Responding to Xi's China

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Addressing China's Communist Party's Congress on Sunday, President Xi Jinping told delegates at the twice-a-decade event to "Be mindful of dangers in the midst of peace. Get the house in good repair before rain comes, and prepare to undergo the major tests of winds and waves and even perilous, stormy seas."

The audience, obedient to China's most powerful leader since Chairman Mao Zedong, will obey. Under dictatorial rule, so must the nation.

America's Congress and citizens are decidedly and rightly less compliant. But they too should be mindful of potential threats, especially because Xi continues to make it clear that force is an option regarding Taiwan.

"The wheels of history are rolling towards China's reunification with Taiwan," Xi said.

Those wheels, however, might be barreling like a freight train, as evidenced by Xi ominously intoning that although peaceful measures are preferred, China reserves "the option to take all necessary measures."

Xi's comments and other provocations prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to say on Monday that there "has been a change in the approach from Beijing to Taiwan in recent years," including "a fundamental decision that the status quo was no longer acceptable and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline."

This dangerous dynamic, and the broader challenge of China's rise, got the most focus in the new National Security Strategy issued by the Biden administration this month.

"The People's Republic of China harbors the intention and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order in favor of one that tilts the global playing field to its benefit, even as the United States remains committed to managing the competition between our countries responsibly," the 48-page document states.

China, the administration says, looks to "layer authoritarian governance with a revisionist foreign policy." That much is apparent in Xi's 10 years of rule. China has become an even more authoritarian, at times Orwellian, nation, crushing dissent in Hong Kong and committing what the U.S. accurately labels genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population in the far-Western Xinjiang region.

The reference to revisionist foreign policy isn't only manifest in China's increasing bellicosity toward Taiwan but in maritime disputes with multiple Asian nations and in its continued quest to dominate critical economic and technological sectors that will partly determine 21st-century geopolitics.

According to the National Security Strategy, China "is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective."

Responding to the technological underpinning of China's rise was evident in the administration's recent restrictions on advanced semiconductors, chipmaking technology, and even some American executives involved in the industry. And it won't be the last move made by Washington or Beijing in the globally consequential contest between economies, security structures, and fundamental philosophies.

Xi's philosophy — shorthanded as "Xi Jinping Thought" — is nearly indistinguishable from the official direction of the Communist Party, which looks to reward its president with an unprecedented third five-year term at the end of this week's Congress. Suppose the docile delegates do find Xi the one indispensable individual in the world's most populous country. In that case, his tenure might become indefinite, much like how Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi's fellow authoritarian and close ally, has set himself up for enduring rule.

If Xi's extension from the expected 10-year term is inevitable, the outcome of his rule is not. For all its momentum, Beijing is still besieged by domestic and international challenges, most of its own making. In just one example, its draconian "zero COVID" protocols are stifling its citizens and the economy and reflect the same insular thinking that allowed the virus to remain unchecked from its original epicenter, Wuhan.

He's similarly stifling economic dynamism by reasserting more state control over the economy, and his internal repression smothers the intellectual dynamism necessary for a thriving society.

The U.S. can compete effectively — and however tensely, peacefully — with China by also preparing for the winds, waves and perilous, stormy seas in Xi's metaphorical warning. But most importantly, America must get its "house in good repair" and protect the democracy that undergirds this nation's competitive advantage.