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China’s Communist Party Declares Xi Jinping ‘Core’ Leader China’s Communist Party Declares Xi Jinping ‘Core’ Leader
(about 7 hours later)
BEIJING — President Xi Jinping of China came out of a Communist Party conclave significantly strengthened on Thursday, when he was formally elevated to the status of “core” leader. The term suggests Mr. Xi has joined the same revered league as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping before a big shake-up in the party’s top ranks next year. BEIJING — President Xi Jinping of China received a potent boost to his status on Thursday, when a Communist Party meeting elevated him to “core” leader, putting him in the same revered ranks as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
The meeting of the Central Committee, which consists of senior party members, also set in motion plans for a congress in the second half of next year, which is virtually certain to confirm Mr. Xi as national leader for five additional years and to appoint a new cohort of officials under him. Naming Mr. Xi the party’s “core” leader does not have any clear immediate consequences, but it suggests that he has gained the upper hand before he and his colleagues must decide China’s next leadership lineup. Mr. Xi’s newest title, carrying echoes of those political strongmen, reinforces his power to shape the new leadership of the party. It is also a warning that officials should fall in line, though some privately fear he has amassed too much control and has eroded traditions of collective leadership, built up to prevent a return to the arbitrary abuses of Mao’s final decades.
Since Mr. Xi became general secretary of the party in 2012, the leadership “with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core has acted on its words, led by example, and staunchly promoted comprehensively and strictly managing the party,” said the official communiqué from the four-day meeting. It also demanded obedient unity under Mr. Xi. Since he became general secretary of the party in 2012, the leadership “with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core has acted on its words and led by example,” said a communiqué from the four-day assembly of the Central Committee.
“For a country and for a party, a leading core is vitally important,” said the document, issued by Xinhua, the official news agency, and solemnly read on Chinese state television. “For a country and for a party, a leading core is vitally important,” said the document, which was solemnly read on Chinese state television news.
“In thought, politics and action, the entire party must conscientiously remain tightly in step with the party center,” it said, using the party’s name for the central leadership. It urged officials to “vigorously defend the authority of the party center.” In China, such titles are a powerful political currency, and Mr. Xi’s new status will resonate through the party hierarchy.
The party had earlier deemed only Mao, Deng and the former president Jiang Zemin as “core” leaders. It is a kind of political halo that suggests the holder dominates his peers. The latest decision suggests that Mr. Xi has already won similar pre-eminence, even before finishing his first term. “It seems that this plenum really was a victory for Xi,” Joseph Fewsmith, a professor at Boston University who studies Chinese leadership politics, said by email. “What exactly that means in terms of personnel changes is hard to say, but it seems that Xi will get what he wants.”
Christopher K. Johnson, an expert on Chinese politics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the elevation was a “huge deal.” The term “core” does not carry particular powers. But it demonstrates to potential rivals that Mr. Xi stands above the pack in a way few modern Chinese leaders have. Officials up and down the country will face a welter of propaganda and study sessions demanding that they demonstrate their loyalty to Mr. Xi by acclaiming his new status.
“The core designation puts him on a path toward granting him ideological arbiter status,” Mr. Johnson said by email. That, he said, “could have big implications for appointments next fall,” when the congress is likely to meet and endorse a new leadership. It also indicates that he will push aside the painstaking consensus-building style of his predecessor, and instead impose a heavy individual imprint on China’s next leadership lineup, experts say.
At that congress, many leaders must retire, giving Mr. Xi room to reshape the party’s top tiers. Under the informal retirement ceiling, five of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s highest body, must step down, leaving only Mr. Xi and the premier, Li Keqiang. “It appears on the surface to further erode the concept of ‘collective leadership’ that has emerged as the norm in Chinese politics since 2000,” said Jude Blanchette, a researcher in Beijing who is writing a book on the legacy of Mao.
In the past two leadership successions, a likely heir emerged five or even 10 years before the incumbent’s retirement as party chief. But some political insiders and analysts have said that Mr. Xi may delay choosing a successor so that he has more time and more choices. “It confirms a narrative that Xi himself must be aware of — namely that the norms of power-sharing and institutionalized succession that have slowly emerged in the post-Mao era are now clearly in question,” Mr. Blanchette said.
