by FRANK CHING
China’s President Xi Jinping PHOTO/Antilong, Wikipedia Commons
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, already general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, president, and commander of the country’s military forces has been given another new title – “core” of the party leadership. The title, unused for the past 14 years, elevates Xi’s status to a higher level than that of his predecessor, Hu Jintao. As Xi prepares to push for tough economic and military reforms, his unchallenged position could prove to be valuable armor – or it could make a shinier target for his opponents.
Notice came in a communiqué issued at the end of a four-day session of several hundred party leaders in late October, and China watchers immediately recognized the significance of the statement urging all party members to “closely unite around the Communist Party of China Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core.”
The concept of a “core” leader was not used during the first 40 years of the People’s Republic of China. In fact, the title does not appear in the constitution of the Communist Party of China, so the rank comes with no attached power or responsibilities.
Mao Zedong, the party’s founder and chairman, never used the title ”core” though he was hailed as the great leader, great teacher, great supreme commander and great helmsman and his word was law.
Similarly, Deng Xiaoping eschewed titles as superfluous and never became the formal party leader, premier or president though he was universally described as “China’s paramount leader” and governed by force of personality.
Yet Deng invented the title “core,” bestowing it on Jiang Zemin, whom he chose as the party leader after the tumult of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 and the downfall of General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who had sympathized with protesting students. Because Jiang did not have the standing of an old revolutionary, Deng boosted his status by saying that just as Mao was the core of the first generation of leaders and Deng himself the core of the second generation, so Jiang was the core of the third generation.
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