The news is no surprise. In office since 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping was reappointed head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the 20th party congress on Sunday, October 23. With this five-year renewal, the strong man from Beijing secures a third presidential term next March. Franceinfo summarizes how, by taking this new step, Xi Jinping has further strengthened his position at the head of the country, making him the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Tse-tung.
He placed several of his allies in the Central Committee of the Communist Party
The name may seem nebulous, but the Standing Committee is a select group of people at the pinnacle of power in China. It brings together the seven most important members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. The Standing Committee is now composed of seven men, followers of Xi Jinping. “These are figures that are familiar to me”affirmed the Chinese president while presenting them, reported on Twitter the correspondent of RFI in China. He knew some of them when he headed the CCP in eastern Zhejiang Province, the reporter said.
The new number 2 of China, who will be the future Prime Minister, is called Li Qiang. “He was the general secretary of the Communist Party in Shanghai, the man who imposed the harsh and chaotic confinement of the Chinese economic capital last spring”underlines Arnauld Miguet, correspondent of France Télévisions in China.
“Xi Jinping is therefore surrounded by devotees among the faithful”insists Arnauld Miguet. “It seems to be a consolidation of Xi Jinping’s position. It means that the policies, the strategies, will be more directly linked to him”estimated with the Reuters press agency (in English) Ja Ian Chong, political scientist at the National University of Singapore. “They are all Xi’s men, it shows that he wants to govern beyond a third term”so after 2027, underlines for his part Alfred Wu Muluan, expert in Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore.
He paved the way to become president for life
Since the death of Mao Tse-tung in 1976, rules framed the transition of power. The Chinese president could only stay in power for two terms, and for a maximum of ten years. But in 2018, Xi Jinping succeeded in getting the Constitution amended, removing these restrictions and abolishing term limits. Faced with this unprecedented configuration, observers already sensed at the time that this change opened up the possibility of a life presidency for the leader, now 69 years old.
This is confirmed. “Xi Jinping’s reappointment is the result of an extreme concentration of his personal power”, estimated to AFP a Chinese political scientist, on condition of anonymity. For him, he does not “no doubt” that the current Chinese president seeks to stay in power for life.
He institutionalized “Xi Jinping thought”
This new stage is only the last stage of the rocket painstakingly assembled by Xi Jinping to propel him to the pinnacle of Chinese history. On a less technical and legal level than the constitutional revision and the composition of the Central Committee, Xi Jinping promoted his thought so that it would be institutionalized, at different levels and in different instances.
In November 2021, the CCP adopted a eulogy text on its 100-year history. Xi Jinping is elevated there among the icons of the regime, as reported by franceinfo, reporting these extracts: “Xi Jinping’s thought is the quintessence of Chinese culture and soul” or “Since Xi came to power, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era”.
The Chinese president has also managed to get his thinking into school textbooks. Since the start of the 2021 school year, school books have been full of quotes from Xi Jinping. The themes are varied, as shown by franceinfo: patriotism, role of the Communist Party, place of citizens or even importance of the army. Concretely, from the age of 6, all students in China are inculcated with the president’s thought, presented as the absolute reference.
Before that, in 2020, Chinese universities set up courses devoted to the thought of President Xi Jinping, reported International mail (article subscribers). A game show was also devoted to the political theory of the Chinese president. As early as 2018, Xi Jinping succeeded in having his name included in the CCP charter, a first for a Chinese leader since Mao. Tse-tungsymbolically placing him on a par with the founder of the regime.
The cult of personality set up by Xi Jinping was also accompanied by the launch, in 2019, of a smartphone application allowing you to know everything about the life and work of the Chinese president. This application, called “Study Xi, make the country stronger”proposes to study the thought of Xi Jinping, to follow the news thanks to a selection of articles from the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, or videos from Chinese state television. For each article read or video watched, the user earns points, redeemable for gifts. “The app knows what you’ve read and whenspecified franceinfo. Some civil servants or employees of state companies complain, on social networks, of being forced to reach 40 or 50 points per day.