Mandate secured, Xi aims to restore China to its former glory

There was no mistaking the watershed moment that occurred this week in China: President Xi Jinping has joined Mao Zedong and Karl Marx in the pantheon of socialist greats, eclipsing Deng Xiaoping, China's second-generation leader after Mao.

This came after a four-day plenum of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which ended on Thursday.

State news agency Xinhua published a communique, the Chinese version of which likened Mr Xi's political ideology to Marxism Of Contemporary China and Marxism Of The 21st Century - a tribute that was never accorded to any of his predecessors. The English translation tempered the analogy for unknown reasons.

"Xi now (stands) shoulder to shoulder with Marx," a party insider told The Straits Times on condition of anonymity, referring to the German philosopher and economist known as the father of communism.

The plenum adopted a landmark historical resolution - only the third since CPC's founding in 1921 - virtually assuring Mr Xi of a rare third five-year term as the country's undisputed leader starting next year.

The first resolution was passed in 1945, when Mao took over as CPC chairman, marking the start of the Mao era.

The second, passed in 1981, posthumously declared Mao to be 70 per cent correct and 30 per cent wrong, ending the Mao era and kicking off the Deng era. Deng became Central Military Commission chairman - the ultimate lever of power in China - emerging as paramount leader.

Mr Xi does not have to bother with titles as he already holds the three most powerful positions in China today - state president, CPC general secretary and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Nonetheless, the conclave further cemented his grip on power ahead of the quinquennial 20th party congress next year when he would, at the very least, continue as CPC general secretary or resurrect and assume the party chairmanship.

The communique played up the CPC's "major achievements and historical experience" in the past 100 years, but made no mention of its mistakes.

The document did not broach Mao's mistakes - the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution and a man-made famine that starved an estimated 30 million to death in the wake of the 1958 Great Leap Forward campaign to industrially and economically surpass the United Kingdom and catch up with the United States.

Chinese farmers heeded Mao's call, abandoning their fields to make steel in backyard furnaces that turned out to be sub-standard.

The communique also did not touch on Deng's contentious decision to crush the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations.

It recapped Deng's "reform and opening up" policy - the dramatic socio-economic transformation that freed ordinary Chinese from the shackles of communism.

But for party conservatives, the excesses of capitalism during the Deng era spawned corruption, an ideological vacuum, money worship, social decadence, a gaping wealth gap and environmental degradation.

Mr Xi has undone many of Deng's policies. And, for some political pundits, the plenum underscored Mr Xi's overshadowing of Deng.

"Xi has surpassed Deng, but it will be difficult for Xi to surpass Mao," the insider said. Mao founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.

In 1979, Deng declared four cardinal principles that brooked no argument: China must uphold the socialist path, the people's democratic dictatorship, leadership of the CPC, as well as Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism-Leninism.

The sixth plenum communique listed 10 proclamations to uphold: the party's leadership; putting the people first; theoretical innovation; independence from foreign subjugation; the Chinese political and economic path; a global vision; breaking new ground; daring to fight and standing up to foreign bullying; promoting a united front or co-opting tactics; and self-reform or adapting to perpetuate one-party rule.

These are six more aspects to uphold than Deng's declaration. In the abstruse world of Chinese politics, numbers count, and are not merely symbolic.

The communique invoked Mr Xi's name and political ideology at least 14 times compared with Mao's seven mentions and Deng's five. Mr Xi's predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao were cited only once each. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out who is the man of the hour.

Mao and Mr Xi's political ideologies are both known as "thought", transcending Deng's, which is known as "theory".

Having secured a mandate to cling to power, Mr Xi will have ample time to try to complete the unfinished business of his predecessors - restoring China to its former glory, basically achieving socialist modernisation by 2035 and reunification with self-ruled democratic Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.