Monday, November 8th, 2021
Xi follows in Mao’s footsteps
China’s CP advises on “historical resolution”
So far, China’s Unity Party has passed two “historic resolutions”. Another one is now being planned. It should enable Head of State Xi a third term. With that he would catch up with revolutionary Mao. Propaganda is already practicing comparisons.
China’s Communist Party wants to pave the way for state and party leader Xi Jinping to a possible third term. The 370-strong Central Committee met in Beijing for a four-day plenary session to discuss a “historic resolution”. After 1945 and 1981, it is only the third time in the party’s 100-year history that a resolution in this form is to be adopted.
This is to summarize the “great achievements and historical experiences” in the history of the party. According to observers in the run-up to the party congress in autumn 2022, the resolution should further cement Xi Jinping’s position of power in order to allow him a third term in office – as the first leader after the revolutionary and state founder Mao Tsetung.
The propaganda increased the personality cult around the 68-year-old. Xi Jinping was portrayed as “a man of determination and action, a man of profound thoughts and feelings.” Not only were his visions and hard work praised, but also his “great political courage and wisdom” in fighting the pandemic. “There is a man at the helm of this big ship”, it was said in an indirect comparison with the “great helmsman” Mao Tsetung. While China once “rose up” under Mao Tsetung, then became “rich” under the reform architect Deng Xiaoping, the country under Xi Jinping is more powerful than ever before.
“Historic Resolutions” as a milestone or a turning point
“Historical resolutions”, which are something like the “holy scriptures” for party members and have far-reaching effects, usually marked a milestone or turning point in history in the past. With such a document, Mao Tsetung consolidated his position in 1945, four years before the founding of the People’s Republic, and sidelined his critics. It attested that only the revolutionary followed the “correct political line”. After his death in 1981, Deng Xiaoping drew a line under the chaos of Mao Tsetung’s rule with the devastating “Great Leap Forward” (1958-61) and the “Cultural Revolution (1966-76) with such a resolution. However, he held the state founder in honor and secured Deng Xiaoping’s support for his change of course with the reform and opening-up policy.
The new “historical resolution” is supposed to seal the “new era” of the “ideas of Xi Jinping on socialism with Chinese characteristics”. The “great renewal” of the Chinese nation is a “historical inevitability” under Xi Jinping, according to the party press. According to party experts, the decision is likely to demand even more followers, intensify indoctrination and also change the way history is presented. But it is less about the past and more about the future – and the absolute leadership role of Xi Jinping, it said. It remains to be seen whether the document will be published at the end of the Central Committee meeting on Thursday or in the days after.
With a constitutional amendment in 2018, the head of state and party had already given himself the opportunity to rule for longer than two terms and perhaps even for life. He is the most powerful party leader since Mao Tsetung and Deng Xiaoping, who ruled in various positions until their death or pulled the strings in the background.