China Briefing | How even as ‘the core’, Xi faces resistance from China’s local officials
Two high-level meetings broadcast to the public in recent days have showcased the strengthening power of the undisputed ‘party leader’
If there’s one buzzword that encapsulates Chinese politics in 2016 and the year ahead, it has to be He Xin, or “the core”.
Last January, the Communist Party’s leadership for the first time publicly urged its 88 million members to embrace the “consciousness of the core”. Then in November, the party’s central committee bestowed the designation “core of the party centre” on President Xi Jinping ( 習近平 ).
No other Chinese leader in recent decades has concentrated so much power in his hands in such a short period of time. In just four years, Xi has accumulated sweeping control over the party, the state, military and economy, elevating him to the ranks of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Deng Xiaoping ( 鄧小平 ).
But Xi’s rise as an undisputed leader has also beentested by the entrenched tendency of local officials to disregard the decrees of central authorities in distant Beijing – a phenomenon succinctly summarised in the traditional Chinese saying: “The sky is high and the emperor is far away.”
Both Xi’s strengthening power and the issue of local officials were made more evident after the details of two recent meetings of the Politburo and its Standing Committee were splashed across national media – a very rare departure from standard protocol.