Beijing, October 12
China’s ruling Communist Party is set to slide back to its founder Mao Zedong’s era soon as President Xi Jinping is ready to break the decades-old 10-year term rule to cling in power and perhaps for life, amid mounting pressure from the US-led West against Beijing’s aggressive quest to become a dominant world power.
On Sunday, 2,296 delegates “elected” under the ideological parameters set by 69-year-old Xi, will attend the carefully choreographed Communist Party’s once-in-a-five-year Congress, which is widely expected to endorse his continuation in power.
The outcome of the in-camera party Congress is expected to end two very strict five-year term limits followed by Xi’s predecessors to avert the danger of the one party state becoming a country with a single leader dominating the political scene.
In the century-old history of the CPC, Mao remained at the helm until his death in 1976, ruling the most populous country and subjecting it to his ideological experiments like the Cultural Revolution during which millions of intellectuals were exterminated and wiped out much of the country’s civilisational past to create a new socialist order.
Mao’s mercurial leadership was marked by brutal campaigns to purge the remnants of the capitalists and traditional elements from society and implement his brand of Communism called Mao Zedong Thought. It ended up disastrously driving the communist nation to near bankruptcy.
Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, who earned the title of Paramount Leader for his sedate and pragmatic leadership putting the country on the path of economic development reversing Mao’s hardline policies. — PTI
CPC Congress on Sunday
As many as 2,296 delegates “elected” under the ideological parameters set by 69-year-old Xi are set to attend the Communist Party’s once-in-a-five-year Congress on Sunday, which is widely expected to endorse his continuation in power.
