Contrasts in Character: Ford and Xi

Nov 21

It is difficult to think of two world leaders who present a starker contrast than the 38th President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, and the current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. Each was shaped by difficulties he faced early in life, but they evolved radically different understandings of their nation’s goals and their own approaches to leadership. These contrasts bear major implications for each nation’s future.

Ford was born Leslie King, Jr. into a broken marriage, his abusive biological father threatening his mother and infant son with a knife. Fortunately, his mother was able to obtain a divorce and remarry a good man, Gerald Ford, who encouraged his son to become a Boy Scout and participate in athletics, a commitment that eventually led Ford to letter on the University of Michigan’s football team.

Xi’s father had been an important figure in the Communist Party, but when he was purged from leadership during the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to forced labor, his wife was made to denounce him, and Xi’s sister was subjected to severe persecution. Xi himself was banished to the countryside, living in abject poverty. Eventually, he studied chemical engineering and after many attempts, gained membership in the party.

After coaching football and completing law school at Yale University, Ford enlisted in the US Naval Reserve during World War II, serving in the Pacific Fleet. Returning to his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ford ran for Congress, serving for 25 years. Among other lessons Ford learned was the importance of opposing isolationism and looking at US policy from an internationalist perspective.

Xi, too, has shown a strong internationalist outlook. After serving as governor of several Chinese provinces, he began assuming national offices, eventually emerging as the successor to the nation’s leader, Hu Jintao. Upon assuming power, Xi promoted his “Belt and Road” initiative, intended to enhance Chinese influence around the world by drawing together 150 countries that comprise three-quarters of the world’s population.

Yet Xi’s reign has revealed stark differences with Ford. When Ford addressed Yale Law School on its 150th anniversary as president in 1975, he argued that the US can both restrain crime and protect liberty, saying, “Let us show that we can temper together those opposite elements of liberty and restraint into one consistent whole. Let us set an example for the world of a law-abiding America glorying in its freedom and respect for law.”

Xi, by contrast, has moved to radically curtail political liberties. The 2020 passage of a national security law in Hong Kong has suppressed political activism, especially by pro-democracy advocates. It enables authorities to monitor, search, and detain persons and to restrict and remove print and online content that is deemed to pose a threat to national security, breaching a 1984 law meant to preserve Hong Kong’s autonomy for 50 years.

Ford faced significant criticism as president, at no time more so than after pardoning his predecessor, Richard Nixon. Yet Ford insisted that all voices must be heard, saying “I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad. In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor.”

In sharp contrast to Ford, Xi is notorious for operating in secrecy and has dramatically expanded mass surveillance and censorship. He has argued that Chinese media should “fully identity” with the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party. Such suggestions reveal a profound insecurity about the party’s (and his own) ability to withstand criticism, something diametrically opposed to Ford’s faith in the free exchange of ideas.

One of Ford’s most outstanding personal characteristics was his humility. He warned the American people that “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln,” and he always insisted that he was no saint, “hoping to never see the day that I cannot admit having made a mistake.” For Ford, no one was above the law: “I deeply believe in equal justice for all Americans, whatever their station.” Even the president, Ford held, must obey the law.

Xi, by contrast, has presided over the establishment of a cult of personality centered on himself. Newspapers follow Xi’s every move. Chinese popular culture has become saturated with books, music, and performances praising him and his rule. In 2018, an ideology known as “Xi Jinping Thought” was incorporated into the nation’s constitution. One province even told its Christian citizens to replace their portraits of Jesus with photos of Xi.

Ford expressed highest loyalty to the nation’s founding documents, the Declaration of Independence at the Constitution, which he believed defined an American, enumerating ‘the political values of self-government, liberty and justice, equal rights, and equal opportunity.” These beliefs, he said, are the secrets of “America’s unity from diversity – in my judgment, the most magnificent achievement of our 200 years as a nation.”

By contrast, Chinese universities have revised their charters to replace such core commitments as “academic independence and freedom of thought” with a determination to “follow the Communist Party’s leadership.” Last year, Xi even engineered a revocation of the two-term limit on Chinese leadership and had himself named to a third term as general secretary, supported by a vote in the National People’s Congress of 2,952 to 0.

Simply put, Ford promoted freedom – political liberties, free expression of ideas, and the rule of law. By contrast, Xi has created an increasingly centralized, inflexible, oppressive culture focused on one person – himself. In 1976. the US easily weathered the transition from Gerald Ford to Jimmy Carter, but China’s one-man echo chamber, devoid of successors, may well implode when the 71-year-old Xi’s rule ends.