Xi tightens grip on power by rewriting official history
Revision of Communist party’s past puts leader ‘on a par with Mao’ and opens the way for unlimited rule
CHINA’S Communist Party yesterday rewrote its official history to place Xi Jinping alongside Mao Tse-tung as a transformative leader – only the third time in a century it has allowed such a revision and a sign of the president’s tightening grip on power.
The announcement, which paves the way for unlimited rule by the president, came as part of a resolution at the end of a four-day, closed-door meeting in Beijing between senior party officials.
A communiqué praised the head of the world’s most populous nation for having made “historic achievements” and overseeing a “historic transformation” in a number of areas, from the environment to the economy.
The resolution focused on the party’s achievements in the century since it was founded, but stressed the importance of Mr Xi’s role. Next year, he will seek a third term in power, unprecedented in China’s modern history.
“China has broken new ground in its diplomatic endeavours amid profound global changes and turned crises into opportunities,” the communiqué said.
“These efforts have resulted in a marked increase in China’s international influence, appeal and power to shape.” Beijing has become increasingly aggressive on the world stage since Mr Xi came to power in 2013, alarming the West with its military build-up in disputed areas of the South China Sea and its sabre rattling towards Taiwan.
The party also pledged to “unite and lead the Chinese people of all ethnicities and groups in the struggle for a better life,” despite an ongoing crackdown on the country’s Muslim Uyghur people that has been described as a genocide.
The move furthers the cult of personality Mr Xi has sought to build in his eight years in power. Before him, only two leaders – Mao and Deng Xiaoping, who was chairman from the late 1970s – dared rewrite the historical record. The communiqué compared Mr Xi to both men, saying that under their rule, China had “achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong”.
Mao used resolutions as a political weapon in 1945 to criticise the past actions of opponents who were under arrest. In 1981, Deng dared to criticise the bloody Cultural Revolution Mao unleashed between 1966 and 1976.
Those revisions of the party’s traditional orthodoxy profoundly marked the Chinese political and social landscape in the decades that followed.
Analysts say this week’s resolution is likely to have similar significance.
Ian Bremmer, founder of Eurasia Group, a research and consulting firm, said the revision of party history had cemented Mr Xi as one of Communist China’s three main leaders.
“There is a big message of, under Xi, this is when China becomes a real power on the global stage,” Mr Bremmer said. The “highly unusual” fourday meeting had placed him “functionally in the annals of the Communist Party history, on the same stage as these two other Chinese leaders [Deng and Xi] – that is the intention of this,” Mr Bremmer added.
Jean-pierre Cabestan, of the Baptist University of Hong Kong, said the party was “rewriting its past in order to shape the future around Xi Jinping”.
Mr Xi has ousted political opponents under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign and taken a heavy-handed approach to snuff out dissent – Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law being a recent example.
State television showed Mr Xi addressing delegates in the Great Hall of the People near Tiananmen Square, in front of red flags and the communist hammer and sickle.
Its evening news broadcast said his communiqué was of “wide-ranging historical significance”, and it advertised a commentary, “Winning even greater victory and glory in the new journey of the New Era,” in the party’s newspaper.
‘There is a big message of, under Xi, this is when China becomes a real power on the global stage’