Drum Tower: Chairman of everything

Whenever Xi Jinping grabs more power for himself, critics compare him to Chairman Mao Zedong. But is it a fair comparison?The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, discuss to what extent Xi is emulating Mao’s strongman approach or whether Liu Shaoqi, China’s one-time president, provides a better model to understand Xi’s political ambitions.Sign up to our weekly newsletter here and for full access to print, digital and audio editions, as well as exclusive live events, subscribe to The Economist at economist.com/drumoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.