Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, stands with his leaders during communist chanting during the closing ceremony of the 19th Congress at the People’s Palace in Beijing, October 24, 2017. ANDY WONG/AP
“Everything has to change so that nothing changes. The famous formula of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of The Cheetah, applies perfectly to Xi Jinping. A priori, the Chinese Communist Party, which, as we learned on Tuesday, August 30, will convene its 20th Congress starting Sunday, October 16, will make many changes. A Congress is generally an opportunity to challenge the credentials of some 170,000 officials, experts say, and the 20th Congress will be no exception to the rule. But the result of all these changes should be the renewal of Xi Jinping at the helm of the country (as President of the Republic), the party (as General Secretary) and the army (as Chairman of the Central Military Commission).
The Chinese Communist Party is an extraordinary machine, both in terms of its membership – currently 96.7 million – and its opacity. Xi Jinping may preside over the world’s most populous country, head the world’s most powerful political organization and chair a military commission with a budget of more than €200 billion, he has no spokesman and has not had one since taking office in the fall of 2012 he never held a press conference. His speeches are sometimes not published until several months or even years after they are delivered.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers “The banker of the red princes” Chinese sharply condemned
The more the rules have changed, the greater the opacity. By 2018, executives were retiring at age 68 and serving no more than two five-year terms in the same position. But in March 2018, Xi Jinping got parliament to change the constitution, which limits the number of terms the president of the republic can serve to two. A rule that has been in place since 1982 to limit the concentration of power. After Xi Jinping managed to break that lockdown, nothing prevents this 69-year-old man from remaining at the top of the country for another five or ten years, or even longer.
It’s all behind the scenes
On July 27, Xi Jinping, who chaired a preparatory meeting for the congress, specified that it would be “a very important congress (…) for the development of the party and the cause of the country in the next five years and even beyond”. On April 11, the media dubbed him Lingxiu (‘leader’), a term that puts him almost on par with Mao Zedong: “It is likely that his status as ‘hard core’ and leader for life will be formalized and he will attend the 21st Congress in 2027 a fourth term, meaning Xi will lead at least until 2032, when the conservative and quasi-Maoist leader turns 79,” says Willy Lam, an expert on China’s political system, in a paper published by the Jamestown Foundation Article ahead, but “in return, he must share the seats of political office with his rivals,” specifies Mr. Lam.
You have 63.58% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.