Xi Invokes Mao To Cement Legacy

Upon being elected as general secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) for unprecedented third term, President Xi Jinping led members of his core team – the Standing Committee members – to Yan'an, the birthplace of Chinese revolution located in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. As a section of media, especially from the West was churning out various hypotheses over ‘escorting’ of former president Hu Jintao out of the congress hall, the newly elected Chinese leader called upon his comrades to carry forward the great founding spirit of the party, the Yan'an Spirit and fighting spirit to realise the objectives and tasks set forth by its 20th National Congress.

The endpoint of Long March, Yan’an served as the headquarters of CPC from 1935 to 1948. On October 27, Xi and his team members paid tribute to the revolutionary site of Yangjialing in northwest Yan’an where Mao Zedong lived for the longest time during the 13-year Yan’an period. Xi himself spent seven years working in the farm field there. The collective trip of party top brass to the historic site was highly symbolic and speaks the mind of Xi, the most powerful Chinese leader after Chairman Mao, who led the New Democratic Revolution, establishing the People’s Republic of China in 1949. 

Decisive victory

Yan’an is the same place from where Mao, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and other older generation revolutionaries masterminded to secure a decisive victory against the Kuomintang and Japanese invasion. Yan’an is known for three historic events – CPC’s 7th National Congress, Yan’an Rectification Movement and War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, according to Qiushi, CPC Central Committee bimonthly. So it is the holy place for the CPC and its followers. Xi noted that the 7th National Congress enabled the party to gain maturity in terms of political direction, ideology and organisational structure. For the first time, the CPC, through the Congress, adopted Mao Zedong Thought as guiding principle and enshrined it into party constitution by adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to the specific Chinese context and realities. Following the rectification movement, the party became unified, stronger and emerged victorious in the civil war.

Xi has apparently compared the 7th CPC Congress with that of 20th when it comes to setting the party’s principles and political goals. He stressed that ‘the 20th National Congress had set forth major principles and policies for the Party and the country at present and for some time to come, and drawn up a splendid blueprint of promoting national rejuvenation through a Chinese path to modernisation.’ In 2018, the Chinese constitution incorporated Xi Jinping Thought, which has been described as the ‘Marxism of contemporary China and the 21st century.’

What is more interesting is that Xi uttered Mao’s name several times during his address to the party functionaries and local people in Yan’an. He urged them to adopt Mao’s revolutionary legacy, ideas and relentless struggles in solving major problems of the time. He said: “Back in the days in Yan'an, Comrade Mao Zedong and other revolutionaries of the older generation lived in cave-dwellings, eating coarse grain for meals and wearing rough clothes.” To invoke Chairman Mao to strengthen unity in the party and maintain order is quite a new phenomenon in the contemporary China for his political line and images are hardly propagated by Chinese official media with the end of Cultural Revolution and rise of Deng Xiaoping as the paramount leader of the party.

Since Xi took the helm of government, party and military in 2012, China lifted over 100 million rural people out of poverty, which he called a ‘miracle for mankind’ and China’s contribution to the world. It also successfully landed robotic rover on Moon and Mars, which made it the third space power after the US and Russia. It is set to overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy by 2030. The CPC has embraced and applied Deng Xiaoping’s pragmatic economic vision - reform and opening up - that eventually enabled China to be the second largest economy but now Xi-led party will follow Mao’s playbook to deal with political, ideological, governance and policy issues. What are Mao’s philosophical insights that fascinate Xi?

Self-reform 

In human history, many powers rose and fell, and it has been a big challenge for every powerful ruler to sustain their regime. As the new helmsman of modern China, Xi is intent on espousing Mao’s formula to retain China’s status as the global power. During a famous ‘cave-dwelling conversation’ with Mao in Yan’an, educationist Huang Yanpei asked the former as how to avert the historical cycle of rise and fall and the possibility of a government's policies ending with the death of its leader. Mao answered: “Place the government under the supervision of the people.” After Xi was elected as the general secretary from the CPC’s 18th Congress, the party pursued rigorous self-reform for successful governance, taking inspiration from Mao’s rectification movement in Yan’an

Xi has been constantly focusing on firm and correct political direction to advance the great cause of the party. This is also the political line that Mao developed during Yan’an period in 1938. Responding to a question ‘What should be learned at the Military and Political University of Resistance Against Japanese Invasion?’ Mao said, “First and foremost, we need to learn about a political direction.” It is considered that political control of army is necessary to consolidate the party leadership in all organs of the state. One factor that led to the collapse of former Soviet Union was the decoupling of the party from the army. 

President Xi has blended Deng’s idea of economic reform with the radical political vision of Mao to build China as a modern socialist nation as its geopolitical rivalry with the West is increasing dramatically. It will be a grand political experiment whose success or failure seals the fate of modern China.

(The author is Deputy Executive Editor of this daily.)