Direction Beijing where the plenum of the Chinese Communist Party ended Thursday, November 11. This meeting of party officials further solidified the omnipotence of President Xi Jinping, now assimilated to a historical figure. The formulas used could make you smile if they were not the translation of a now absolute authoritarianism. Here are some extracts from the resolution of the plenum of the 400 party cadres, in the resolutions made public: “Xi Jinping’s thought is the epitome of Chinese culture and soul”; “The presence of the president at the heart of power is of decisive importance to promote the historic process of the great renewal of the Chinese nation”; “Since Xi came to power, Chinese-style socialism has entered a new era.”
Grandiloquence is the order of the day. And the website of the official China New agency opens Thursday with photos to the glory of the leader, haloed by the sunlight. All this speech completes the development of recent months which has seen the inscription of Xi Jinping’s thought in school textbooks, the creation of a smartphone application devoted exclusively to the president’s reflections, and the proliferation of posters with the portrait of Xi all over the country.
All this discourse on History may seem grotesque, it is so bombastic.
But it is actually important. It is a way of solidifying power. Moreover, this is only the third time in 80 years that the Chinese Communist Party’s plenum has adopted a resolution of this nature, known as “historic resolution”. The first time was under Mao in 1945, the second under Deng Xiao Ping in 1981. In short, it is once every 40 years.
By this resolution, Xi Jinping sees himself in a way raised to the same rank as Mao, and consecrated as the incarnation of the millennial history of China, depositary of its past, and therefore of its future. And that comes with, of course, the cult of personality, like in Mao’s day. For example, the China New Agency, always, describes President Xi as “a determined and active man, a man of reflection and feelings, who works tirelessly, who inherits history but has a vision of the future”.
The rest is potentially life power. Xi Jinping is 68 years old, and, let us remember, he had the Constitution amended to go beyond two terms. Its renewal is therefore almost no doubt at the next party Congress, scheduled in a year. He will probably even take the opportunity to tighten his grip with the probable departure of Prime Minister Li Keqiang. This does not mean that Xi’s authoritarian line is unanimous. There are critics and opponents. But they are silent. The president’s power has become total. He controls the party, the army, the security services. Contestation prohibited. Silence in the ranks.