China has included President Xi Jinping’s name and political ideology in the Communist Party constitution, elevating his stature to the level of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, it was reported on Tuesday.
The party at the end of a twice-a-decade meeting unanimously passed an amendment to include “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” as one of its guiding principles, Reuters reported.
The constitution also acknowledged Xi’s industrial reforms, fight against corruption and infrastructure initiatives, the report said.
“This is about further erasing any distinction between Xi Jinping and the party,” Jude Blanchette, who studies the party at The Conference Board’s China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing, told Reuters, about the party cementing Xi’s power and leadership role.
“Add on to this having supply-side structural reform and One Belt One Road written into this, which were Xi’s signature policies, this makes questioning or non-compliance with those tantamount to betrayal of the party,” he said.
The move raises Xi’s stature to that of Mao and former President Deng Xiaoping, whose name was added to the constitution after his death in 1997.