The message could hardly be clearer. It is necessary to persist in upholding Comrade Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the Party’s Central Committee and the core of the Party. This was decided by the Central Committee of the Communist Party at the end of its four-day plenary session in Beijing on Thursday in a resolution on the history of the party. The party committee called on “the entire party, the entire army and people of all ethnic groups to rally even more closely around the Central Committee with Xi Jinping as its core.”
Even if only a communiqué has been issued and the resolution itself has not been published, the importance of the documents is beyond question. China has reached a new “historic starting point”, party representatives said at a press conference in Beijing on Friday.
The resolution should determine China’s course for decades and cement Xi’s ongoing leadership role at the top of the country. It is intended to serve as the basis for the party’s course through 2049. By then, the country wants to have completed the rise of the Chinese nation to the dominant world power, which Beijing presents as the necessary correction of a historical anomaly in which China was not the most powerful country on earth. By the middle of the century, China is said to be “fully developed, rich and powerful”.
For the party leader, the resolution should in fact serve as a mandate for his third term of office, possibly beyond. Tactically wise, Xi Jinping has thus secured almost unlimited power. A ruler for life – that hasn’t existed in China since Mao Zedong.
On a par with Mao and Deng
In the history of the People’s Republic, there have previously only been two historical resolutions that have been adopted in this form. 1945 under party co-founder Mao Zedong, who declared himself the only revolutionary with the “correct political line” and got rivals within the party out of the way; as well as after his death in 1981, when Deng Xiaoping drew a line under the Mao era with the second resolution, which cost the lives of millions and secured his position of power at the head of the party. Both statesmen dominated the country’s politics until the end of their lives.
The new resolution puts party leader Xi Jinping on the same level. Depending on the type of reading, even about economic reformer Deng, who made China’s economic miracle possible in the first place, but which is given little space in the communiqué. Xi’s predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao hardly play a role either.
Officially, the new paper summarizes the “great achievements and historical experiences” in the party’s 100-year history. But setbacks and catastrophes such as the Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap are not mentioned in it, they are simply kept secret. The tone of the document is triumphant, the focus is primarily on one man: Xi Jinping.
He is portrayed as the decisive force for a new era, the era of the Xi-Jinping thought. Under his leadership, the country has made historic achievements and changes, according to the communiqué, from the economy to the fight against pollution and the containment of the coronavirus.
“Mao was the man, Xi is the man and the others helped with the transition,” is how China expert Bill Bishop sums up the message. This interpretation should provide the basis for Xi to probably get himself a third term in the coming year, which he could theoretically extend until his death. In 2018 he had already ensured that the limits on terms of office that had been in effect until then, which were supposed to guarantee a regular change of power after Mao and prevent the risk of a renewed cult of the leader, had already been abolished.
The party leader lets himself be called the “leader of the people”
In recent years, however, China’s party leader has increasingly concentrated power on his person, calling himself the “leader of the people”. The paper now gives him absolute authority, the principle of collective leadership seems to have formally come to an end. This, too, was a lesson from the Mao era and was intended to prevent an excessive concentration of power on one person. The resolution should end the last speculation about possible attempts within the party to establish a successor at the 20th party congress in autumn 2022.
For a long time, China’s party leadership has been trying to link Xi’s rule with a larger mission that could justify his continued governance. In the future, it is likely to concentrate even more on the goal of “common prosperity”, which Xi declared in August to be the new raison d’etre. In the press conference on Friday it was said that while the Western democracies were playing “a game of the rich”, the party had to “further enlarge the cake and better divide the pieces”.
Xi’s new power is likely to have an impact on the rest of the world as well. Under his leadership, the country has been increasingly aggressive internationally in recent years, while at the same time becoming increasingly isolated. The sharp tone and the sometimes irrational behavior of the Chinese diplomats has heightened concerns about the country’s course in many places. That should have only been the beginning.