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China's Xi Jinping to Further Consolidate Power with Changes to Communist Party Constitution

October 12, 2022

 

Post China's 20th party congress is expected to approve constitutional amendments to elevate President Xi Jinping's status to China’s 'core' leader

 

China’s Xi Jinping to further consolidate power with changes to Communist Party constitution

Coming national party congress expected to approve constitutional amendments to elevate President Xi’s status to China’s “core” leader Party’s constitution to further embrace Xi’s ruling philosophy, map out policy directions

By Guo Rui

SCMP, October 12, 2022

During China’s 20th Communist Party congress, the party’s constitution will be amended once again, a process that is expected to further elevate the status of President Xi Jinping, who is set to secure a third term as the party’s leader.

The constitution, the highest level binding document for China’s ruling party, has been amended at every congress since the party’s founding in 1921 to reflect changes in direction of leadership.

It is understood the process to update the document began months ago and will be officially endorsed at the congress, which begins on Sunday.

These amendments are considered crucial since the document spells out some of the most important guidelines followed by the party. It also enshrines the political theories of all the party’s top leaders – from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping.

In 1982, for example, a revision in the constitution explicitly declared that the party forbade any type of cult of personality.

It also defines, in somewhat vague terms, the power of various party bodies up to the general secretary, who, according to the constitution, is responsible for convening the meetings of the Politburo and the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.

For the past 20 years, the revisions have been led by at least one member of the Politburo Standing Committee.

The most recent amendments in 2017 were led by Liu Yunshan, the party’s ideology chief, and the party’s anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan. Both men were members of the standing committee at the time.

Wang Huning, the current ideology tsar, briefed the party’s Central Committee earlier this week on the latest changes. Zhao Leji, the party’s current anti-corruption boss, is expected to co-lead the amendment process.

The 2017 amendments were kicked off by Xi during a Politburo Standing Committee meeting in May of that year, but the decision was not publicly confirmed until September, one month before the 19th national congress.

“General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance and taken a personal interest in and oversaw the revision of the party constitution from the beginning to the end,” a report on the 2017 changes to the charter stated, according to Xinhua news agency.

In late August that year, two months before the congress, Xi chaired six meetings at Zhongnanhai, the top leadership compound, with senior officials to hear their comments on the revisions, according to Xinhua. It is not known how many officials were summoned, nor what suggestions had been made during those meetings.

The revisions were put to a vote of more than 2,000 delegates on the last day of the congress.

Those constitutional amendments were seen as a major step by Xi to consolidate power. The charter now listed “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” as one of the party’s guiding principles.

Beijing gears up for 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party

The amendments also enshrined “Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military” in the constitution. It marked the first time it had included such specific terminology about the armed forces and a specific leader.

It also added Xi’s signature policy the Belt and Road Initiative.

Alfred Wu, associate professor at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said it is expected that the latest version will include “the two establishments”.

“The two establishments” refers to establishing Xi’s status as China’s “core” leader and enshrining his political doctrine in the party’s constitution.

The slogan first appeared in a resolution on history, which was approved by hundreds of top party officials last year and cemented Xi’s leadership position in the party, putting him on par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

“The core issue is his desire to avoid term limits on his leadership role, and remain in power. He will accomplish what none of his predecessors could do,” Wu said.

“Xi is concerned about his own historical standing inside the party. This makes sense in light of the 2017 revisions and the revision of the country’s constitution.”

Guo Rui is a China reporter covering elite politics, domestic policies, environmental protection, civil society, and social movement. She is also a documentary filmmaker, recording modern Chinese history and social issues through film. She graduated from Nankai University with a master degree in Modern Chinese History.

China’s Xi Jinping to further consolidate power with changes to Communist Party constitution | South China Morning Post (scmp.com)

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How are China’s 20th Communist Party congress delegates chosen?

The selection process is different from elections in the West and requires multiple rounds of recommendations and reviews Candidates must include ethnic minorities, farmers and ‘model workers’, but results often reflect elite preferences, according to Chinese politics scholar

By Xinlu Liang

SCMP, October 11, 2022

The 2,296 delegates to China’s 20th Communist Party congress, set to convene in Beijing on Sunday, have the task of endorsing plans that will determine the trajectory of the world’s second-largest economy over the next five years.

