Xi Jinping is rewriting history to justify his rule for years to come

IN PREPARATION FOR a third five-year term as the Communist Party’s leader, Xi Jinping has been changing the rules of politics, business and society. He has also been pursuing another project that he sees as essential to his continued grip on power: rewriting the history of the party itself. Mr Xi wants to show his country that he is indispensable, a political giant on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping who is turning China into a global power by building on their legacy.

On November 8th about 370 members of the political and military elite will gather in Beijing for an annual four-day meeting of the party’s Central Committee. The only advertised topic on their agenda is a resolution on the party’s history. It will be the third in the party’s 100-year existence. The first, in 1945, and the second, in 1981, were triumphs for Mao and Deng respectively, consolidating their grip on power at crucial junctures. Mr Xi’s ability to secure one of his own suggests that he has quelled any meaningful opposition to extending his rule at a party congress that is due to be held late in 2022. The resolution will be “an extraordinary demonstration of power”, says Jude Blanchette of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank in Washington.