China: CP underpins Xi’s claim to power

The Central Committee of the Communist Party has spoken out in favor of Xi Jinping’s permanent leadership role. This clears the way for a third term of office. The CP celebrates it as a historic moment.

The “historic resolution” of the Communist Party is celebrated on Chinese state television. Xi Jinping is named in the same series as Karl Marx, Lenin, the founder of the People’s Republic, Mao Zedong, and the reformer Deng Xiaoping. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party met for four days. At the end of the meeting, it paved the way for Xi Jinping’s third term.

In the paper officially presented today, China’s head of state and party is listed as the founder of a new era. His ideas about “socialism with Chinese characteristics” should be implemented in it. The resolution now underpins Xi’s already undisputed claim to leadership ideologically.

“Everyone agrees that the Central Committee of the Communist Party under the leadership of Comrade Xi Jinping, the entire party, the army and the people including all ethnic groups in the country are united,” said party official Wang Xiaohui. “Nothing can stop the progress of the Chinese people, and no risks and challenges can stop the historic path of revitalizing the Chinese nation.”

“Building a totalitarian system”

Before the resolution now passed, the Chinese Communist Party had only passed similar papers twice in its hundred-year history. Once for the co-founder of the CPC and long-term dictator Mao Zedong and once for the state leader and reformer Deng Xiaoping. Now the historical importance of Xi Jinping is raised to the same level.

The independent political scientist and former university lecturer Wu Qiang is critical: “Strictly speaking, this paper is not a historical resolution in the tradition of the Communist Party. It is not about self-criticism and an adjustment of the party line, it is only about self-affirmation.”

In the coming year, Xi wants to be confirmed for another term at a party congress. For this purpose, the head of state had the constitution changed, because it actually ended after two terms in office. “After the constitutional amendment, an ideological statement is now being made about a great leader. This resolution provides the framework for strengthening control and building a totalitarian system,” says Wu.

“He’s writing the story forward”

Such critical statements have no place in the state-controlled Chinese media. Over the past eight years, Xi Jinping has brought the party and the Chinese state into line and tailored them to their needs. “Now there is no one who can resist him today, who can claim to be in conflict with him for the next few years,” says Mikko Huotari, director of the Berlin Mercator Institute for China Studies, MERICS. “He has come to the level of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. He is writing the history of the CCP forward.”

With the paper that has now been adopted, the personality cult around Xi Jinping will be further expanded and the way will be paved for state and party leadership without a time limit. “It’s about Xi Jinping sending out a signal today: He is central, he is in power, he is making history. He is leading the party into the future of China,” said Huotari. “With this he is of course sending a strong signal to the outside world: China is to be expected, to the outside world he has everything under control.”