Chinese President Xi Jinping is not only showing muscles with his neighbors, but has stepped up his efforts to consolidate his leadership in the Communist Party that meets later this month. President Xi is expected to get the Communist Party of China (CPC) central committee to pass a new set of regulations that will allow President Xi to set the agenda for the party’s main panel meetings.
People familiar with the matter said this power appears to be a precursor to President Xi giving himself a great promotion that would place him on a par with Communist China’s founding father, Mao Zedong, the only leader in the history of the party appointed as president. “President Xi Jinping’s actions to consolidate his power very clearly suggest that he has decided to rise up,” said a Chinese observer in New Delhi.
President Xi would be the first party chairman in 45 years if he does so. Xi, like Mao Zedong, is already appointed as commander-in-chief of the PLA and supreme leader of the Middle Kingdom. In October 2017, Xi was only the second Chinese leader after Mao to have an eponymous ideology included in the party’s statutes while in office. This year, he opened the Xi Jinping Research Center for Diplomatic Thought.
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President Xi has been laying the groundwork to consolidate his grip on China’s politics and military for years. As early as 2016, according to an analysis, China’s commander-in-chief had mercilessly purged 73 general-ranking officers, including 4-star generals and accelerated promotions to those loyal to him to ensure the PLA’s full submission to him, not La party.
Xi had also been able to add 18 of the 25 Politburo members to his personal network in 2017, up from 5 members he could count as his own in 2012, when the party’s 18th Congress was held. It is proposed that the XX Congress be held in June next year.
That effort continues.
Earlier this month, Xi Jinping continued to target Vice President Wang Qishan, placing Vice President Dong Hong’s close aide under investigation on suspicion of what was described as a “disciplinary review and supervisory investigation.” Dong, according to articles in China’s state media, had worked closely with Vice President Wang since the 1990s when their paths first crossed and was a senior disciplinary inspector under Wang when he was head of the anti-corruption agency. from China and led Xi’s anti-corruption campaign during his first five-year term that often targeted rivals. A recent analysis in the Asian Nikkei Review suggested that the equation between Xi and Wang could change.
Dong Hong was the second close associate of Vice President Wang to be implicated on October 2 after his high school friend and former party member Ren Zhiqiang was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Ren Zhiqiang, a former chairman of the state-owned Huayuan real estate group, was convicted of illegal profits totaling 112 million yuan ($ 16.5 million), a charge that was imposed on the 69-year-old after he called Xi Jinping “a naked naked clown who insisted on remaining emperor” in March.
Ren was immediately expelled from the communist party, investigated for a “serious disciplinary violation” and charged with crimes such as the use of official funds for golf expenses and the use of offices and residential spaces provided free of charge by businessmen. If Chairman Mao can purge his close associates like Liu Shaoqi during the Cultural Revolution, Comrade Xi is expected to follow in his footsteps in pursuit of the China 2021 dream.
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