Xi set to join Mao, Deng in Communist Party pantheon

BEIJING — Since becoming Chinese president in 2012, Xi Jinping has been tightening his grip on civil society, the military and competing political cliques.

Now, as the Communist Party prepares for the five-yearly congress that will launch his second term, he is about to give the clearest signal yet of the personal power he has amassed.

Mr Xi will elevate a new generation of loyalists to the nation’s top ruling body at the meeting in mid-October, which has been preceded by months of factional fighting, intrigue and purges. But he will also add to the party’s charter — and the way he makes his mark will be closely watched for signs of a growing cult of personality.

“It’s the institutionalisation of the legitimacy of power,” said Kerry Brown, a Chinese studies professor at King’s College London.

“Xi Jinping is putting his imprimatur on the body politic.”

Every leader of modern China bar one is represented in the party charter with a slogan that serves as a historic watermark of their status as a Communist theorist and symbolises their moral and spiritual power.

If Mr Xi attaches his name to his additions, it will elevate him to the level of founding father Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, who ruled the country in the 1980s and early 1990s while retaining a single title: Head of the Chinese Bridge Association. Incorporating “Xi Jinping Thought” into the document would arguably place him above all but Mao.

“No one else dared use “thoughts” after Mao. It means he puts himself in the rank of Mao, in that regard,” says Bao Pu, publisher of Hong Kong-based New Century Press, which specialises in recent Chinese history.

In the current formulation, the Communist party’s “guide to action” has five components: “Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, Important Thought of Three Represents and the Scientific Outlook on Development”.

The “Three Represents” and “Scientific Outlook” were the respective inclusions of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, who failed to attach their names to their slogans.

Hua Guofeng, the leader who succeeded Mao but was quickly outflanked by Deng, is not reflected in the party’s charter.

The notion that “Xi Jinping Thought” might be introduced has caused unease. Some party members are wary of a return to the strongman rule that proved so damaging both to their ranks and the country during the decades after the Communists won the Chinese Civil War in 1950.

A less controversial possibility is the addition to the charter of Mr Xi’s “new thoughts” on creating a more muscular party to govern China, distilled as the incomprehensible “Four Comprehensives” slogan.

He might also enshrine a variant of the “China Dream” theme that encapsulates China’s growing prosperity and international stature. Both concepts are widely evoked in state media, as are Mr Xi’s collected speeches pushing for a stronger role for the party in governing China.

Like Mr Hu, Mr Xi is seeking to insert his mark at the end of his first term in power. By contrast, Deng’s contribution was added after his death and Mr Jiang’s upon his formal retirement.

The party already adopted Mr Xi as its “core” last year. That designation was invented by Deng to shore up support for Mr Jiang when he was newly appointed after the bloody crackdown on protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, and retroactively applied to Mao.

Mr Hu, Mr Xi’s predecessor, was never referred to as a “core leader”, preferring to emphasise instead “collective leadership.”

While previous leaders have also used the congress at the beginning of their second term to anoint a successor, Mr Xi — who is already more powerful than his immediate predecessors — appears unlikely to do so. Many of his proteges still lack the national experience and standing to take on the role of dauphin. FINANCIAL TIMES