WITH the abolition of the two-term limit, China has entered a new phase of political consolidation under a leader considered the most important since Mao Zedong. On March 11, the National People’s Congress abolished the two-term condition to ensure President Xi Jinping’s indefinite rule to guarantee China’s continued development in line with Deng Xiaoping’s ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’. Spoken in the late 1980s, and translated into policy and action in the subsequent decades, those words have been instrumental in the rise of China and the country’s stunning and fast-paced development in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution chaos. The feat was accomplished under a collective leadership that included the powerful political bureau. However, the constitutional amendment has changed the picture, with the ‘Thoughts of President Xi Jinping’ incorporated into the constitution along with the principles of Marxism-Leninism, the ‘Thoughts of Chairman Mao’, the ‘Deng Xiaoping Theory’ and the ‘Theory of Three Represents’ propounded by former president Jiang Zemin. While Deng and Jiang had their ‘thoughts’ inserted into the constitution when they were no more in office, Mr Xi has the privilege of seeing his sociopolitical dicta transcribed into the constitution while he still holds the office of president, besides being chairman of the military planning commission and heading several party committees.

Dubbed a “Confucian autocrat”, Mr Xi has consolidated his power skilfully and is keen to project China’s image as a power house of science and technology to rubbish the notion that his country has become, as a commentary in China Daily says, “the world’s factory”. He appears to have a strong anti-corruption agenda and believes in a clean political ecology. His speech on Tuesday was, however, geopolitical in nature and spoke of “the bloody battle” his country was ready to fight to defend the “one China principle”. Mr Xi is considered a friend of Pakistan, and it is noteworthy that agreements worth billions of dollars under CPEC were signed during his visit to Islamabad in 2015. For Pakistan, China’s meteoric rise as an economic power holds lessons: the Chinese have managed to discard dogmatic rigidity and have given a new direction to their socialist ideology in a way that has improved living standards inside the country and raised China’s profile in the world community.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2018