How Great Is Xi’s Harm? Take a Look at “As Long As He Is Still in Power”

Xi is about to lose his power. 

[People News] Recently, a list themed “As Long As He Is Still in Power” has been widely circulated online, enumerating the comprehensive harm that CCP leader Xi Jinping has caused to China since taking office, including economic corrosion, social suffocation, diplomatic isolation, collapse of people’s livelihoods, and civilizational regression—painting an apocalyptic picture of Chinese society. The list has sparked heated discussion. Some netizens remarked that Xi’s harm has already grown so great that even many within the system are privately asking, “How much longer can this last?” The real question, they say, is not “What will happen if he remains in power?” but rather “After he is replaced, what will be left behind?”

The list was first promoted by the X account “New Highland.” In a post titled “Just How Great Is Xi Jinping’s Harm?” the account stated that Xi has been in power for over 13 years, and some netizens have compiled a 30-point list titled “As Long As He Is Still in Power,” depicting an apocalyptic scenario of political, economic, and social regression under CCP rule.

The article says that this list has circulated online for years. By February 2026, many of the predictions in the list are no longer “hypothetical,” but realities that are either already occurring or accelerating.

The article assesses the degree of Xi’s harm to China, including extreme concentration of power and institutional regression (harm: extremely high, and still intensifying); deep economic and livelihood crises (harm: extremely high, possibly reaching a breaking point this year); social control and human rights regression (harm: systemic and irreversible); diplomatic isolation and war risk (harm: medium to high, but with enormous destructive power), among others, and states that Xi’s harm has now escalated from a “potential risk” to a “systemic existential threat.”

Veteran media figure Akio Yaita reposted the list on February 28, saying it was written in great detail. He also reminded readers: “Some people in Taiwan are eager to meet him, but I think it is best not to deal with him.”

According to X user “fzhang,” the “As Long As He Is Still in Power” list, combined with China’s latest developments, evaluates Xi’s harm to China as follows:

1. Extreme Concentration of Power and Institutional Regression (Harm: Extremely High, and Still Intensifying)

Through constitutional amendments abolishing term limits, dismantling traces of collective leadership, and writing “Xi Jinping Thought” into the Constitution and Party charter, Xi has in effect rebuilt a form of near lifetime personal rule.

The large-scale military purge of 2025–2026 has become the most striking evidence: Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (Xi’s childhood friend and representative of the “red second generation”), Joint Staff Department Chief Liu Zhenli, former Vice Chairman He Weidong, CMC member Miao Hua, and multiple active-duty generals have been removed on charges of “serious violations of discipline and law.”

The PLA Daily has rarely used extremely harsh language such as “seriously fostering factors that undermine the Party’s absolute leadership over the military and endanger the Party’s governing foundation,” publicly naming individuals, showing that the purge has shifted from “anti-corruption” to political reckoning.

The article analyzes that this reflects Xi’s obsession with “absolute control” over the military to the point of self-destruction—even not sparing his closest childhood friend and generals he personally promoted. This “Stalinist logic” of purges is destroying the professionalization of the military, the integrity of its command chain, and morale, while making officials throughout the Party and government feel insecure.

Items 3, 11, 19, and 24 in the list describing “officialdom panic,” “arrogance of the powerful,” and “conscience imprisoned” are now being institutionalized.

2. Deep Economic and Livelihood Crisis (Harm: Extremely High, Possibly a Breaking Point This Year)

The related accusations in the list (Items 1, 4, 7, 12, 22, 26, 29) have almost all come true, and the situation is more severe than in 2022–2024:

Population crisis: In 2025, China’s births totaled only 7.92 million (the lowest since 1949), with the total population declining for the fourth consecutive year by 3.39 million; deaths reached 11.31 million. Aging is accelerating beyond expectations, and the working-age population is shrinking rapidly.

Debt and real estate: Local government finances are on the verge of collapse, with ongoing rumors of debt crises in multiple provinces; the real estate market remains depressed, and land-based fiscal revenue has collapsed.

Domestic demand and employment: Industrial profits, output, and employment indicators continue to shrink; external demand (exports) has also begun to decline comprehensively.

