Communist Party praises Xi as Marxist thinker

Copies of newspapers’ front pages from top left, clock wise, Renmin Ribao, Guangming Ribao, China Youth Daily and China Sport Daily

Marx, Deng … Xi? To the Chinese president’s growing array of titles, the ruling Communist Party says Xi Jinping can add important Marxist thinker.

The party yesterday praised Xi’s contribution to ideology, adding to intense propaganda promoting his personal image as Xi begins a second five-year term as leader.

Xi, 64, has emerged as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong in the 1970s. He has taken control of an unusually wide range of political, economic and other functions, a break with the past two decades of collective leadership.

His image dominates official propaganda, which has prompted suggestions Xi is trying to build a cult of personality, evoking memories of the upheaval of the 1960s and ‘70s. Party spokespeople reject such talk, insisting Xi is the core of its seven-member Standing Committee, not a lone strongman.

Xi’s name and a political theory attributed to him were added to the party constitution this week, making him only the third Chinese leader cited by name after Mao and Deng Xiaoping, who launched economic reform in 1979. A reference to Deng Xiaoping Theory, or “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” was added only after the late leader’s death.

A party spokesman said Xi’s status was justified due to his “significant contribution” to ideology.

“Using the names of party leaders for theory or guiding ideology is common practice in the international communist movement. For example, Marxism, Leninism, or our country has Mao Zedong Thought or Deng Xiaoping Theory,” said spokesman Wang Xiaohui at a televised news conference.

“Xi Jinping’s ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era’ is the crystallization of the wisdom of the party and the masses,” said Wang.

“He made a significant contribution to the creation of this theory,” said Wang. “So use of his name on this theory is deserved.”

Yesterday, Xi’s face was splashed across the covers of Chinese magazines, while newspapers showed him with other members of the new Standing Committee appointed Wednesday.

Photos of Xi took up as much as one-quarter of party newspapers and titles as diverse as China Sports News. Rows of magazines at newsstands had Xi’s face on the cover.

Party spokespeople reject suggestions Xi is building a personality cult, but yesterday’s media saturation adds to the most intense propaganda for a Chinese leader’s personal image since Mao.

“The Xi Jinping Era,” said the headline on Vista magazine, published by the ruling party newspaper in the Ningxia region in the northwest.

The party says Xi, appointed Wednesday to a second five-year term as leader, is the core of its ruling seven-member Standing Committee, not a lone strongman.

Still, the propaganda focus on Xi is a break with his most recent predecessors — Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin — who appeared regularly on state media but shared space with other leaders.

Many newspapers featured photos of the latest Standing Committee appearing before reporters. But many of those were accompanied by large photos of Xi alone.

More than 24 hours after the new Standing Committee was appointed, some state television channels still were showing repeated scenes of delegates applauding as Xi and other party leaders walked past and waved.

The midday state television doubled the length of its broadcast to an hour, devoted to Xi and the Standing Committee. AP