CCP Reaffirms Xi Jinping as Party’s Core Ahead of Key Congress

Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders' summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Sept. 16, 2022. Sergei Bobylyov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reaffirmed Chinese leader Xi Jinping as the Party’s core on Oct. 12, days before Xi is expected to secure an unprecedented third term in power at the twice-in-decade CCP Congress due to kick off on Sunday.

The Party’s Central Committee, in a communique issued on the final day of its four-day plenum, repeatedly emphasized the purported achievements of the CCP with Xi at its “core,” according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

Observers say such messaging is a clear sign that Xi, 69, is poised to continue his rule over the Party, a decision to be made at the Party Congress.

Frank Lehberger, a Europe based-sinologist, said the references to Xi’s status as the core of the Party and to“Xi Jinping Thought,” the leader’s own brand of dogma that was enshrined in the CCP’s constitution in 2017, “signal that Xi Jinping will become the uncontested leader after [this] coming Sunday.”

The phrase “comrade Xi at the core” was already used in an official communication after the previous plenum last November, Lehberger told The Epoch Times in an email.

Xi at the core “means that he will have the glory to be the ‘Chairman,’” said Claude Arpi, a French-born historian and author of multiple books on Tibet and China, in a reference to the CCP’s most powerful leader Mao Zedong, who was referred to as “Chairman Mao.”

The communique also said the Party in the past five years has “prioritized national interests and put internal politics first” and “displayed fighting spirit, [and] fought to safeguard national dignity and core interests.”

According to Xinhua, the Party counts among its achievements its “proper management” of the risks and challenges brought about by the Ukraine crisis, and tight implementation of COVID curbs. The CCP’s draconian zero-COVID policies have led to on-and-off-again lockdowns affecting hundreds of millions that have ravaged the economy.

The Central Committee, consisting of about 360 top party officials, voted by a show of hands to approve a report Xi will make at the Congress and a draft for the party constitution amendment. Changes will be unveiled at the Congress.

While the communique took a mostly celebratory tone regarding the Party’s accomplishments and its future, experts said things don’t look to be evolving towards a bright future.

According to Arpi, along with increasing his power within the Party, Xi will still face resistance from many elements in the CCP, especially when the country is beset with an array of domestic problems, including a lagging economy, zero-COVID policies, draught and the regime’s repression of ethnic minorities.

This will only make governance more difficult for Xi, Arpi noted.

Reuters contributed to this report.