Chinese Communist Party launches key 4-day conclave, Xi Jinping to be consecrated as supreme leader alongside Mao and Deng

Beijing, November 8 (PTI) Hundreds of senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials on Monday began a key four-day conclave here to deliberate and pass a rare landmark resolution by the ruling centennial party and pave the way for a unprecedented third term for President Xi Jinping.

The 19th CPC Central Committee has entered its sixth plenary session. About 400 full and alternate members of the CPC Central Committee are attending the plenum, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xi, the secretary general of the CPC Central Committee, presented an activity report on behalf of the Politburo and explained a draft resolution on the main achievements and historical experience of the CPC’s 100-year efforts. , according to the report.

Xi, 68, holds all three centers of power in China – secretary general of the CCP, chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) which is the army’s general high command, and the presidency is on the verge of being complete his second five-year term next year.

Politically, the meeting is considered important for Xi, who in the last nine years of his tenure in power has emerged as the most powerful leader after party founder Mao Zedong.

He is generally expected to continue for a third term unlike his predecessor, Hu Jintao, who retired after two terms and could possibly remain in power for life due to a key constitutional amendment in 2018 which removed the two-term limit for the president.

He was also named party leader in 2016, a status Mao enjoys.

The plenum is being held ahead of next year’s party congress, which was due to appoint a new leadership.

The closed-door meeting is being held in Beijing under strict COVID-19 control measures, as the city has reported several cases of the coronavirus in recent weeks, prompting authorities to tighten entry and exit controls.

With the exception of Xi, most officials, including Premier Li Keqiang, are expected to retire after completing both terms.

Over the past three decades, the party has generally used the last plenary session to deal with party affairs, particularly on key appointments, ideology, and party building issues.

One of the key questions to watch is whether the party continues to follow precedents for leadership changes, particularly the informal retirement age of 68 in addition to the two terms for its top leadership set by the successor to Party founder Mao Deng Xiaoping.

Nearly a dozen of the 25 members of the powerful Politburo will be over 68 this October.

Before the plenum, Xinhua published a long commentary, praising Xi’s achievements, including his crackdown on corrupt officials.

More than a million officials have been punished in the crackdown since 2013. Critics say he has used the anti-corruption campaign effectively to consolidate his power.

Titled Xi Jinping, the man leading the CCP on a new journey, the commentary said that a landmark document will be presented at this important meeting – the resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the 100-year-old efforts of the Chinese Communist Party. PCC, he said.

Observers say the document highlighting the historic resolution is only used three times in the party’s 100-year history.

The party’s rare resolve will strengthen Xi’s power but leave the succession to China’s leadership unclear, Chinese political commentator and columnist Wang Xiangwei said.

The CCP is on the verge of adopting a resolution that will give Xi’s political stance new theoretical impetus, as a previous one did for Mao, he wrote in his recent column in the South China Morning newspaper. Post based in Hong Kong.

But the document is unlikely to address one of the Chinese leadership’s biggest uncertainties: leadership succession, Wang wrote.

In the language of the Chinese Communist Party, the words historic resolution have special political meanings and implications. Only twice in the party’s 100-year history have leaders adopted the so-named documents at critical times to address major issues plaguing the party, changing the course of its history, he said.

The first resolution, published in 1945 and guided by Mao, marked the party’s break with strong Stalinist influences and established Mao’s thinking as a guiding principle for moving the party forward.

In 1981, Mao’s successor Deng orchestrated the second resolution to repudiate Mao for initiating the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in unrest and catastrophe.

Now, the party leadership under Xi is about to discuss and pass the third such resolution.

The wording of the document can provide a clear indication of Xi’s authority and position, Wang said.

The new resolution will come about a year before the party’s 20th Congress, which is set to take place in the fall of 2022, when Xi is widely expected to run for a third term as party leader, breaking the de facto two-term limit.

With Xi looking set to run for a third term in charge of China in 2022, and possibly a fourth term in 2027, a potential successor is highly unlikely to emerge next year.

Given the party’s opaque policies and the sensitivity of the issue, any historic resolution on China’s leadership succession plan may remain unclear in the years to come, Wang said.

In his comment describing President Xi, Xinhua said, since his election as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee in November 2012, “China is becoming a powerful country and is now entering an era of strength. On this new journey, Xi is undoubtedly the central figure in shaping the course of history. PTI KJV CPS AKJ CPS