Xi becomes China’s most powerful leader since Mao
President elevated to the same political status as Mao Tse-tung with his ideology enshrined in law
XI JINPING, the Chinese president, has been launched into the same political league as Mao Tse-tung after China’s Communist Party voted to enshrine his ideology into the state’s constitution.
The move is being seen as significant in China, which is thought to have been ruled by collective responsibility and consensus among senior leaders since Chairman Mao’s death in 1976.
With the party’s support firmly behind him, Mr Xi will now be emboldened to continue his strong style of authoritarian rule at home and muscular foreign policy abroad.
There is growing speculation that Mr Xi is seeking to break with precedent and extend his power beyond two five-year terms. Any attempt to do so has now been made easier, given his pre-eminent position in the constitution. It means he could rule for life.
Only Mao, considered the founding father of modern China, had his ideology enshrined into the party constitution when he was still alive. Deng Xiaoping, architect of China’s reforms, had the honour awarded after his death.
Hu Jintao and Zhang Zemin also had their guiding thoughts enshrined, but without their names attached and after they served as president.
“This is Xi’s era – and it’s an era he has created for himself,” said Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based political commentator.
“Mao had to wait 24 years until he had his ideology included in the constitution, but for Xi it was only five.”
The party yesterday unanimously passed an amendment to include Xi Jinping: Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as one of its guiding principles.
It was agreed by a unanimous vote on the final day of the Communist Party’s congress in Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People. It gives greater powers to the ruling Communist Party, particularly with regards to China’s rapidly modernising military. However, some experts say that although China has emerged as the world’s second biggest economy, Beijing still struggles to pull millions out of poverty. By contrast, the country has also produced a free-spending generation of wealthy urban middle classes whose lifestyles are distant from Communist ideology.
“The challenge the party has of how it relates to people’s daily lives remains,” said Kerry Brown, a professor of Chinese Studies at King’s College London and a former British diplomat in Beijing.