Source: Tyler DurdenThursday,
China’s Communist Party Central Committee concluded its closed-door 6th Plenum in Beijing on Thursday to ensure an unprecedented third term for President Xi Jinping that would extend his rule until 2027.
The official summary of the closed-door meeting read: “Establishing comrade Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the central committee as well as of the whole party … was of decisive significance in advancing toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
The summary continued, “many major tasks that weren’t finished before and promoted historic achievements and historic changes in the cause of the party and the country.”
Over 400 party bosses, military leaders, and top policy advisers attended the meeting, which gathered at a heavily guarded hotel in Beijing, lauded Xi for having made “historic achievements” and leading a “historical transformation” of the economy shows he’s an uncontested leader of the world’s second-largest economy.
“The plenum is about past achievements but it’s really about the future,” Tony Saich, director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University, told WaPo.
“By tracing the continuity of the party over 100 years, it is used to show that it was inevitable for Xi to emerge at this time to be the ‘core’ of the party,” Tony said.
Xi’s political will to remain in power began as early as 2017 when he announced China had entered a “new era” of its development. He set a new national plan through 2035. One year later, in 2018, a constitutional amendment removed the two-term limit for the President. Xi is widely expected to stay in office for another five-year term. We speculate for life.
“As we expected, even though they haven’t used the three words’ leader for life,’ they have devoted almost half of the communique to Xi Jinping’s achievements,” Willy Lam, a Hong Kong-based political analyst, told AFP.
“I think it is now widely taken for granted that he will remain leader for life, but putting down those three words or four words… could arouse opposition,” Lam said.
Next autumn, Xi will lead the 20th Party Congress, which occurs every five years. It’s believed, at that time, Xi will secure his third presidential term.
The downside, some political scientists point out, is that the longer someone stays in power in regions in Asia, Africa, and South America, decision-making becomes poor and economic deterioration is observed.
Xi has a mission to displace the US as the world’s largest economy and become the next military powerhouse. To do this, he needs a third term next year.
