1949. Xi Xingjin was a veteran of the Senrian-Xiaodongese War prominent politician serving variously as Mayor of Kuoqing from 1940-1946, Minister of Development and Energy 1947-1958 and as Minister of Defence and Military Planning from 1958-1966 in the governments of Chen Xuechang. His mother Ma Ling worked as the deputy editor for the East Sea Daily, one of the propaganda outlets for the regime.
Career
During his time in the Xiaodongese Broadcasting Network Xi cultivated strong links with reformists connected to QIan Xingwen, becoming one of the XMC's "state representatives" (a term used to describe people who coordinated activities between the government and the XBN). Xi became connected to prominent members of the government based in Baiqiao such as Xu Hunyuan and Qian Xingwen. In 1985 he left the Broadcasting Network and started to work for the privately owned Xiaodongese Bank of Commerce, but left the job in 1988 when he became an media adviser to Han Guanzheng. In 1990 Xi became Chief of Staff for Han Guanzheng, and headed his office until he was appointed to oversee fiscal affairs in the province of Gaoming. Xi by this point was recognised as being close to the governing clique of Premier Han which was concentrated outside of the traditional bureaucratic clique in Rongzhuo and more populist in its approach.
In 2001, Xi was appointed by Han to serve as Minister of Communication and Media Strategy, where Xi formulated the idea of
authoritarian democracy. As Minister of Communication and Media Strategy Xi promoted a conflicting view of the Xiaodongese government, emphasising both its democratic and dictatorial characteristics.
Within the Council of Ministers, Xi was known as an ally to Han who nevertheless was also closely connected to Yuan Xiannian's hard line faction especially on the issues of foreign affairs. Although Xi was seen as a potential successor to Han alongside Second Minister Yuan Xiannian and State Presidium Presiding Officer
Jiang Zhongyu, he lacked the strong family ties of both Yuan and Jiang (both of whom were
princelings) and was sidelined by Han’s moderate faction, which saw Xi as to close to Yuan Xiannian with Han seeing Jiang as his natural successor. Xi was influential in persuading Han Guanzheng to resign alongside Presiding Officer Jiang Zhongyu in 2005 following poor polling results. Following Han’s resignation Yuan Xiannian became First Minister, with Xi becoming Minister of International Relations and Jiang both Second Minister and Finance Minister.
Initially, it was expected that Yuan would be sidelined by Jiang and Xi who between 2005-2006 were the de facto leaders of Xiaodong. However, a personality clash between Jiang and Xi led to Xi to wholeheartedly support the government of Yuan whilst Jiang attempted to exert influence through his moderate faction.
As International Relations Minister, Xi became notably for advocating for a more muscular foreign policy whilst remaining committed to maintaining cooperation with other states through dialogue. He was influential in cultivating close ties with countries such as Ankoren, Qaradalai and Razaria emphasising south-south cooperation. Relations also improved under Xi's tenure with Ambrose, whilst there was a cooling of relations with Tuthina.
In 2006, Xi made a speech in which he said "imagine a world where the developing countries support each other, exchange ideas, exchange successful policies and plans, while warning against failed ones, where they exchange technologies and expertise, rather than seeking this from the developed world which only leads to the introduction of malignant multi-national corporations who treat workers poorly and have little respect for political institutions - corruption happens. By working together can you get the protection of sovereignty among the developing nations". Xi publicly pushed for the creation of a forum in which developing countries could protect their sovereignty from multi-national corporations and foreign governments.
In 2010, Xi was able to manoeuvre himself to at the party plenum that year be confirmed as the Vice-Chairman of the Regeneration Society and thus be promoted to the post of Second Minister. The confirmation of Xi as Second Minister bookmarked him as the most likely successor to Yuan - Xi had able to court the support of former allies to Han Guanzheng who switched their support from Jiang Zhongyu to Xi who was seen as a compromise candidate between the pro-Yuan faction candidate Xu Bangguo and the anti-Yuan candidate Jiang.
