The chief significance of the conclave of the Communist Party of China is not quite the event per se, but that the century-old ruling party passed a rare and historical document eventually to pave the ground for an unprecedented third term for President Xi Jinping, who had incidentally a few years ago been proclaimed as “President for life”.
This made him arguably the most powerful personality in Communist China after Mao Zedong. The sixth plenum of the CPC’s 19th central committee is now under way.
Nearly 400 full and alternate members of the panel are participating in the plenum. Mr Xi, who happens to be the general secretary of the CPC central committee, presented what they call a “work report” on behalf of the Politburo, a document that seeks to explain the draft resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC’s 100 “years of endeavour”.
At the age of 68, Mr Xi holds all three power centres in China ~ he is the general secretary of the CPC and is chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) which is the overall high command of the omnipotent military.
His position as President is scheduled to complete the second fiveyear tenure next year. Should the plan for an unprecedented third term materialize, Mr Xi indubitably will be the most powerful personality in China ~ as much in matters of State as in the military.
Yet it may be hard not to wonder whether a “President for life” really deserved the appellation of a third term. Suffice it to register for now that the party’s official stamp on extension is unprecedented. Sunday’s critical announcement by the CPC has been made in parallel to the ratcheting up of tension with the United States of America over the South China Sea, Taiwan and military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific.
According to satellite images, China has built “mock-ups” of a US Navy aircraft carrier and destroyer in its north-western desert, presumably for practice for a future naval clash in the season of tension. The images, captured by the Colorado-based satellite imagery company named Maxar Technologies last Sunday, show the outlines of a US aircraft carrier, and a destroyer on a railway track.
The visual, beamed through the Associated Press, reaffirms the development, though China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, has pleaded ignorance. The location has been identified as part of the Taklamakan desert county in the Xinjiang region ~ restless primarily due to the presence of the minority Uighurs.
The independent US Naval Institute claimed that the mock-ups of US ships were part of a new target range developed by the omnipotent People’s Liberation Army. It is a forbidding cocktail of ideology, the military message and the extraordinary cult of a personality.