Xi Jinping has already officially entered history, and with this it is guaranteed that he will continue to lead the country sine die. A resolution of the Communist Party of China (CCP) approved this Thursday in the sixth plenary session of its Central Committee has placed it on the same level as the two great leaders of the past of the People’s Republic, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. The document heralds the beginning of a new era of achievement and greatness. If Mao founded the People’s Republic and Deng made it prosperous, Xi – becomes the message – will make it strong and glorious.
The resolution culminated four days of meetings of the nearly 370 members (permanent and substitute) of the Central Committee, the equivalent body of the CCP parliament, in a hotel in northwest Beijing. The penultimate, and most important, meeting before 12 months from now, in October or November next year, the 20th Party Congress meets to name the leader who will lead China for at least the next five years, until 2027, possibly more. This leader – according to the official communiqué of the meeting, distributed by the state agency Xinhua – cannot be other than Xi Jinping, who will continue to lead at least one more term.
The last 100 years of China, the century of existence of the party, have been “the most magnificent time in the history of the Chinese nation in thousands of years”, considers the resolution approved this Thursday. A similar glory – hinted – will come during the new era of Xi
Under the leadership of the party’s secretary general, head of state and chairman of the Central Military Commission, China has made “historic achievements and underwent a historic transformation.” First with Mao, then with Deng and now thanks to Xi, the country has achieved “the immense transformation of standing up, becoming prosperous and becoming a strong nation,” says the statement, the first official summary of the plenary session. The content of the full resolution will be announced this Friday at a press conference.
“Essence” and “core”
Xi “has presented a series of new and original ideas, thoughts and strategies on national governance, around the main issues of our times,” the official statement states. Their ideology is part of the cultural “essence” of the country; the president of the nation and “core” of the party has also shown “great political courage and a great sense of responsibility,” he adds. In total, the name of the current president is mentioned 17 times; Mao, the Great Helmsman and quintessential leader in recent Chinese history, seven. Deng Xiaoping, the man who laid the foundation for the modernization of the country, five. Xi’s immediate predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, just once.
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According to the tradition created in the last three decades, the current president should end his term in Congress next year after a decade in power (two cycles of five years each). If he followed that tradition, he would then hand over his positions to a successor who would have been forming in his shadow. But in the circles close to the president there is no apparent heir, and since the previous Congress in 2017, Xi has been taking steps to stay at the forefront of the country. Among them, the formal abolition in that meeting of the temporal limits that had been established to occupy the head of the State.
“The Central Committee calls on the entire party, the entire army and the people of all ethnic groups to unite around the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its nucleus, to launch the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” adds. “We are convinced that the Communist Party and the Chinese people will augment the great glories and victories of the past hundred years with even greater glories and victories in the new journey that awaits us in the new era,” the 15-page statement concludes.
The resolution on the “great achievements and historical experience of the party’s centuries-old struggle” is only the third in 100 years that the CCP has spent reviewing its history. The authority that this type of document has within the communist hierarchy is maximum, and its content has almost the character of sacred writing. Only Mao, who used it to neutralize his rivals in the leadership of the party, and Deng, who with his ended the Maoist era, have so far succeeded in putting forward such a statement.
As the new resolution elevates Xi Jinping to the highest ranks, the current leader is protected from future criticism from potential rivals or successors. His ideas have been enshrined as part of the party’s official narrative and ideology. The document “will be an important tool for Xi to counter his critics and any possible opponent who may question his authority and his policies,” says Valarie Tan, from the Merics think tank.
“Election campaign” until next year
The plenary session closed on Thursday now opens a period similar to that of an electoral campaign in which, behind the scenes, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will begin to position themselves for the Congress next year. At that five-year meeting, not only will the leader of the next five years be named, which will foreseeably be the same for the last ten. In addition, the Standing Committee, the highest governing body within the CCP and currently seven members, will be renewed; the 25-member Politburo and the Central Committee itself.
The challenges of this new legislature will not be few. Xi Jinping’s new-age China will have to contend with slower economic growth, galloping population aging, and growing rivalry with the United States. It will also have to decide how to resolve the current tensions with Taiwan, the self-governing island that it considers part of its territory, and the future of Hong Kong, among other issues.
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