"Xi’s political power is as great as that of any leader in decades, yet his party’s tightening of controls over the economy and ever more aspects of society suggest a deep-seated insecurity at the highest levels" write @chubailiang & @stevenleemyers
I write about Xi's hypermasculine personality cult in #BetrayingBigBrother. Xi sees his primary role as stamping out destabilizing forces that might provoke widespread social unrest and lead to the Party's collapse.
Xi should have named a successor and prepared to step down in 2022, but the sudden abolition of term limits in 2018 moved the Communist Party sharply away from its norm of consensus-based leadership of the past few decades. #BetrayingBigBrother
When Xi became president, pop songs emerged idolizing him not just as a father but as an ideal husband, with titles such as "Be a Man Like Xi Dada" and "If You Want to Marry, Marry Someone Like Xi Dada"
Xi's personality cult became so extreme that officials told media to drop the term "Xi Dada", but Chinese media continue to present the nation as one big, male-dominated family, which needs masculine leadership in the form of Xi, the paternalistic patriarch. #BetrayingBigBrother
Yet just how strong is the strongman Xi in reality? Behind the manly titles and macho propaganda videos, Xi's hold on power is much more fragile than it appears. I write in #BetrayingBigBrother that China's decades-long 'economic miracle' of double-digit growth rates is now over.
The Party can no longer rely on economic growth to bolster its political legitimacy, so Chinese propaganda under Xi has revived sexist traditions, pushing the notion that marriage between a man and an obedient woman is the foundation of a stable nation. #BetrayingBigBrother
The Communist Party has ruled China for almost 70 years, longer than Communist rule in the Soviet Union. After the Tiananmen Massacre, many predicted the Party’s demise, but it has defied these predictions and further strengthened its hold on power. #BetrayingBigBrother 
As I write in #BetrayingBigBrother, I believe that the subordination of women is a fundamental element of the Communist Party’s dictatorship. Xi, like other strongman rulers around the world, sees *patriarchal* authoritarianism as critical for the survival of the Communist Party.
It is no wonder that China’s all-male rulers feel threatened by young feminist activists. The Party’s backlash against feminism is a form of state-level, fragile masculinity, terrified at the prospect of emancipated women rising up to challenge the Party’s political legitimacy.
In #BetrayingBigBrother, the stories of women resisting authoritarian repression in China show us why male rulers are so frightened by the prospect of a large-scale feminist movement.
I argue in #BetrayingBigBrother that feminist activism is key to fighting the rise of global authoritarianism. See this thread.
