A new book of speeches on official promotion exposes Xi’s obsession with loyalty, debt-fuelled corruption, and two-faced officials who say one thing and do another
Inside Xi’s Playbook for Controlling Communist Party Officials
A new volume published by the Central Party Literature Press has provided an unusually candid glimpse into the anxieties and priorities of Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he prepares the Communist Party for a major leadership transition next year. The book, a collection of speeches and instructions on the promotion and appraisal of party cadres spanning Xi’s tenure since November 2012, landed with a thud that surprised even seasoned observers of Chinese party politics.
Its contents range from bureaucratic boilerplate to unexpectedly blunt warnings about official misconduct, corrupt accounting practices, and the problem of officials whose public professions of loyalty mask private behaviour that undermines the party’s goals. Among the most striking passages is Xi’s colourful denunciation of officials who burden local governments with mountains of debt in pursuit of headline-generating projects and then move on before the bills come due.
Xi’s Language: Raw and Uncharacteristic
At the 2013 annual central economic work conference, Xi delivered remarks on debt-laden white elephant infrastructure projects that were almost startling in their directness. “Some officials probably didn’t even think about repaying the debt when they raised it,” he said in an excerpt reproduced in the new volume. “We cannot allow some officials to burden the government with an a***load of debt in order to achieve political achievements, tap their backsides and walk off and then get promoted all the way up.” The language is remarkable by the standards of official Chinese political discourse, suggesting that the problem it describes is severe enough to have frustrated Xi to the point of profanity in a closed-door setting.
The book’s publication coincides with an overhaul of the Communist Party’s promotion system that Xi has ordered in the run-up to the 2027 Party Congress, at which a new generation of senior leaders will be elevated. The timing is not coincidental. The leadership transition represents one of the most significant opportunities for Xi to shape the party’s future direction, and the standards by which officials are evaluated and promoted will determine who rises and who is sidelined.
The Problem of Two-Faced Officials
A recurring theme throughout the volume is Xi’s preoccupation with what he calls “two-faced” officials — individuals who perform loyalty in public while pursuing their own interests, ignoring central directives, or maintaining relationships with factional rivals in private. The concept of the “two-faced official” (???) has become a standard element of Xi’s internal political vocabulary, deployed in anti-corruption drives and loyalty campaigns alike.
From the perspective of democratic governance, this preoccupation reveals something important about the structural fragility of single-party authoritarian rule. A system in which officials must profess personal loyalty to a supreme leader, rather than adherence to law and institutional procedure, inevitably generates the very problem it claims to solve: officials learn to perform loyalty rather than embody it, because performance is what is rewarded. The demand for ideological conformity creates an incentive for deception that no volume of speeches or cadre guidelines can fully extinguish.
Performance Benchmarks and Local Variation
The new guidelines also introduce what Xi describes as a more tailored approach to performance appraisal: rather than applying identical metrics nationwide, local conditions should inform the benchmarks used to evaluate officials. On the surface, this appears pragmatic. A coastal province with a sophisticated manufacturing sector faces different challenges from a remote western region dependent on agriculture and subsistence livelihoods.
In practice, however, local variation in appraisal standards can also be a mechanism for protecting powerful local officials from accountability by allowing them to define success on their own terms. Critics of the system note that the party’s promotion mechanism has historically favoured officials who can demonstrate economic growth, regardless of the social and environmental costs of the methods used to achieve it.
What Xi’s Anxiety Tells Us About the CCP
The publication of this volume — and the frankness of some of its contents — is itself a signal worth reading carefully. It suggests that Xi, despite his consolidation of personal power, faces significant problems of internal governance that he has not been able to resolve through purges, ideological campaigns, or loyalty oaths alone. The Communist Party’s institutional culture, shaped by decades of incentives that rewarded deception, rent-seeking, and factional manoeuvring, does not transform easily in response to speeches, however direct or colourful.
For those watching from Hong Kong and the broader democratic world, the spectacle of China’s supreme leader issuing elaborate guidelines to try to produce trustworthy officials should prompt sober reflection. A system that requires its leader to instruct officials in how to be loyal, honest, and accountable is a system whose foundations for trustworthy governance remain deeply insecure. The Corruption Perceptions Index published annually by Transparency International tracks how China performs relative to global standards of public sector integrity — and the results consistently reflect the structural problems that Xi’s speeches acknowledge but cannot resolve. For deeper analysis of how the Chinese Communist Party’s cadre system functions and its inherent dysfunctions, the China Leadership Monitor, published by leading scholars of Chinese politics, provides authoritative and regularly updated research. The bottom line is this: a party that must publish a book of speeches about how to produce honest officials has not solved the problem of dishonest officials. It has merely documented the failure.
Jessica Lam
Politics & Diaspora Affairs Journalist, Apple Daily UK
Contact: jessica.lam@appledaily.uk
Jessica Lam is a politics and diaspora affairs journalist with specialized expertise in Hong Kong governance, overseas Chinese communities, and democratic movements. Educated at a leading UK journalism institution, she received advanced training in political reporting, international law basics, and source protection, equipping her for complex cross-border coverage.
Jessica has worked with Apple Daily and other liberal Chinese publications, reporting on electoral systems, civic participation, protest movements, and policy developments affecting the Chinese diaspora. Her work demonstrates strong command of political context and an ability to translate complex issues into accessible, fact-driven journalism.
She brings real-world newsroom experience in covering time-sensitive political developments while maintaining strict verification standards. Jessica regularly works with primary documents, expert interviews, and multiple independent sources to ensure balanced and accurate reporting.
Her authority is reinforced by consistent publication within established news organizations and by adherence to editorial review processes. She is known for transparent attribution and for distinguishing clearly between reporting and analysis.
Jessica Lam’s journalism reflects professional experience, subject-matter expertise, and a strong ethical foundation. At Apple Daily UK, she contributes trusted political coverage that serves readers seeking independent and credible information.
