[Approved by the party congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, which meets every five years, the change to the constitution adds a clunky new phrase — “Xi Jinping Thought for the New Era of Socialism With Chinese Special Characteristics” — alongside the hallowed names of Mao and Deng Xiaoping.]
By Chris Buckley
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President
Xi Jinping of China, center, speaking on Tuesday during the closing
ceremony of
the party congress in Beijing. Credit Andy Wong/Associated Press
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BEIJING
— China’s Communist Party on
Tuesday elevated President Xi Jinping to the same exalted status as the
nation’s founding father, Mao Zedong, by writing his name and ideas into the
party constitution.
The historic decision, at the end of a
weeklong party congress, sent a clear signal to officials throughout China that
questioning Mr. Xi and his policies would be ideological heresy.
The decision solidified Mr. Xi’s position as
China’s most powerful leader in decades after only five years of leading the
country, making it harder for rivals to challenge him and his policies.
While there may be no “Little Red Book” of
quotations for mass consumption like in the bygone Mao era, Mr. Xi’s thinking
will now infuse every aspect of party ideology in schools, the media and
government agencies.
In the near future, Chinese people are likely
to refer to Mr. Xi’s doctrines as simply “Xi Jinping Thought,” a flattering
echo of “Mao Zedong Thought.”
“This is a way of trying to project his
historic stature,” said Wu Qiang, a political analyst in Beijing who formerly
taught at Tsinghua University. “The congress report and the party constitution
revisions both show that Xi wants to be a kind of peer with the past leaders.
That doesn’t mean he sees himself as rivaling Mao in importance, but I think
it’s intended to give him an ideological status that can’t be challenged, like
Mao in that sense.”
Restoring China to greatness is a central
message of Mr. Xi’s philosophy. That goal already has guided Mr. Xi’s policies
of building up the military, strengthening domestic controls and raising
China’s profile in global affairs.
Approved by the party congress at the Great
Hall of the People in Beijing, which meets every five years, the change to the
constitution adds a clunky new phrase — “Xi Jinping Thought for the New Era of
Socialism With Chinese Special Characteristics” — alongside the hallowed names
of Mao and Deng Xiaoping.
While the meaning of those 13 words — 16
Chinese characters — may seem opaque, they are freighted with significance for
the future both of the party and of China.
The critical phrase is “new era,” which Mr.
Xi has used throughout the congress. He has described Chinese history since
1949 as divided into two eras — the three decades after Mao seized power in a
revolution that established a unified People’s Republic and ended nearly a
century of civil war and foreign invasions, and the three decades after Deng
took power in 1978 and refocused China on developing its economy.
In his report to the congress, Mr. Xi
suggested that if Mao made China independent, and Deng made it prosperous, he
would make it strong again — propelling the country into its “new era.”
To underline that point, the congress also
added a second mention of Mr. Xi’s ideas to the constitution: his call to
modernize and strengthen China’s armed forces.
By enshrining Mr. Xi’s ideas as “a new
component of the party’s guide for action,” the party is putting Mr. Xi on a
doctrinal pedestal alongside Mao and Deng. Until Tuesday, Mao and Deng were the
only Chinese leaders whose names appeared in the constitution’s list of
fundamental doctrines.
Adding Mr. Xi by name raises him above his
two most recent predecessors, the former presidents Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin:
Their ideas are on the list of doctrines, but not their names.
Still, Mr. Xi’s authority is not directly
comparable to the almost godlike influence Mao commanded.
After Mr. Xi came to power in 2012, he
surprised many by how quickly and forcibly he took control. This included
putting his imprint on two of China’s most powerful institutions, the party and
the military, which he did using a sweeping anticorruption drive.
But both Mao and Deng were founders of the
People’s Republic, and hardened revolutionaries whose decades of fighting and
self-sacrifice gave them a charisma and authority that Mr. Xi simply cannot
replicate.
On the other hand, the Chinese economy, state
and military are much more powerful now than they were under Mao, or even under
Deng, which gives Mr. Xi far more global influence than his predecessors.
Further signs of Mr. Xi’s political supremacy
will be evident on Wednesday when other members of the party’s top leadership,
the Politburo Standing Committee, are publicly presented after the party
congress has concluded. How many of those members are close allies of Mr. Xi
will be another important barometer of his power and could provide insight into
a possible successor years from now.
In the past five years, Mr. Xi has assembled
his own earthy strain of Communist Party doctrine, overtly hostile to Western
liberal ideas and suspicious of the intentions of the United States and other
Western powers. Instead, Mr. Xi sees the party as the guardian of both Mao’s
revolutionary ideals and nationalist pride rooted in China’s ancient
traditions.
The congress finished on Tuesday with several
other major steps. Most important, the delegates voted in a new Central
Committee, a council of 204 senior central and local officials who usually meet
once a year to approve broad policy priorities.
There was a notable absence on that list:
Wang Qishan.
Mr. Wang, 69, was the enforcer in Mr. Xi’s
drive to root out corruption and strengthen discipline in the party. He has
passed the usual retirement age? for the committee, but party insiders had said
that Mr. Xi might try to keep him in a senior position. His absence from the
list means he will likely retire.
The Chinese Communist Party has its own
constitution, or charter, which is different from China’s national
Constitution. The party’s constitution sets rules and principles for its members.
It also lays out the party’s vision of its history, and of how current and past
leaders contributed to that heritage.
Changes to this constitution can be made only
at the party congress, which usually meets every five years and has been
meeting for the past week. Since the congress’s 2,300 delegates are carefully
chosen for loyalty, very few oppose changes once they are proposed by the
leadership.
