The Leadership Enigma

When Lenin's Communism took hold in Russia at the height of its struggle in the first world war the regime quickly became based on a lie.  The Communist leadership insisted that the countries to the west were enduring even worse poverty than the Russian people, and to maintain that myth the country's borders were sealed.

Those were the days when Russia imposed strict censorship on what the Russian people heard - or saw - or read.  No foreign newspapers or magazines were allowed into the country.  Radio jamming stations on the country's borders interrupted broadcasts from other countries and even the thought of personal travel to see the world would land a citizen in a prison cell.

That became a time of forced isolation during the war with Germany.  Convoys of war material from the west arriving in Murmansk or Archangel risked this secret escaping and so western crews were isolated from contact with Russian stevedores.  Ships crews formed the impression that Russia was the most unfriendly regime on the planet.

Of course such a dastardly secret was impossible to maintain and to Russia's embarrassment, every time any cultural exchange of orchestras, ballet or sporting teams were sent to the west half their number simply " disappeared ",  sought " political asylum " and refused to return home.  In the end, those sent abroad usually had their family held hostage to ensure that they would return.

During the cold war this same imposition was forced on countries captured during the second world war and which had Communism installed with the barrel of a gun.  People who had previously enjoyed freedom were saddled with the Communist yoke and this was partially responsible for the collapsed of the Soviet Union.

It is interesting to compare that with Communism in China.  Initially - under Chairman Mao - this same isolation was imposed, but eventually  Deng Xiaoping came to power and the impetus changed. China adopted a capitalist economy and " being rich " became acceptable.  China now has a rigid Communist government structure that imposes a firm political hold and a freewheeling economy where millions of Chinese have passports and travel the world.  In fact the Chinese economy is fast threatening to dominate by both volume and value the competition from the western world.

Once again the leadership has changed with Xi Jinping rising to supreme power, and his ambition seems to be to take China to the height of military power in this world.  Given the spending power of the Chinese economy, it is inevitable that such parity will be reached - and that raises the question of what happens next  ?

It seems the dogma espoused by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin still has adherents and Chinas is faced with irritants  to its unity from both Hong Kong and Taiwan.  What gets written in the history books of the future probably depends on where Xi Jinping decides to take his country.   As so many times in the past, the decisions of a single person with power will decide the fate of the world.