In 2016 following low poll ratings and huge student protests the year before First Minister Yuan Xiannian came under enormous pressure to resign from his posts as party chairman and First Minister. In a series of backroom talks with party grandees and faction leaders Yuan agreed to resign from the posts of First Minister but retain the party chairmanship, as well as becoming Chairperson of the State Presidium of Xiaodong once then-incumbent Jiang Zhongyu's term expired later that year. In July 2016 Yuan stepped down from the role. As Xi was his deputy he was picked for the position of First Minister, whilst giving Yuan ally Xu Bangguo the position of Second Minister. Xi was the first First Minister not to co-currently be party chairman.
Premier
Shortly after Xi's assumption of power he began to campaign for the Regeneration Society to secure another term in government in the
2016 general election. The combination of the stock market crash, large cuts in rural subsidies for farmers in 2014 and a corruption scandal and subsequent protests in 2015 led to the Regeneration Society's popularity to decline ahead of the election, often being behind in the polls to the opposition
United Democratic Appeal for Xiaodong which emphasised anti-corruption, a national living wage and a reform to a
semi-presidential system of government. The
Alliance for Democracy in Xiaodong, a
populist,
alter-globalization party formed after the 2015 student protests also was gaining popularity.
Xi, thanks to his modest background, was put at the forefront of the Regeneration Society's campaign being seen as more popular than Regeneration Society Chairman Yuan Xiannian, who was seen as less trustworthy. Xi's campaign claimed it would "clear up corruption" and that a UDA-ADX coalition would result in "massive instability" for Xiaodong.
The results of the election saw the Regeneration Society lose its majority, getting only 100 of the 215 State Presidium seats and losing the popular vote both in single member and multi-member electoral districts to the UDA - Xi was one of the few Regeneration Society members to retain his seat in the Huayuan prefecture. The composition of the State Presidium gave neither the UDA/ADX coalition nor the Regeneration Society a majority, with State Chairman Jiang Zhongyu appointing Xi to form a minority caretaker government until a more permanent coalition could be inaugurated. As Liu's term was expected to expire on the 19th October it was decided that the Xi caretaker government would remain in place until a new State Chairperson was elected.
The Regeneration Society proposed Yuan Xiannian for the State Chairpersonship whilst the UDA and ADX proposed People's Party member Li Zheng. The vote which required 141 votes in a first round saw neither Li or Yuan gain the necessary votes for the position, necessitating a second round. The second round which required a simple majority to see the State Chairman elected also saw neither candidate elected which meant that the State Presidium was dissolved and new elections called.
The 2017 election saw the Xiaodong Regeneration Society gain 22 seats giving them a comfortable majority, whilst all other parties lost seats. However, these results were challenged by other parties on the grounds that the Regeneration Society prior to the election had consistently been behind in the polls and there had been irregularities during the election such as " 100% turnout in some electoral districts, ballot stuffing caught on camera, electronic voting machines automatically registering all votes for the ZSH, opposition voting areas facing ballot shortages and powercuts limiting electronic voting and ballots in support of opposition candidates destroyed.". As a result several protests were hosted across Xiaodong with 2 million protesting in Rongzhuo alone demanding the government publish the real results of the election.
On the third day of the protests an emergency session was hosted in the State Presidium which voted to bypass the constitution and elect Yuan Xiannian as State Chairman whilst also entrusting him with emergency powers. Yuan declared a state of emergency and after consulting with the Council of Ministers approved the use of military force against the protesters. Xi stated the protesters were foreign-backed terrorists and as such condoned the use of military force against them.
Following the crackdown on protesters, Xi approved of a policy of "Normalisation". Normalisation under Xi has aimed to "heal divisions" in Xiaodongese society which Xi blamed on "anarchistic freedoms that have been tolerated for to long". Xi warned Xiaodongese youth were in danger of turning into a "western-esque "me generation, similar to the process that has occurred in Namor". Xi also emphasised Normalisation would see a return to centralised control and a a more authoritarian government. Xi allowed emergency powers to be given to State Chairman Yuan Xiannian, as well as allowing the police, army and Shujichu to arrest anyone suspected of anti-government or anti-Xiaodongese activity.