They will also endorse a list of members of the Central Committee, a body of more than 300 top party members, including President Xi Jinping, who is set to secure a third term as the party’s leader during the congress.

The delegates, who represent more than 96 million Communist Party members nationwide, were chosen through a process that is much different from elections in the West and requires a series of recommendations and reviews by the party.

In November, the organisation department, which manages personnel affairs within the party, announced that about 2,300 delegates would be chosen from 38 electoral units representing provinces, state-owned enterprises, the central financial sector and central authorities.

Between November and July, the delegates were put through a five-stage “rigorous and meticulous election process”, according to state news agency Xinhua.

First, each electoral unit’s organisation department nominated a pool of candidates.

According to Xinhua, Xi issued instructions on the delegate selection process, saying it should set strict standards for candidates, carefully review their integrity, stringently enforce electoral discipline and enhance party leadership.

Organisation department head Chen Xi said loyalty, competence and integrity were some of the key qualities the party looked for when selecting a new generation of leaders.

The department said candidates would be evaluated on their commitment to party doctrine, including loyalty towards Xi, and delegates must include “model workers, farmers and professionals” as well as ethnic minorities.

The nominees were then reviewed by local discipline inspection and supervision organs.

In the southwestern province of Guizhou, a blacklist was set up to disqualify candidates who had violated party discipline rules or were deemed to have poor integrity, Xinhua reported.

About six months before the national congress, members of the party committee of each electoral unit voted on a shortlist of candidates.

Finally, each electoral unit formally elected delegates based on the submissions of all subordinate party organisations and sent its list of delegates to the Central Committee for evaluation by a qualification review committee.

On September 26, the final delegate list was released. In addition to central political officials and regional party chiefs and governors, the delegation includes party representatives from a variety of sectors.

The electoral units were encouraged to select delegates who had made significant contributions in poverty alleviation, technological innovation and the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s delegates include veteran infectious disease expert Zhong Nanshan and Wang Yaping, China’s first female astronaut to conduct extravehicular activities.

Frontline workers account for 33.6 per cent of this year’s delegates. According to a tally by the Post, female representation has increased 3 percentage points to 27 per cent, or 619 delegates, while ethnic minority delegates total 264, or around 12 per cent – about the same as the previous party congress.

Victor Shih, a scholar of Chinese political economy at the University of California, San Diego, noted that women, who account for nearly half of China’s population, were still under-represented among delegates.

“What is more distressing is that they elect a Central Committee that has a very low share of women, less than 10 per cent. I don’t think that will change at the 20th party congress,” he said.

“Both the party congress delegates and Central Committee members are still dominated by Han males who work either in an SOE, government service unit, or a part of the government, including the vast majority of ‘frontline workers’.”

In Chinese politics, real decisions are often made before the formal meeting, which mainly serves to legitimise and tell others about the results.

Top leaders use the congress to explain decisions to a wider circle, and the delegates in turn endorse outcomes in a formal vote. The delegates also serve as important conduits to spread the message back in their respective constituencies.

Shih said the national delegates were not elected by rank-and-file party members in most cases, except in some central government units. Instead, they were chosen as a result of step-by-step elections by lower-level party delegations.

“The preferences of rank-and-file party members are highly filtered by the elite in this process. It is electoral, but not especially democratic, according to most political science definitions of ‘democracy’,” Shih said.

He explained that most elections in China were indirect, where people or ordinary party members elected delegates who then elected local leaders. The local leaders then elected higher-level local leaders before national delegates elected national leaders, both in the party and for the state.

Xinlu Liang joined the Post as a Graduate Trainee in 2021. Previously, she wrote obituaries as a Covid-19 reporting intern at the Los Angeles Times. She holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor's degree in English from Sun Yat-sen University.

How are China’s 20th Communist Party congress delegates chosen? | South China Morning Post (scmp.com)

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