Diocletian’s Graceful Exit and the Long Rule of Xi Jinping : Notes on Croatia
June 15 is the birthday of a leader whose plans to expand China’s global influence can be seen by the Adriatic Sea.
While having coffee yesterday by the old walls of the Croatian city of Split, my husband asked me how old Chinese President Xi Jinping is. It’s not as odd a question as it may appear, and it turned out to be a timely one.
The Wikipedia page for Xi showed that his birthday is today, June 15. He’s turned 68, putting him three years beyond what’s considered the normal retirement age in the United States.
But Xi’s far from ready to scale back on his work. He took office in 2013. In 2017, he solidified his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong when a new body of political thought bearing his name was added to the Communist party’s constitution, as the Guardian described it. (There’s a link at the end of this essay to a bibliography of sources used here.) In 2018, China removed a two-term limit on the presidency. It seems like Xi is set to remain in power for life should he choose to do so.
Among Xi’s well-known aims are tightening China’s control within its own region, while spreading its influence in the world. In Dubrovnik a few days ago, we chatted with Vedran Perojević, one of the brothers who owns the excellent Azure restaurant, where had a lunch of crispy fried chicken sliders and pork belly tacos. Croatian food is excellent, but the inventive dishes at Azure made for a nice change of pace from grilled fish and black ink risotto.
Vedran told us about his restaurant career, which included stints in Las Vegas and Rotterdam. He told us about how he had enjoyed working in China near Macao for many years. We then talked a bit about how China under Xi cracked down on Hong Kong and threatens Taiwan.
On leaving Dubrovnik, my husband, his aunt and uncle and I headed for the Pelješac peninsula where we passed a bridge under construction for convoluted reasons. Croatia is in the European Union, the neighboring nation of Bosnia is not.
As shown in the map below, there’s a little bit of Bosnia that cleaves Croatia in two parts.
The European Commission in 2017 announced a plan to spend €357 million (about $433 million in U.S. dollars) to build a bridge that will connect the southernmost Croatia, including Dubrovnik to the northern half of the country — without requiring a crossing through that bit of Bosnia.
Where does Xi come into this strange European construction project?
The Chinese state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) bested an Austrian company and an Italian-Turkish consortium for this contract. Politico described this as the “first major Chinese infrastructure project paid for by European taxpayers.”
Politico also quoted historian Andrea Feldman likened the CRBC’s involvement to Chinese price dumping, saying that there should have been scrutiny of the company before the contract was awarded. CRBC has said it follows the Croatian and European labor standards expected of an EU funded project. But in 2019 the Croatian Ministry of Labor found 10 Chinese laborers working on the project without work permits and fined the CRBC, Politico reported.
Writing this essay in a cafe in Split, I’m led to compare Xi to another of the most powerful men in world history.
This beautiful city on the Adriatic grew up around the palace to which the Roman Emperor Diocletian retired in around the year 305 (ce or AD, however you prefer to characterize the modern era).
Both Xi and Diocletian are noted for repression. China’s recent record of abuses includes not only Hong Kong, but persisting persecution of the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group that lives in a northwestern region of China. Diocletian’s reign (284–305) was marked by the Roman Empire’s last major persecution of Christians. In both cases, people’s religion was seen as a threat to the plans of powerful leaders.
Diocletian also is known for reorganizing the Roman Empire, particularly by delegating power and strengthening administrative rules and systems. The Encyclopedia Britannica seems to both laud and criticize Diocletian for this, as seen in the quote below.
“This was the beginning of the bureaucracy and technocracy that was eventually to overrun modern societies. Such organization made it possible for administration to rely less on individual human beings and more on the application of legal texts.”
If Diocletian’s record as an emperor is mixed, his legacy in Split is unquestionably a gift to humanity. UNESCO put on the historical complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian on its World Heritage List.
Diocletian was the first Roman emperor to retire. He had suffered ill health and decided to head home to the region that is now Split. Unlike Xi, the son of a Communist party official who suffered great setbacks in his career, Diocletian came from humbler roots. Diocletian’s father is thought to have been a scribe who was freed from slavery. The family lived the remote Roman province of Dalmatia, another way in which Diocletian was unlike Xi. The Chinese leader was born in Beijing. Diocletian rose to political power through his work with the Roman army.
In retirement, Diocletian spent his days in his palace gardens. The lore has it that he paid particular attention to his rows of cabbage. He died in 311.
In the centuries after, a cathedral rose amid the palace of the persecutor of Christians. Many churches and other grand buildings followed. Split today is a mix of 13th-century Romanesque churches, medieval fortifications and palaces done in Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles. There also are a few Art Nouveau and even Art Deco buildings in the mix.
The result is a city where you already may start plotting how and when you can return within hours of first arriving. I certainly did. Below are photos from my first wanderings through Split, including a few taken by my husband.
There are links for sources used here in my bibliography for essays that discuss Asia.
