re: #124 Barefoot Grin

I listened to a fascinating podcast last week (with a lot of speculation, necessarily) that some in the upper echelons like Jiang Zemin are starting to push back against Xi Jingping out of fear that he’s trying to create another Mao-like cult of personality. Seems like there may be some factional housecleaning going on?

Yeah, there are factions within the Party, though the public perception is of one big happy Party. Xi seems to lead the more Mao-ist, China First faction, and he’s been using his anti-corruption office to weed out Party members outside that faction. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are more moderate and less nationalistic than Xi, and being older are nervous about Xi becoming the next Mao aka dictator for life.