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Xi tightens grip on China as name added to Communist constitution, joining Mao and Deng

BEIJING — China's Communist Party added President Xi Jinping's name to its constitution on Tuesday (Oct 24), confirming his status as the nation's most powerful leader in decades.

Souvenir plates with images of Chinese late Chairman Mao Zedong and Chinese President Xi Jinping are displayed for sale at a shop next to Tiananmen Square during the ongoing Communist Party congress. Mr Xi is now regarded as China’s great centraliser and most powerful ruler since Mao. Photo: Reuters

Souvenir plates with images of Chinese late Chairman Mao Zedong and Chinese President Xi Jinping are displayed for sale at a shop next to Tiananmen Square during the ongoing Communist Party congress. Mr Xi is now regarded as China’s great centraliser and most powerful ruler since Mao. Photo: Reuters

BEIJING — China's ruling Communist Party enshrined President Xi Jinping's political thought into its constitution on Tuesday (Oct 24), putting him in the same company as the founder of modern China, Mao Zedong, and cementing his power ahead of a second five-year term.

As expected, the party unanimously passed an amendment to include "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" as one of its guiding principles.

The party will announce its new Politburo Standing Committee, headed by Mr Xi, at around midday on Wednesday, culminating a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle.

The amended constitution affirmed that Mr Xi's signature fight against corruption, which has ensnared more than 1.3 million officials, will continue.

Unexpectedly, Mr Xi's "Belt and Road" initiative, an ambitious programme to build infrastructure linking China with its neighbours and beyond, was also included in the party constitution.

Also included was a commitment to supply-side industrial reforms, and giving play to the "decisive role" of market forces in resource allocation, a commitment Mr Xi had made early in his first terms that many investors say he has failed to deliver on.

``The Chinese people and nation have a great and bright future ahead,'' Mr Xi told party delegates as the meeting came to a close after delegates approved the addition of Mr Xi's ideology to the party charter.

``Living in such a great era, we are all the more confident and proud, and also feel the heavy weight of responsibility upon us,'' he said. 

"The party exercises overall leadership over all areas of endeavour in every part of the country," the party added in a statement reflecting Mr Xi's ongoing efforts to strengthen the party and its place in contemporary Chinese society.

The constitutional amendment, along with Mr Xi's work report and a work report of the graft watchdog to the congress, were passed by a show of hands.

When Mr Xi next asked for any "no" votes or abstentions for the amendment or two work reports, the sound of "none" echoed throughout the chamber, as officials shouted out from different sides of the hall.

``In every sense, the Xi Jinping era has begun in earnest,'' said Zhang Lifan, an independent political commentator in Beijing. ``Only Mao's name was enshrined in the party ideology while he was still alive. We're opening something that hasn't been broached before.''

"This is about further erasing any distinction between Xi Jinping and the party," added Jude Blanchette, who studies the party at The Conference Board's China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing.

"Add on to this having supply-side structural reform and One Belt One Road written into this, which were Xi's signature policies, this makes questioning or non-compliance with those tantamount to betrayal of the party."

Despite being elevated to the status of both a political and theoretical authority in the party, Mr Xi still lacks the broad popular support of the Chinese public that Mao had enjoyed, said Zhang Ming, a political analyst in Beijing who recently retired from a prestigious university.

``This (elevation) is a result of the party's political system and not of the sincere support of the people's hearts,'' Mr Zhang Ming said. ``If he can achieve that, he would become Mao.''

Mr Xi has described his concept as central to setting China on the path to becoming a ``great modern socialist country'' by midcentury. This vision has at its core a ruling party that serves as the vanguard for everything from defending national security to providing moral guidance to ordinary Chinese.

He has set the target date of 2049, the People's Republic's centenary, for the establishment of a prosperous, modern society. China has the world's second-largest economy and legions of newly wealthy urban residents, but raising living standards for millions of people continues to be a challenge.

Xu Hongcai, deputy chief economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a Beijing think-tank, said party control was needed to push through the market reforms key to restructuring the world's second-largest economy.

"To build a market economic system in such a big country, it's impossible without the leadership of the party," he said.

Others have argued that the two are contradictory.

"When you put 'supply-side reform' and 'market playing a decisive role' in the same document, then that just shows they have to almost choose one," said Alex Wolf, Senior Emerging Markets Economist with Aberdeen Standard Investments in Hong Kong.

China's blue-chip shares climbed to a 26-month high on Tuesday, led by infrastructure and property stocks, as Mr Xi wrapped up a congress that began with his three-and-a half hour speech envisioning a more prosperous, confident China. The yuan strengthened against the dollar.

Mr Xi rapidly consolidated power after assuming party leadership in late 2012 and then the presidency the next year. The party gave Xi the title of "core" leader a year ago, a significant strengthening of his position.

Whether Mr Xi was able to have his name "crowned" in the party constitution had been seen as a key measure of his power, elevating him to a level of previous leaders exemplified by Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory.

No other leader since Mao has had an eponymous ideology included in the document while in office. Deng's name was added after his death in 1997.

Analysts say the inclusion of the Belt and Road Initiative in the constitution has given it greater policy heft and added pressure to succeed.

It also underscores how the Communist Party has increased its attention to foreign policy and reflects Mr Xi's growing desire for China to take a global leadership role, they added.

"Everyone knows that the Belt and Road is very important to Xi, it has his personal stamp and authority," said Peter Cai, a non-resident fellow at Sydney-based think tank Lowy Institute.

"But to have major policy, especially an external engagement policy, to be written into a party constitution, at least in recent memory, it is something quite significant," he said. AGENCIES

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