In January 2017 41 members of the opposition including leader of the opposition Hu Wenjuan were arrested, and a month later Xi stated that the Righteous Harmony Movement (Yundong) had infiltrated the government and so began to purge officials connected to the movement including former State Chairman Jiang Zhongyu. By March 2017, 1,500 people had been executed by the regime, 30,000 arrested and 80,000 either suspended or removed from their jobs as part of Normalisation.
The Xi government upon coming to power make several moves to stabilise the economic situation, courting investment from Tuthina and approving of several stimulus packages to retain confidence in the economy.
Following the dissolution of the Esquarian Union Xiaodong continued to be a member of the Greenwich Area, and gained preferential access to the Esquarian Community's common market when they were merged. However following the start of Normalisation Xi announced that the government would withdraw from this agreement after coming under intense scrutiny from the EC. As a result, the Xiaodongese economy which was already in a recession contracted even more and inflation rose to 450%.
Xi holding an economic summit of Xiaodongese business leaders in October 2016
In January 2017 Xi and Yuan Xiannian announced an economic stabilisation plan with the following components that aimed to reduce inflation and restore growth -
- A short-term period of fiscal stimulus (of over 金4.7 trillion) followed by significant cuts in government expenditure (estimated between 金500 billion - 金1.5 trillion) over a five year period.
- Privatisation of state assets.
- Liberalising wage controls and working conditions.
- Emergency price controls to be placed on basic goods and services.
- A sharp devaluation of the Renjin.
- New regulations on the Xiaodongese Reserve Bank which will curb the ability to print money to cover deficits.
- Halve the corporation tax from 13.44% to 5.68%.
- Expand the Central Economic Directive and consolidate government cooperation in the economy.
- Liberalise foreign trade and draft new free-trade agreements with economic partners.
In April 2017 Xi claimed Xiaodong's economic troubles were "exaggerated" and that "the government has maintained consistent fiscal discipline despite hiccups in the economy, and we will continue to pursue economic reform and maintain a stable economy".
The 2017-2018 budget saw the government commit to structural reforms including liberalisation of the labour market making it easier to hire and fire workers', restrict the ability to strike and allow companies to set a more liberalised wage policy. Reforms also included an abolition of the temporary price controls imposed in February and the withdrawal of state subsidies in food and fuel (with the government creating a 金85,000 million Relief Fund to help those affected by subsequent price increases) and removing much of the red tape to allow foreign companies to find it easier to launch takeovers of Xiaodongese business. In August 2017 Xi stated "We predict these fundamental structural reforms will improve the economic direction of the country and will serve to reduce inflation".
Xi has stated that Xiaodongese foreign policy should be "
anti-imperialist" but that Xiaodong should have "
a thousand friendships". Under Xi there has been a push for deeper relations with the other nations of the
International Forum of Developing States where he serves as its Secretary-General, especially
Namor and
Ankoren. Xi attended the
2016 Esquarian Summit, the first Xiaodongese leader to be invited to such a summit.
In March 2017 as a result of several sanctions being placed on Xiaodong, Xi in a joint statement with Yuan Xiannian announced an end to dual citizenship and forcibly seized the assets of countries that placed sanctions on Xiaodong such as Luziyca, Senria and Ainin. In the same speech, Yuan and Xi stated that "Countries like Ainin, and Senria alongside the Esquarian Community constitute an axis of evil that seeks to undermine national sovereignty and support terrorism".
After a statement from Everàrd Torsièl demanding Xiaodong adhere to a resolution passed by the Esquarian Parliament to respect human rights, the Xiaodongese government responded by sating the EC were attempting to undermine Xiaodong. State owned media stated "The EC would ideally want Xiaodong to be like Aucuria - a client state of the elite who has been an agent in supporting the globalist agenda" and that the EC was spreading anti-Xiaodongese propaganda to distract from their own failings.
