The Dragon’s Heir Hunt

Personalist Rule Risks, Women’s Exclusion from Power, and India’s Role in U.S.-China Tariff Battles

In the shadowy corridors of Beijing’s Zhongnanhai leadership compound, where the fate of 1.4 billion people is often decided behind closed doors, a question looms larger than ever: What happens after Xi Jinping? As China’s paramount leader enters his 70s, having consolidated power in ways unseen since Mao Zedong, the absence of a clear successor is not just a domestic puzzle—it’s a geopolitical time bomb that could reshape global alliances and ignite conflicts from Taiwan to the South China Sea. With Xi’s rule marked by unprecedented centralization, the transition ahead promises turbulence, potentially exacerbated by subtle undercurrents of dissent and external pressures like escalating trade wars tied to the Ukraine conflict.