As senior leaders of China’s all-powerful Communist Party convene this week in Beijing, President Xi Jinping looks to be setting the groundwork for a third term in power.
At the Central Committee’s plenary session, which began on Monday, president and party General Secretary Xi released a draft resolution on the Party’s “major achievements and historical experience.”
Political experts said the resolution could be the Party’s third big declaration in its 100-year history, bolstering Xi’s reputation as an equal to Mao Zedong, the founder of the Chinese People’s Republic, and Deng Xiaoping, his successor, who led important economic reforms.
In 2018, China abolished term restrictions for the presidency, putting Xi at the pinnacle of power for the rest of his life. At next year’s main party conference, which occurs every five years, he is anticipated to be reappointed party head. The meeting of the Central Committee’s roughly 200 members is scheduled to run through Thursday, with a statement to be released following the final session.
Xi has already shown his views through his public comments, and the declaration on party history is unlikely to surprise most people.
Experts said the resolution would stress a new era for the Communist Party’s government under Xi’s leadership, laying the groundwork for Xi to equal Mao and Deng and laying the groundwork for Xi to be reinstated as Party leader.
The Party had previously conducted two evaluations of its history – in 1945 as China was moving to seize power from Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists, and in 1981 when it assessed Mao’s Cultural Revolution. In both evaluations, the Party had opted to work on reunification.
Xi has entrenched power by managing a steady economy, an aggressive foreign policy, a huge military upgrade, and a continuous campaign on corruption that has caught both active and retired high-level officials a decade after taking over the leadership.
At the same time, religious groups and human rights advocates have been ruthlessly repressed, with over a million Muslim minorities facing mass imprisonment and political indoctrination.
In the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, free expression and opposition politicians have been severely suppressed, and military threats towards Taiwan have increased.
