Chinese leader Xi Jinping has secured for himself a significant place in the country's history.
His role as Chinese President has been hugely bolstered after the Chinese Communist party (CCP) passed a rare “historical resolution” praising the president’s “decisive significance” in China’s progress.
It is only the third resolution of its kind since the formation of the CCP in 1921, and its takeover of China in 1949.
Similar resolutions were also passed under Mao Zedong, who led the Communists to power, and Deng Xiaoping, who ushered in economic reforms in the 1980s opening China to the world.
The resolution states that under Xi’s Jinping’s leadership, China has “made historic achievements and undergone a historic transformation”.
The statement is designed to elevate Xi’s status to the level of Mao and Deng and to help secure his political future, after the party decided in 2018 to lift the limits on presidential terms.
Xi Jinping in 1988, when he was Secretary of Ningde Prefecture Committee/ photo Xinhua
The Chinese News agency Xinhua reported the meeting called on the entire CPP, as well as the army and people of all ethnic groups to “unite more closely around the party central committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core, to fully implement Xi Jinping’s new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
The official communique from the meeting went on: “Establishing comrade Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the central committee as well as of the whole party … was of decisive significance in advancing toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Xi, who is 68, faces no visible political opposition from within the party, but analysts have warned that his attempt to secure a third term as leader may be cause for concern among ambitious younger members of the CCP, lookin g for opportunities to move up the ladder.
The resolution comes as Beijing’s relationship with the west remains tense, with issues like Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Uyghur internment camps in Xinjiang attracting regular headlines in the media.
At a speech to APEC earlier this week, Xi warned the Asia-Pacific about developing a “cold war mentality.”
The resolution will open the door for China to realign its development from Deng Xiaoping’s era of reform to the much-vaunted concept of “common prosperity” in China, where the emphasis will be on spreading the profits and opportunities more evenly across the society.
Xi Jinping and wife, the noted contemporary Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan/photo Wikimedia
Xi Jinping now controls all three centres of political power in China. He is General-Secretary of the CPC, as well as being President, and also Chairman of the influential Central Military Commission, controlling China’s extensive military forces.
With this latest resolution from the Party, he seems almost certain to continue for a third term as Chinese leader, and with the removal of the two-term limit on the Presidency, he may go on to hold down that job for the foreseeable future.
-Asia Media Centre