The Externalities of a Personalist Regime: Xi’s Cult and Its Impacts

• In Event: Authoritarian Survival and Governance in China

Abstract

The tensions between the US and China, the world’s two largest economies, have intensified in the last ten years. According to Pew Research Center’s studies, US citizens’ attitudes toward China have steadily declined in the past ten years. We argue that the CCP’s leadership, especially the current General Secretary of the CCP—Xi Jinping, bears some of the responsibility for the declining favorability of the US citizens against China. The CCP regime moves towards a personalist regime closer, the more threatening the general US citizens will perceive the CCP regime. We use a survey experiment to test our hypotheses. This study contributes to the study of personalist regimes and their impact on public opinions in democracies.

Authors

• YONGFENG TANG, University of Arizona

• Paul J. Schuler, University of Arizona