India, July 13 -- Between Gorbachev and Xi, no greater contrast is possible. One devolved the power of his position as Supremo of the CPSU to a fault, the other has taken over all the key centres of the CCP. Yet, given the differences between the CCP and the CPSU, the destructive impact of Xi on the PRC is likely to be the same as the impact of Gorbachev was on the USSR. While the latter needed just five years, the latter may need fifteen or more years to have a similar impact on the CCP.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was chosen as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union by the party elders in 1985. They saw him as the apparatchik most suitable to ensure better relations with the West, primarily the US. They did no...