Absolute power a double-edged sword

XI Jinping is China's most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping. The centralisation of power that has occurred during Xi's still-relatively-recent ascendancy is remarkable. Not only is he the president and head of state, he is also general secretary of the pivotally-important Communist Party of China, not to mention chair of the Central Military Commission, which controls China's armed forces.

Barack Obama may routinely be dubbed "the most powerful man in the world", but he faces many more constraints o…