China’s ruling party hails Xi Jinping as ‘helmsman’

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping is the country’s “helmsman” whose “core leadership” is of crucial importance for China’s rejuvenation, an official from the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) said on Friday.

“By resolutely upholding Xi Jinping’s core position on the Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, the Chinese people now have a backbone and the huge ship named ‘the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ has a helmsman,” said Jiang Jinquan, an official from CPC central committee’s policy research office.

A key CPC conclave on Thursday adopted a “historical resolution” that highlighted its achievements under Xi’s leadership since 2012 and elevated the Chinese leader’s stature, cementing his power ahead of next year’s once-in-decade party congress.

The CPC further explained the importance of the four-day plenum and Xi’s role at a press conference on Friday.

By defining the guiding role of ‘Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

for a New Era’, Jiang said, “the CPC will be able to stick to the right direction and deal with risks and challenges so as to lead the people to continuously strive for the bright prospects of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

The term “helmsman” was once reserved for the founder of modern China, Mao Zedong.

However, it is now used to describe Xi, to emphasise his

importance in the current Chinese political and social framework. It was used, for example, in 2020, at the end of a similar four-day CPC plenum in Beijing.

A communique issued after the 2020 plenum noted, “Experience has repeatedly indicated that with comrade Xi Jinping as the core of the ‘central party authorities’ and with the core of the party being the “navigator and helmsman”.