In November 2016 Xi hosted the State President of Ankoren Evren Volkan in Rongzhuo, where the two agreed to strike down tariff barriers and give Xiaodong preferential access to Ankoreni oil in return for Ankoren getting discounted prices on Xiaodongese coal, bauxite and iron. Xi praised Ankoren and pledged Xiaodongese support for Ankoren in its military operations in Nautasia. In January 2017 Ankoren agreed to sell six Ty-H1 naval bombers and one Ty-H1S surveillance plane to Xiaodong alongside several anti-ship and anti-surface missiles in a deal estimated to cost Xiaodong $1.8 billion.
Xi has been a strong advocate for increased cooperation with Ankoren, and was considered crucial in advocating the creation of the International Forum for Developing States through his close links with Ankoren. Xi calls for an "Estanban-Rongzhuo Axis.
Senrian-Xiaodongese relations have deteriorated following the start of Normalisation, as Senrian Prime Minister Nisimura Hayato called Normalisation "utterly disgusting" and stated Senria would help "anyone else fleeing this horrific repression in Xiaodong". Xi criticised Nisimura as housing terrorists, and accused those targeted as part of Normalisation as being part of a Senrian-backed plot to destabilise Xiaodong.
Nisimura stated in March 2017 that "It is now hopefully clear to all of Esquarium the threat that the Xiaodongese dictatorship poses to peace and stability in Borea, Lahudica, and elsewhere" which worsened Xiaodongese-Senrian relations. Relations further deteriorated when Xi's government backed evidence put forward by controversial Xiaodongese historian Zhou Youyu that claimed that Xiaodongese forces only killed 100,000 Senrian civilians in the Senrian-Xiaodongese War and that Senrian forces killed 400,000.
Under Xi there has been worsened relations with Tuthina, mainly due to Xiaodongese actions in regards to Senrian-Xiaodongese relations. Xiaodongese comments of Senrian militarism and the buying of arms and weaponry from Teutonia and Ankoren has been said to lead to criticism from Tuthina. Xi's government has denied any rift with Tuthina, and has stated its commitment to cordial Tuthinian-Xiaodongese relations.
In February 2017 Xi made a deal with Tuthinian business leaders to host the Elysium program in Xiaodong.
Under Xi relations have worsened with countries such as Ainin and members of the Esquarian Community since the start of Normalisation, with many countries being critical of Xiaodongese policies.
Views
Xi is seen as a conservative politician in Shangea being supportive of economic liberalism, managed democracy and a foreign policy focused around the International Forum for Developing States. Political scientist Hu Guxiang identified him with the nationalist, anti-Senrian and pro-market wing of the Society for Restoring Benevolence.
Democracy
Xi has supported the idea of a "Shangean approach to democracy". According to Xi, Shangean democracy differs from liberal democracy in that citizens have "fundamental responsibilities to the state just as the state grants them fundamental rights." The concept of "Shangean democracy" that Xi promotes has also been promoted by former leaders Qian Xingwen, Han Guanzheng and Yuan Xiannian.
In a speech made upon becoming premier in 2007, Xi explicitly ruled out the emergence of a western style democracy in Shangea, rejecting constitutional republicanism, a presidential system and separation of powers. Instead, Jiang proposed an strong government that requires the approval of the people and approved the idea of a form of "democratic centralism" as an efficient way of conducting Shangean politics.
Senrian Genocide
Unlike other prominent Shangean officials Xi has not denied the deaths of many Senrians during the Senrian Genocide. Xi stated in 2013 that the "actions of units in the Senrian territories could be seen to constitute a form of mass murder" and that Shangea "apologises profusely to the Senrian people" over the actions of the 1930's. However, Xi said that there was "no policy of genocide" and that the massacres were the brainchild of occupation authorities rather than the central government at the time. Xi later clarified this statement by saying accusations of ethnic cleansing were overexaggerated.
Personal life
Family
Kuoqing, Luoyun Province, Shangea.jpg)
