Why leaders fight eating and drinking: anticorruption campaigns in China

Abstract

Immediately after Xi Jinping assumed the position of party secretary general (PSG), he launched a large-scale top-down antiwaste campaign amongst the Chinese cadre corps. Compared with similar policies announced by Xi’s predecessors, this campaign has distinct features that entail substantial political costs for the PSG. Why did Xi choose this risky strategy? Drawing on recent literature on authoritarian regimes, we argue that, amongst all possible objectives, an authoritarian leader such as Xi can use this type of policy campaign to demonstrate his power. In particular, the inherent importance of informal politics, the recent developments in Chinese politics, and Xi’s personal background have increased his incentive and capacity to signal power by implementing this seemingly risky campaign. A comparison with Xi’s two predecessors, interviews, and statistical analyses support this argument. Our theoretical framework also sheds light on the literature on the power sharing of authoritarian political elites.