Lately, a wave of speculation has emerged in Western media asking whether Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping is losing his grip.
Faced with rising youth unemployment, elite disaffection and a deteriorating administrative apparatus, it’s tempting to believe the Chinese leader is on the way out. But this narrative, while seductive, fundamentally misreads the evolving architecture of digital authoritarianism in China.
What looks like volatility is often a carefully staged illusion. For those unfamiliar with China’s digital ecology, a surge in online dissent might be taken as a sign of insecurity. But through the lens of internetwork society, this is precisely how power is maintained. Rather than crumbling, Xi Jinping’s regime has grown more sophisticated — tightening its control through new instruments of emotional manipulation and algorithmic governance.
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