China Briefing | As fears of Xi’s personality cult deepen, China must dial down the propaganda

“A Man Who Makes Things Happen”, “Communist Party Core Forged During ‘Great Struggle’”, “Servant of the Public”, “Strategist Behind China’s Reform”, “Top Commander Reshaping the Military”, “A World Leader”, and “Architect of Modernisation For New Era”. Those are just a few of the superlatives China’s massive propaganda apparatus has used to extol the virtues of President Xi Jinping since the 19th congress in October, when he secured a stronger mandate for his second five-year term as party chief and chairman of the armed forces. Not bad for someone dismissed by some self-professed China analysts as a weak and ineffective leader a little more than five years ago when he first came to power.

After nearly 3,000 deputies to the National People’s Congress unanimously re-elected Xi as president for his second term and approved the constitutional amendment to enable him to rule as long as he likes, a People’s Daily front page editorial last week came up with two new superlatives that have since been cropping up seemingly everywhere.

The term carries a special significance in China’s political lexicography. Previously, it has been used only to refer to Mao Zedong, who was reverently addressed as the “Great Teacher, Great Leader, Great Supreme Commander, and Great Helmsman” during the heydays of the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976) when the personality cult surrounding Mao was at its peak.