Multiple analyses predict that 2026 may be the year when seven major crises (deflationary spiral, real estate collapse, financial risk, population cliff, industrial contraction, weak external demand, fiscal bankruptcy) erupt simultaneously.

The CCP continues to promote “high-quality development” and “technological self-reliance,” but the actual effects are offset by high debt, collapse of confidence in the private sector, and accelerated withdrawal of foreign capital. The list’s claim that “bankruptcy, unemployment, and despair become the norm” and that “livelihood burdens increase day by day” has become the lived experience of many families.

3. Social Control and Human Rights Regression (Harm: Systemic and Irreversible)

Human Rights Watch’s 2025/2026 World Report directly states that after more than a decade of Xi’s rule, China no longer has an independent civil society; freedoms of speech, association, and religion have been comprehensively lost. “Re-education camps” in Xinjiang, the Hong Kong National Security Law, comprehensive digital surveillance, and even “minor criticism” beyond “minor corruption” are met with heavy crackdowns. Since 2025, even criticism of economic policy and historical reflection have become taboo, with frequent disappearances of scholars and artists.

Items 5, 6, 8, 13, 14, and 24 in the list describing “knowledge and soul expelled,” “expanding speech taboos,” “society like cicadas in winter,” and “broken bonds of trust” have become daily reality. The combination of extreme nationalism and “zero-tolerance style” stability maintenance is draining all social vitality.

4. Diplomatic Isolation and War Risk (Harm: Medium to High, but with Enormous Destructive Power)

“Wolf warrior diplomacy,” high pressure on Taiwan, and support for Russia have driven China’s international image to a low point. The military purge has been interpreted by some analysts as “political preparation for an attack on Taiwan before 2027,” but more views hold that the purge has weakened rather than strengthened actual combat capability.

Items 2, 18, 20, 25, 27, and 28 in the list—“making enemies on all sides,” “isolation,” “sliding toward a North Korea-style wasteland,” and “increasing support for aggressors”—are being partially fulfilled.

Although China still has influence in areas such as the Belt and Road Initiative and new energy, the geopolitical costs (sanctions, supply chain restructuring, technology blockades) are already extremely high.

The article concludes that Xi’s harm has escalated from a “potential risk” to a “systemic existential threat.”

How great is Xi’s harm? It has grown so great that even many within the system are privately asking, “How much longer can this last?” The real question may not be “What will happen if he remains in power?” but “After he is replaced, what will be left behind?”

Many X users commented that replacing only Xi would not be enough: “As long as the Chinese Communist Party is still in power, the next ‘him’ will come back.”

NoNoNo: “The zero-COVID policy alone has already severely damaged China’s economy, and it still hasn’t recovered.”

Zhang Xiancheng: “Has anyone published what will happen as long as the CCP is still on Chinese soil?”

Scallion Pancake: “It makes more sense to replace ‘him’ with the CCP. Even if it’s not Chairman Xi, as long as the CCP remains a one-party dictatorship, this country will not get better.”

Stealing Joy (Never Forget Peng Zaizhou): “Not profound enough. It should be: As long as the Chinese Communist Party is still in power, the next ‘him’ will come back.”

Ai Bi Ying: “He has already crippled the Communist Party. Without Xi Jinping, the U.S. would have to deal with countless CCP families. Now it’s simple—just take down Xi and the Communist Party can be eliminated!”

Full of Fine Officials Meeting a Wise Lord: “To be honest, as long as the Communist Party is still in power, even if Xi is gone there will be a Wang Jinping or Li Jinping. It’s this party and this system that are rotten to the core.”

However, some earlier viewpoints have held that Xi’s fate is bound together with that of the CCP—he is the chief accelerator of the CCP’s demise.

Commentator Du Zheng wrote in Taiwanese media that in recent years the CCP has repeatedly fallen into chaotic governance, deep economic crisis, and rising calls at home and abroad to “eliminate the CCP.” Because of too much wrongdoing, the CCP regime is facing ever greater trouble; this broken ship can no longer withstand turbulence. In a short time, once Xi leaves, he will take the CCP regime down with him. △