Victor Shih

It's very scary.

So I think they are substantive.

And then, well, but the thing is also Xi Jinping will make remarks after such a lecture.

And those remarks become policy.

So you asked about the leading small group.

So this is where this ranking is very important, right?

So the head of the leading small group always has to be the senior most ranked person.

And of course, the good thing about having Xi Jinping as the head of a leading small group is that his authority is not going to be challenged by anyone else because everyone agrees he's the most powerful and most senior ranked person in all of China.

But the problem is all the other members of the leading small group are low-ranked than him.

So then – so whereas before – well, not all.

But like whereas before when decisions were made in the Politburo Standing Committee, notionally the party and also even the bureaucratic ranks of all the Politburo Standing Committee members are equivalent to each other.

So there was debates.

There were debates.

And then, you know, even sometimes overturning of the position of the party secretary general, sort of historically, you have seen cases like that.

But when most of the decision was pushed into all these different leading small group, usually there's one other person who's similarly ranked as Xi Jinping, you know, the premier of China or

or one of the other people, but everyone else would be these vice premier, ministers, or provincial governors who are definitely ranked lower than Xi Jinping.

And in no scenario will they debate a particular policy with Xi Jinping.

So at most, maybe there's one person with sort of equal standing officially with Xi Jinping who could

voice some kind of disagreement.

But of course, because Xi is so powerful informally, no one would actually dare to do that.