The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is about to undertake “a new journey,” but absolutely not to change captains. As expected, the 348 members (197 titulars and 151 substitutes) of the 6e plenum of the CPC central committee approved, Thursday, November 11, a resolution which, in effect, allows Xi Jinping to remain in power at the end of the XXe Party Congress, convened for the “Second half of 2022”.
“The central committee calls on the whole Party, the army and all the Chinese to unite even more closely around the central committee, with comrade Xi Jinping at the center, to fully implement Xi Jinping’s thinking on the socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era ”, can we read in the penultimate paragraph.
Secretary General of the Party, President of the Republic and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xi Jinping amended the Constitution in 2018, which limited to two the number of terms of President of the Republic that a single official could exercise. A limit established in 1982 by Deng Xiaoping to avoid any Maoist drift. Elected Secretary General, in 2012, and President of the Republic, in 2013, Xi Jinping will not be forced to leave power at the end of the XXe congress, in 2022.
Any criticism would constitute a dangerous Pandora’s box
On the fourteen pages (in English) of the communiqué published at the end of the plenum, the history of the Party occupies a dozen. The Mao years (1921 to 1976) are mentioned on about two pages, as are the Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao years (period from 1976 to 2012). In contrast, the Xi Jinping years (less than a decade) are entitled to more than seven pages. Likewise, his name appears 17 times in the press release, much more than those of Mao (7), Deng (5), Jiang (1) and Hu (1) combined.
Unlike the two previous resolutions on the history of the Party adopted so far – in 1945, under Mao, and, in 1981, under Deng – that of Xi Jinping does not contain any trace of self-criticism. One sentence sums it up perfectly: “ The efforts of the Party and the people over the past century represent the most magnificent chapter in the history of the Chinese nation, several thousand years old. “ Deng Xiaoping had judged, in 1981, that Mao’s record was positive “At 70%”. Everyone understood that in their eyes, the Great Leap Forward (1958-1961) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) had been mistakes. One would look in vain for the slightest reference to them in the current resolution. No more, needless to add, than for the Tiananmen massacre of June 4, 1989.
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