comment by
Stephen Cornelius
Rarely does one have the opportunity to witness a political apotheosis – as rare as a solar eclipse or a full blood moon. Democracy does not allow politicians to be deified, and even in authoritarian systems leaders are cautious about proclaiming them pillar saints. But this is exactly what is happening in China now, when the 20th Congress of the Communist Party appoints Xi Jinping as Secretary General for the third time and enshrines a Xi ideology in its statute that puts the leader on a par with Mao Zedong and Karl Marx.