Chinese state media urge new status for Xi
BEIJING: Most Chinese people want Communist Party chief Xi Jinping to be a ‘core’ leader in the mould of Mao Zedong, official media said a survey showed, as he seeks to consolidate his control.
The People’s Tribune magazine, an affiliate of the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, this week published results of a survey of 15,000 people.
It said they agreed “the rise of a great nation calls for strong, core leadership” – terminology that denotes the supremacy of a single leader.
“General Secretary Xi Jinping’s special qualities as the leader of a great nation has won the heartfelt approval of a great majority of cadres,” the magazine wrote, adding that all sectors of society ‘greatly look forward’ to Xi’s elevation. The report connected Xi to the legacies of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, China’s most powerful rulers of recent decades, who fundamentally changed the direction of the country.
“It was Chairman Mao who made us stand up, otherwise we would have groped around longer in darkness,” it said, adding that Deng had made China rich.
“Now China must ‘strengthen’, ordinary people see it clearly, and for this we must rely on Secretary Xi.” The report came with 400 top party leaders convened in Beijing for a meeting known as the Sixth Plenum to discuss changes to party structure and discipline. — AFP