Xi Jinping: AI Can Now Crush Dissent Even Before It Surfaces

In an “immensely important” speech, the CCP leader moved China to a new stage of universal digital control.

By Hu Zimo

December 5, 2025

Xi Jinping speaks at the 23rd collective study session. Screenshot.

On November 28, the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo gathered for its 23rd collective study session, ostensibly to discuss “strengthening the governance of the internet ecosystem.” The official readout, broadcast by CCTV, was couched in the familiar jargon of “order,” “guidance,” and “international cooperation.” Yet beneath the bureaucratic phrasing lies a chilling directive: the Party has elevated artificial intelligence from a frontier industry to a “support condition” for regime survival. Leading Indian observer of China’s cyber-repression Manoj Kewalramani called Xi’s speech “immensely important.”

The Politburo’s 23rd collective study session on November 28 was a blueprint for the next phase of digital authoritarianism in China. Xi Jinping’s remarks revealed a comprehensive strategy: artificial intelligence is to be embedded into governance as both a surveillance tool and a propaganda amplifier.

Xi Jinping emphasized that governing the online environment is “a crucial task in building a cyber power, concerning national development and security, and the vital interests of the people.” He stressed the need to improve governance mechanisms with foresight, precision, a systematic approach, and coordination. This language signals a shift from reactive censorship to predictive control. AI is explicitly tasked with enabling cadres to “better understand public opinion” and to anticipate dissent before it surfaces.

In effect, the Party is building a machine for preemptive repression. The Cyberspace Administration of China and security organs are expected to accelerate AI-driven monitoring, not only filtering keywords but mapping sentiment trends, identifying “risk clusters,” and neutralizing them before they metastasize into protest.

Xi’s call to “cut off interest chains” was another innovation. The Party now frames “Internet chaos”—rumors, sensationalism, dissent—as profit-driven rather than ideological. By grouping “interest chains” with “industry chains,” the leadership is signaling a crackdown on the economic infrastructure of digital content. MCNs (Multi-Channel Networks), which manage influencers and optimize traffic, were explicitly cited as requiring stricter guidance.

Platform algorithms, systems that prioritize engagement over political correctness, are now seen as engines of instability. The Party is targeting “corporate monetization,” not just individuals, but the entire ecosystem that profits from attention, effectively criminalizing the business model of virality.

This doctrine represents a fusion of political and economic control: dismantling the profit incentives that sustain independent voices online.

Professor Shi Jianzhong of the China University of Political Science and Law reported on the session to the Politburo. His speech underscores how the Party cloaks repression in the guise of academic legitimacy. By framing internet governance as a matter of legal and systemic refinement, the regime presents its directives as technocratic rather than authoritarian.

Professor Shi Jianzhong. From Weibo.

Xi concluded with remarks on international cyberspace. He called for China to “actively participate in the formulation of international rules, join hands with various countries to combat cyber crimes, and promote the building of a community with a shared future in cyberspace.” Yet the real emphasis was on “telling China’s story well.” Xi urged strengthening China’s capacity to build global communication platforms. The Internet must be used to spread China’s voice and project a “credible, lovable, and respectable image,” Xi said. Domestically, AI suppresses dissent; internationally, it amplifies propaganda.

This meeting represents a distinct evolution in Beijing’s approach to digital control. The Party is moving beyond regulation into full-scale integration of AI into governance. This implies predictive censorship, algorithmic suppression, dismantling of profit-driven ecosystems, and expansion of propaganda abroad.

For those inside China, the message is unmistakable: dissent will not only be silenced—it will be anticipated and erased before it can breathe.

Source: bitterwinter.org