China’s ruling Communist Party has voted to enshrine Xi Jinping’s name and ideology in its constitution, elevating him to the level of founder Mao Zedong.
The unanimous vote to incorporate “Xi Jinping Thought” happened at the end of the Communist Party congress, China’s most important political meeting.
Mr Xi has steadily increased his grip on power since becoming leader in 2012.
This move means that any challenge to Mr Xi will now be seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.
More than 2,000 delegates gathered in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for the final approval process to enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era” into the Communist Party constitution of China.
At the end of the process, delegates were asked if they had any objections, to which they responded with loud cries of “none”, reported journalists at the scene.
Previous Chinese Communist Party leaders have had their ideologies incorporated into the party’s constitution or thinking, but none, besides founder Mao Zedong, have had their philosophy described as “thought”, which is at the top of the ideological hierarchy. Only Mao and Deng Xiaoping have had their names attached to their ideologies – and Deng’s name was only added to the constitution after his death.
China’s new slogan hardly trips off the tongue.
But schoolchildren, college students and staff at state factories will now have to join 90 million Communist Party members in studying “Xi Jinping Thought” on the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The expression “new era” is the party’s way of saying this is the third chapter of modern China. If the first was Chairman Mao uniting a country devastated by civil war, and the second was getting rich under Deng Xiaoping, this new era is about even more unity and wealth at the same time as making China disciplined at home and strong abroad. Enshrining all of this under Xi Jinping’s name in the party constitution means rivals cannot now challenge China’s strongman without threatening Communist Party rule.
