China's Communist Party hails Xi - Raises stature

Xi Jinping has firmly cemented his position at the "core" of the Communist Party.

China's Communist Party hails Xi - Raises stature

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• The story: China’s ruling Communist Party has officially hailed President Xi Jinping as its “helmsman”. This is an honorific title reserved for party founder Mao Zedong. The CPC said he has emerged an “anchor” for the party and a “backbone” for the nation. Xi is geared up for a record third-term and beyond.
• President Xi, 68, is also the General Secretary of the CPC and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Communist Party of China (CPC), which has monopolised political power since the People’s Republic was founded in 1949, also attacked American President Joe Biden and asserted that democracy was not an “exclusive patent” of the US and the West. Defending party’s decision to enhance Xi’s status as core leader, leaders said that for a party with 95 million members and the country with 1.4 billion people, “it will be unimaginable had there not been a core of the party”. President Xi, 68, is also the General Secretary of the CPC and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
• Only the third: The resolution – the only third of its kind in the party’s 100-year history after one issued under party founder Mao and his successor Deng Xiaoping – was reviewed and adopted at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee attended by over 400 senior party officials.

1. Xi’s elevation as a core leader is the “call of the times, the choice of history, and the common aspiration of the people"
2. “In firmly upholding and safeguarding General Secretary Xi’s core position, the Party has its decision-maker, the people have their mainstay, and the giant ‘rejuvenation’ ship of the Chinese nation has its helmsman”
3. Mao had the honorific title of the “great helmsman” for his prolonged leadership of the party leading it to capture power in 1949 and ruled the country until his death in 1976.

• Tenure: All Xi’s predecessors retired after two five-year-tenures. In 2018, China scrapped the two-term limit on the presidency, effectively allowing Xi to remain in power for life. The CPC is projecting itself as a democratic party, refuting criticism of its autocratic functioning. CPC also attacked US President Biden’s plan to hold a summit of democracies next month as Washington seeks to rally countries with democratic systems.

1. It said that to convene such a summit against the backdrop of loads of problems for the western democracies is such an irony. The intention is nothing but bashing other countries and dividing the world, which cannot be achieved.
2. Democracy is not an exclusive patent of western countries and even less defined or dictated by western countries. Electoral democracy of the west is actually ruled by capital and it is the game of rich not real democracy. Democratic models of the world cannot be the same. Even the western forms of democracies are not entirely identical.
3. CPC claimed that China’s democracy was not only based on institutional procedures but also full of participation and practice. It is democracy of both process and outcome and both procedure and substance. It is both direct and indirect democracy. It is people’s democracy in nature.

• Summary: The Chinese Communists are bracing for a tough time ahead this decade, given their push to be a world power across multiple dimensions. They know they lead continuity in policy and leadership. A lot of what is happening is driven by that. Now, time will tell how the new game plays itself out.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) What are the three major challenges the Chinese Communists now confront, when it comes to the journey through the decade? (2) Excessive centralisation of power in one hand - Xi Jinping's - is a risk the Chinese Communist Party is willing to take. Why? Explain.

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