Mr. Xi and his allies have been preparing for the move since the start of the year, when dozens of provincial leaders lauded Mr. Xi as a “core” leader. Recently, some revived the campaign of acclaim, called for “absolute loyalty” to him and defended his “absolute authority” as party leader. This week, People’s Forum, a party-run magazine, said that there were “high expectations for further defining General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core status.” But party researchers and publications argue that China is being tested by economic downdrafts and an increasingly tough international environment, and that it needs a singularly strong leader to push through Mr. Xi’s ambitious, contradictory agenda of revitalizing the economy while strengthening one-party rule and raising the country’s global stature.
But all that fell short of the official imprimatur given by the Central Committee, which brought together 348 officials for its latest meeting. People’s Daily, the party’s main newspaper, said that the country and one-party rule needed a powerful center of authority to weather those challenges.
Mr. Xi also won endorsement for two new sets of rules — on party political life and supervision — that offer tools to cut off corruption, strengthen top-down control over officials and extend the reach of the party. “The party center and the whole party must have a core,” it said in an editorial at the end of the Central Committee meeting. Giving Mr. Xi core status was “in the fundamental interests of the party and the country, and will act as fundamental assurance that the leadership of the party is maintained and strengthened.”
The term “core” leader dates back to the turbulence of 1989, when Deng used it to anchor the shaky authority of Jiang Zemin, who had been abruptly appointed general secretary. Deng also said he and Mao were the core leaders of their respective generations, suggesting that they had near unassailable authority. But Mr. Xi’s immediate predecessor, Hu Jintao, a cautious leader who was unable to establish his pre-eminence, never received the title.
“The formal designation of Xi Jinping as core is very important,” Nie Huihua, a professor at the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University in Beijing, said in an interview. The elevation of Mr. Xi would help his efforts to clean up the party after years of poor discipline, he said.
“This concept of a core will certainly help in advancing supervision inside the party and fighting corruption,” Professor Nie said.
The Central Committee also set in motion plans for a congress in the second half of next year, which is virtually certain to confirm Mr. Xi as national leader for five additional years and appoint a new cohort of officials under him.
At the congress, many leaders must retire, giving Mr. Xi room to reshape the party’s top echelon. Under the current informal retirement ceiling, five of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s highest body, must step down, leaving only Mr. Xi and the premier, Li Keqiang.
Naming Mr. Xi as core leader suggested that he has gained the upper hand ahead of a potentially contentious year when he and his colleagues must decide the next leadership lineup.
In the past two leadership successions, a likely heir has emerged five or even 10 years before the incumbent’s retirement as party chief. But some political insiders and analysts have said that Mr. Xi may delay choosing a successor, so that he has more time and more choices, and preserves his influence.
Mr. Xi’s elevation “shows his colleagues that he is more than willing to ignore past so-called norms, which could have big implications for appointments next fall,” when the congress is likely to meet, said Christopher K. Johnson, an expert on Chinese politics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. It “confirms that he is no first among equals, but just first.”
But the Central Committee announcement also hinted that Mr. Xi respects the need for a leadership that brings together different backgrounds. Officials should be promoted from “across the five lakes and four oceans,” said the meeting communiqué, using an old Chinese phrase for diverse backgrounds.
Precisely how Mr. Xi won his core title probably will not be known for a long time. Elite party politics is intensively secretive, and has become more so under him.
But Mr. Xi and his allies appeared to muster a propaganda strategy that first planted the idea of making him “core,” and then argued it was an essential test of officials’ loyalty. They have been preparing for the title since the start of the year, when dozens of provincial leaders lauded Mr. Xi as a core leader in a concerted wave of adulation.
Recently, some officials revived the campaign of acclaim and called for “absolute loyalty” to Mr. Xi and defended his “absolute authority” as leader. This week, People’s Forum, a party-run magazine, said there were “high expectations for further defining General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core status.” Li Hongzhong, who was recently promoted by Mr. Xi to run Tianjin, an important northern port city, has been especially fervent in promoting his leader.
“The leading core of the party center is General Secretary Xi Jinping,” Mr. Li declared in the Tianjin Daily last week, well before the Central Committee announcement. “Safeguarding the core and its authority is the highest interest of the entire party, and the entire country and nation.”
But even that praise fell short of the official imprimatur given by the Central Committee, which met in a Soviet-style hotel opened in 1964. There, Mr. Xi also won endorsements for two new sets of rules — on party political life and supervision — that offer tools to cut off corruption, strengthen top-down control over officials and extend the reach of the party.
“The party central leaders’ approach to keep up the high pressure is coming from the top down,” Professor Nie of Renmin University said. “And you need to have a core to make that work.”