With historic resolution, CPC cements Xi’s legacy
A key conclave of China’s ruling party officially put the president at par with leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping
The Communist Party of China (CPC) wrapped up a key meeting on Thursday, adopting a rare resolution on the party’s history, strengthening President Xi Jinping’s stature and legacy as he looks to secure a precedentbreaking third-term as the country’s leader in late 2022. The adoption of the resolution puts Xi, 68, at par with CPC icon and founder of modern China, Mao Zedong, and the key architect behind the country’s economic ascent, Deng Xiaoping. “A high-profile meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted a landmark resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC’s 100 years of endeavours,” according to a CPC communique released and quoted by the Xinhua news agency, on Thursday evening. The adoption of the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party’s Centennial Struggle resolution concluded the sixth plenum of the CPC’s central committee, a group of 348 party members, which chooses its new leaders every five years, which had been meeting since Monday behind closed doors in Beijing. Similar resolutions have been adopted only twice before - in 1945 under Mao and in 1981 under Deng. The resolutions helped consolidate the power bases of both leaders and enshrined their roles in Chinese and CPC histories. China approved the removal of the two-term limit on the presidency, effectively allowing Xi to remain in power indefinitely at the annual session of its parliament, the National People’s Congress in March, 2018. A 12-page communique on the plenum issued on Thursday evening said it was necessary to review the party history for “resolutely upholding Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the central committee and in the party as a whole and upholding the central committee’ authority and its centralised, unified leadership to ensure that all party members act in unison”. The communique eulogised Xi’s role in Chinese politics, mentioning his “meticulous assessment and deep reflection on a number of major theoretical and practical questions regarding the cause of the party and the country in the new era…” “He is thus the principal founder of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This is the Marxism of contemporary China and of the 21st century. It embodies the best of Chinese culture and ethos in our times and represents a new breakthrough in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.”