Xi Jinping's cult of personality

Background

After Deng Xiaoping started the Chinese economic reforms and introduced the concept of collective leadership in the late 1970s, there was no longer a cult of personality around Chinese leaders.[6] When Xi came to power in 2012, he started centralizing power and paved the way for a cult of personality.[7]

The Communist Party of China has denied that there was any cult of personality. Xie Chuntao, director of the Central Party School's academic department, claimed the “respect and love” ordinary Chinese felt for Xi was “natural” and “heartfelt” and bore no similarities to a cult of personality.[6][8]

Characteristics

Since Xi assumed power in 2012, books, cartoons, pop songs and dance routines have honoured his rule.[9] In 2017, the local government of the Jiangxi province told Christians to replace their pictures of Jesus with Xi Jinping.[10][11][12]

When he re-elected in 2017, Xi dominated the front page of the People's Daily[lower-alpha 1] compared to previous editions, which emphasized a “collective leadership” model.[13]

The political ideology bearing his name, Xi Jinping Thought, was enshrined into the Communist Party's constitution in the 19th National Congress in October 2017[14] and into the state constitution in 2018.[15] CCTV also showed members of the National People's Congress "crying in happiness" because of Xi Jinping's re-election as President in 2018.[16]

Since October 2017, many universities across China have placed “Xi Jinping Thought” at the core of their curricula, the first time since Mao Zedong that a Chinese leader has been accorded similar academic stature.[17]

Former inmates in the Xinjiang re-education camps claimed that they were forced to give thanks to the leader by chanting "Long live Xi Jinping."[18]

In October 2018, Hunan TV started airing a game show about Xi Jinping and his ideology.[19] In January 2019, Alibaba released a mobile app for studying Xi Jinping Thought named Xuexi Qiangguo. Within two months of its release, it was downloaded 73 million times.[20]

Apps such as Toutiao, Tencent, and Sina have been forced to use what has been described as "a super algorithm", where the story at the top "has to be about Xi".[21][22]

Portraits of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping

There are souvenirs containing Xi Jinping's images throughout shops in China.

On 15 June 2020 (i.e. Xi's birthday), Study Times (学习时报), the media run by the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, labelled Xi Jinping Thought as "21st Century Marxism". It was stated that Xi Jiping Thought was the only scientific method to explain the Chinese Miracle in the 21st century. It provided the solution for the modern problems of humankind and showed that socialism was better than capitalism.

The party's Politburo named Xi Jinping lingxiu (领袖), a reverent term for "leader" and a title previously only given to Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong and his immediate successor Hua Guofeng.[23][24][25] He is also sometimes called the "Great Helmsman" (大舵手),[16] and in July 2018 Li Zhanshu, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, referred to Xi as the "eternal core" of the party.[26] On 25 December 2019, the politburo officially named Xi as "People's Leader" (人民领袖; rénmín lǐngxiù), a title only Mao held previously.[27]

See also

Notes
  1. The paper is an official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

References
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  3. "Xi Jinping Personality Cult". www.globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 2019-07-26. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
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  11. Denyer, Simon (14 November 2017). "Jesus won't save you - President Xi Jinping will, Chinese Christians told". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  12. Haas, Benjamin (2018-09-28). "'We are scared, but we have Jesus': China and its war on Christianity". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2019-08-23. Retrieved 2019-09-07.
  13. Hernández, Javier C.; Carlsen, Audrey (2017-11-09). "Why Xi Jinping's (Airbrushed) Face Is Plastered All Over China". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
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  22. Kuo, Mercy A. (2017-12-07). "China's Media Market Competition". thediplomat.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2020-06-02. The state also imposes what I call “a super algorithm” on these platforms – the story at the very top of every news website and news app has to be about Xi Jinping.
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