Xi’s new milestone positions him to rule China for decades

Bloomberg

Whether or not Chinese President Xi
Jinping signals a successor on Wednesday, he’s amassed enough power to effectively rule for decades.
The Communist Party approved a sweeping charter revision at the end of its twice-a-decade congress on Tuesday that elevates Xi to a status alongside the nation’s most vaunted political figures. The document put Xi’s contributions on par with those of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping and also declared him the party’s “core” leader indefinitely.
Getting his personal legacy enshrined in the party’s governing document gives Xi a platform to exert influence long after his second — and ostensibly final — term ends in 2022. The changes came a day before the party was expected to announce a new leadership lineup that could signal whether he intends to anoint a successor.
“It does make the naming or not of a successor moot, as it is by now clear that Xi has no plan to relinquish control,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.
“The only question is how he will do so, and he has probably not yet decided. After all, five years is an exceedingly
long time in politics, even in a non-
democratic state.”
Xi has sought to turn China into a global economic and military power, modernizing the armed forces while also launching a vast program to build infrastructure from Asia to Europe. Yet his focus on keeping the party at the top of China’s power structure raises questions over his commitment to implementing tough reforms, expanding the role of the market and adhering to established global rules of the road.
The president will walk onto a red-carpeted stage in Beijing to present China’s top political body to the world around noon on Wednesday. Hundreds of repor-
ters will be on hand to see if the Polit-
buro Standing Committee includes
members young enough to rule for a decade after 2022.
The procession provides a theatrical climax to the weeklong congress, a largely closed-door gathering of 2,300 delegates who choose leaders for a nation of 1.4 billion. Xi kicked off the pageant with a marathon speech last week that outlined plans to complete China’s restoration as one of the world’s great powers by 2050.
“The Xi Jinping era is being characterized as the third era of CCP history, with the previous being the Mao and Deng eras,” said Andrew Polk, co-founder of research firm Trivium China in Beijing, referring to the Communist Party. “At this stage, there is little reason to suspect that era will end in 2022.”
Both Mao and Deng enjoyed vast political clout beyond their formal titles. Xi has been cast in state propaganda as the leader who would finish their campaigns to rectify China’s suffering at the hands of colonial powers.
“By 2050, two centuries after the Opium Wars, which plunged the ‘Middle Kingdom’ into a period of hurt and shame, China is set to regain its might and re-ascend to the top of the world,” the official Xinhua News Agency said on Wednesday in a commentary.
The congress also selected 204 full Central Committee members, who will in turn elect the Standing Committee on Wednesday. The Central Committee, which meets at least once a year to ratify major policies, includes dozens of younger officials who have served directly under Xi and could extend his influence for years.