Xi's The Boss! Chinese President Could Gain Lifetime Rule In Communist Party Meeting

China’s Communist Party has launched a four-day closed-door meeting that could result in President Xi Jinping gaining lifetime leadership powers.

What Happened: According to reporting from Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, details on the meeting — formally known as the sixth plenary session of the Central Committee, or the sixth plenum — are scant, although it is known that nearly 400 full and alternate members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee have gathered at Beijing’s Jingxi Hotel for the event.

Xi, who is also the party’s general secretary, is expected to put forth a historical resolution that the state-run Xinhua news agency defined as a “draft resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the [party’s] 100 years of endeavors.” A vote on the resolution is scheduled for Thursday.

This marks the third time that a resolution of this nature was placed before the Central Committee. Mao Zedong’s 1945 resolution successfully sidelined his opponents within the party while a 1981 resolution rejected the Maoist philosophy that fueled the Cultural Revolution and reset China’s socioeconomic future under then-leader Deng Xiaoping.

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Why It Matters: Unlike Mao and Deng at the time of their respective resolutions, Xi is firmly in control of the Communist Party and has successful erased opposition within the party's ranks.

The Central Committee’s meeting could further strengthen his hold on the government for an indefinite period.

State-run media has previewed the meeting with articles detailing Xi’s accomplishments since coming to power in November 2012, with a heavy focus on economic results and national pride.

Xi’s current focus on power consolidation within China contributed to his conspicuous absence from two recent gatherings of world leaders, the G20 meeting in Rome and ongoing COP26 gathering on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland. U.S. President Joe Biden tweaked the no-show by the Chinese president in Glasgow by asking, “How do you do that and claim to have any leadership mantle?”

Photo: UN Geneva/Flickr Creative Commons.