The Mandate of Heaven/rev II

Jialun Deng

Seems Xi's push to control everything has leeched into the tech sector where entrepreneurial initiative becomes taboo, a most ironic take as this need to control above all else threatens China's push to become the preeminent power in all things technical does it not?

Like many ambitious young Chinese, Zhao Junfeng studied hard in college and graduate school so he could land a coveted job as a programmer at a big Chinese internet company.

After finishing graduate school in 2019, he joined an e-commerce company in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, got married and adopted a cat named Mango. In November of 2021, he moved to Shanghai to join one of China’s biggest video platforms, iQiyi. He was on track to achieve a much-desired middle-class life, documenting his rise on his social media account.

Then barely a month into his new job, he was let go when iQiyi laid off more than 20 percent of its staff.

Question ... How does The Mandate of Heaven apply to Xi regarding this need to control. It adversely impacts China's well being, does it not?

An idealised portrait of King Wen of Zhou (11th century BCE), the first Chinese ruler to claim the Mandate of Heaven. Ming Period illustration.

The Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), also known as Heaven's Mandate, was the divine source of authority and the right to rule of China's early kings and emperors. The ancient god or divine force known as Heaven or Sky had selected this particular individual to rule on its behalf on earth. An important element of the mandate was that although the ruler had been given great power he also had a moral obligation to use it for the good of his people, if he did not then his state would suffer terrible disasters and he would lose the right to govern.

A brief flow chart depicting the flow of auctoritas in the transfer of

the Mandate of Heaven at the transition of dynastic cycles

The ranks of the unemployed technology workers are swelling, as China’s once vibrant internet industry is hit by a harsh and capricious regulatory crackdown. Under the direction of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, the government’s unbridled hand is meddling in big ways and small, leaving companies second-guessing their strategies and praying to not become the next targets for crackdown.

Like their American counterparts, China’s biggest tech companies are regulated to limit abuses of power and to mitigate systemic risks. But Beijing’s hyper-political approach shows that it’s more about the Communist Party’s taking control of the industry than about leveling the playing field.

The crackdown is killing the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit that made China a tech power in the past decade. It is destroying companies, profits and jobs that used to attract China’s best and brightest.

The Mandate of Heaven indeed.