The Communist Party of China launched an important four-day secret meeting, authorizing President Xi Jinping to receive an unprecedented third term

The Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, about 400 official and alternate members of the CPC Central Committee will attend the plenary session.

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a work report on behalf of the Politburo and explained the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC in a century of struggle.

The 68-year-old Xi Jinping controls China’s three major power centers—the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the powerful Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Central Military Commission is the military’s supreme commander. The President is about to complete his second five-year term next year.

Politically speaking, this meeting is of great significance to Xi Jinping, who became the most powerful leader after Mao Zedong, the founder of the party, in his last nine years in power.

It is widely expected that he will continue for a third term. Unlike his predecessor, Hu Jintao, who retired after two terms, he may continue in view of a key constitutional amendment in 2018 that removed the president’s two-term term limit. In power for life.

He was also appointed as the “core leader” of the party in 2016, which is the position that Mao Zedong enjoyed.

The plenary session is held before next year’s party congress, which is expected to appoint a new leadership.

As the city has reported several coronavirus cases in the past few weeks, under strict COVID-19 control measures, an in-camera meeting was held in Beijing, prompting officials to strengthen immigration controls.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. (Reuters)

Except for Mr. Xi, most officials including Premier Li Keqiang are expected to retire after the expiration of their two terms.

In the past three decades, the party has usually used the last plenary meeting to handle internal party affairs, especially on key personnel, ideology, and party building issues.

One of the key issues worthy of attention is to see whether the party continues to follow the precedent for its leadership change, especially in addition to the two terms set by the party’s founder Mao’s successor Deng Xiaoping for his top leadership, the informal retirement age is 68 years old.

In October next year, nearly 12 of the 25 members of the powerful Politburo will be over 68 years old.

Before the plenary session, Xinhua News Agency published a long commentary praising Xi Jinping’s achievements, including his crackdown on corrupt officials.

Since 2013, more than 1 million officials have been punished in the crackdown. Critics claim that he effectively used the anti-corruption campaign to consolidate his power.

The comment entitled “Xi Jinping Leading the New Journey of the Communist Party of China” said, “This important meeting will present a landmark document-a resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the Communist Party of China in its hundred years of struggle,” it said.

Observers say this document emphasizing “historical resolutions” has only been used three times in the party’s 100-year history.

Chinese political commentator and columnist Wang Xiangwei pointed out that a rare resolution in the party would strengthen Xi Jinping’s power, but would make the succession of China’s leadership uncertain.

He wrote in a recent column in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post: “The CCP will pass a resolution to provide further theoretical support for Xi Jinping’s political status, just like the previous resolution did for Mao Zedong.”

“But this document is unlikely to resolve one of China’s leadership’s biggest uncertainties: leadership succession,” Mr. Wang wrote.

In the argument of the Chinese Communist Party, the term “historical settlement” has a special political significance and meaning. He said that in the party’s 100-year history, only two leaders passed the so-called documents at critical moments to resolve major issues that plagued the party and changed the party’s historical process.