(Bloomberg) — China’s ruling Communist Party will revise its constitution to include “major strategic thinking,” state media reported, in a sign President Xi Jinping’s doctrine could be further elevated.
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The top decision-making Politburo decided at a Friday meeting to “write major theoretical points of view and major strategic thinking into the party constitution” at next month’s 20th party congress, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The constitution was last amended at the 19th party congress in 2017 to enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” as one of its guiding principles. Some China analysts said previously that Xi’s doctrine could get a shortened name — perhaps just “Xi Jinping Thought,” although that phrase wasn’t directly mentioned in the Xinhua report.
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Giving Xi’s loosely defined philosophy that condensed title would bring it on par with Maoism, the key tenants of which are collected in the iconic “Little Red Book.” It would also further cement Xi’s power, as he prepares to clinch a precedent-defying third term in office at the leadership summit beginning Oct. 16 in Beijing.
No other leader besides Mao Zedong has had his ideology raised to the level of “thought,” which carries a special meaning in Communist Party propaganda. Deng Xiaoping’s reforms are described as “Deng Xiaoping Theory,” while concepts advanced by Xi’s immediate predecessors, Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, don’t carry their names.
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