If Xi Jinping had followed the example of his immediate predecessors, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Nineteenth Congress in October 2017 should have marked the halfway point of his time in power. After completing his first five-year term as general secretary, he would have elevated his preferred successor and signalled the beginning of an orderly transition to the next leader in 2022.
This is not what happened. Not only was there no designated heir, but the conclave voted unanimously to enshrine Xi’s political ideology, Xi Jinping Thought, in the party’s constitution, an honour previously reserved for Mao Zedong. (Deng Xiaoping was posthumously credited with developing a “Theory”.) It was the clearest indication yet of Xi’s increasing dominance within the party and his determination to rule China indefinitely. In March 2018, the country’s legislature removed the term limits on the presidency, the only constitutional bar to Xi remaining in power for life.
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