美国《时代杂誌》（TIME）今（23）日公布2020年百大影响力人物，台湾总统蔡英文入列"领袖"的分类。中国国家主席习近平同样也入选了《时代》的百大影响力人物，不过推荐文章却写到他的极权手法，与邪教式个人崇拜，文末甚至还说"如同苏联轰然地垮台，才揭示了那些不曾看见的裂缝"，让网友纷纷喊根本"高级酸"。
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时代》推荐文盛赞蔡英文，就像一个信号，向世界传达了一项信念，也就是台湾绝不会屈服于中国与其政党。"自由就是指引台湾的北极星，这点在世界对抗新冠疫情期间，就表露无遗。"
然而习近平入选理由却与蔡英文完全相反。《时代》推荐文开头便写道："他以反贪腐行动打击裙带政治，包括他自己的亲属在内，但也顺带剷除有威胁的政敌，他的极权手法堪称世界之最。"文中表示，"习近平把维吾尔族人围捕至集中营、镇压香港的暴力反中运动，並推动强势的社会监控科技。如同毛泽东一样，习近平不只鼓吹对自己的邪教式个人崇拜，也欲成为世界外交和经济政策上的主宰。"
文末提到，"如同苏联轰然地垮台，才揭示了那些不曾看见的裂缝。（中国）劳动力的萎缩和老龄化，全球一带一路倡议的成本（建立在债务之上，而不是现金）和内部压力，更糟糕的是因疫情大流行所造成的经济难民，习近平的成功可能不是他最终所能决定的。"
值得一提的是，替习近平撰写推荐文的是前《美国之音》（VOA）台长贝内特（Amanda Bennett），曾与同事共同获得普立兹奖（Pulitzer Prizes）公共服务奖，不过美国总统川普今年4月指控她领导的VOA"拿美国的钱替中国宣传"，贝内特虽然坚决否认偏袒中国，但最后与副台长菅原（Sandy Sugawara）双双请辞。
贝内撰写推荐文如下：
Xi Jinping stands today as China’s seemingly invulnerable top leader. His anti-corruption campaign struck at kleptocrats, some in his own family, while also conveniently purging rivals. His authoritarian moves rival the world’s most extreme: corralling ethnic Uighurs into camps, suppressing violent anti-China protests in Hong Kong and ushering in powerful social-monitoring technology.
Completing the look is the Mao Zedong–like cult of personality Xi allows or encourages—including his own Little Red Book. The result: a foreign policy and economic juggernaut expanding around the world.
Still, just as the sudden fall of the Soviet Union exposed previously unseen cracks, Xi may yet come to regret that he is now effectively China’s leader for life. A shrinking and aging workforce, the cost of the global Belt and Road Initiative (built on debt, not cash) and internal griping—or worse—from victims of a slowing economy exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that began on his watch mean Xi’s success may not be his final act.
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