2018-01-19
Chinese citizens gather to present petitions in Beijing, Jan. 18, 2018.
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The ruling Chinese Communist Party on Friday laid out plans to enshrine President Xi Jinping’s name in the country’s constitution.
The second plenary session of the 19th party congress moved to include “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” in the national constitution.
“We should keep pace with the times and improve the Constitution while maintaining its consistency, stability, and authority,” state news agency Xinhua quoted the proposal as saying.
New achievements and experiences of the party and nation should be embodied in the revised constitution, it said.
“The plenum believes that [Xi Jinping Thought] is a major event in the country’s political life,” it said.
The proposals, which will be put before China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March, were published in order to “hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and for full implementation of the spirit of the 19th party congress,” Xinhua said.
Beijing-based rights activist He Depu said the move has little to do with the aspirations of ordinary Chinese people.
“All the people who are going . . . to register their opinions and requests [with the ruling party] have very specific requests that are intimately bound up with the day-to-day realities of their lives,” He said.
“For example, they are homeless because of forced evictions and demolitions, and their grievances have gone without redress,” he said. “They should be implementing Clause 35 of the constitution, which guarantees the freedoms of expression, association and religious belief.”
Concentrated power
Hubei-based rights activist Xu Qin said Xi’s recent moves come as no surprise.
“As the sole leader of both party and state, of course he’s going to think that way,” Xu said. “He will use any means at his disposal to change the system into one of highly concentrated power.”
The party’s central committee also threw its weight behind a new anti-graft body agreed at the party congress last October, adding that constitutional amendments would also pave the way for the new system, the agency said.
“The National Supervisory Commission … will coordinate investigations at all levels of government and expand their remit to include non-party members,” it said.
The Central Committee noted in its statement that reforms to the state supervisory system would be included in the amendment.
“It is necessary to establish an anti-corruption work organ under the unified leadership of the party according to law, and establish a centralized, authoritative and efficient national surveillance system,” it said.
‘A piece of paper’
Dissident writer Tan Zuoren said China’s constitution, which includes clauses protecting citizens from extrajudicial violence and surveillance by the government, has been around for a long time, but has never been properly implemented.
“If the constitution is just a piece of paper, and is never put into practice, then it doesn’t matter how nice it sounds; it’s useless,” Tan told RFA. “Without a social consensus [on the rights of citizens], it is of no use at all.”
The proposed amendments come after ruling party mouthpiece the People’s Daily referred to Xi for the first time using a title for “leader” usually found in revolutionary paeans of praise to late supreme leader Mao Zedong.
“We should resolutely support the core, faithfully follow our leader … and make strides toward a brighter future,” the paper said in an article on Monday, echoing the highest-ranking organ of party leadership, the Politburo.
Mao was traditionally known by four epithets at the height of his power: the great helmsman, the great commander-in-chief, the great teacher, and the great leader.
Leader for life
Xi’s new line-up for the all-powerful Politburo standing committee doesn’t include anyone young enough to be be groomed as his successor according to a longstanding political convention limiting the highest-ranking leaders to two terms in office.
The move sparked speculation that the president has no plans to step down in 2022, and will instead stay on as a lifelong leader.
Beijing-based political activist Zha Jianguo said the amendments look set to send China further down the road to extreme authoritarianism, rather than towards a more liberal political system.
“According to our constitution, human rights are paramount, and everyone is equal before the law,” Zha said. “[But it could be] just another step towards the rule of man; towards a cult of personality.”
