Xi hailed as great leader
♦ Xi could have new slogan included in party constitution
♦ Xi widely seen as strongest leader since Mao Zedong
♦ Congress to unveil new Politburo Standing Committee
Chinese officials yesterday heaped praise on President Xi Jinping's political ideology, unveiled a day earlier at a key Communist Party Congress, a sign that it could be enshrined in the party's constitution and further cement his power.
Some ruling Communist Party officials were yesterday moved to song, dance and tears in adulation of Xi, a day after he opened the twice-a-decade conclave pledging to build a prosperous "modern socialist country" for a "new era".
Three outgoing members of the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee that Xi heads lauded "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era", according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Such statements indicate that Xi could cement his power with his new eponymous slogan being incorporated into the party's constitution. Whether the theory is included bearing his name will be a key measure of his status, analysts have said.
No other leader has had an eponymous ideology included in the document while in office since Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.
Xi is poised to begin a second five-year term next week.
Party officials hailed Xi as a wise and great "lingxiu", or leader, a reverent honorific bestowed on only two others: Mao and his short-lived successor Hua Guofeng - another sign that Xi has accumulated more power than his immediate predecessors and could revive a party chairmanship as a precursor to staying on in some capacity beyond the end of his second term in 2022.
The 64-year-old Xi has consolidated power swiftly since assuming the party leadership in 2012, locking up rivals for corruption, tightening controls on civil society, revamping the military and asserting China's rising might on the global stage.
Some party officials painted Xi as a saviour. "Because of the Party Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping as its core, in five years, the party has been saved, the army has been saved, the country has been saved," Liu Shiyu, head of China's securities regulator, said on Thursday.
Xi's immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, have had their ideological concepts enshrined in the constitution, but not their names.
The party gave Xi the title of "core" leader a year ago, a strengthening of his position ahead of the congress, adding to speculation that Xi could retain power beyond a customary second term and even revive Mao's chairman title.
Comments