Beijing, Nov 12: China’s ruling Communist Party on Friday hailed President Xi Jinping as its “helmsman”, a honorific title reserved for party founder Mao Zedong, saying that he has emerged an “anchor” for the party and a “backbone” for the nation, as he geared up for a record third-term and beyond.
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also attacked American President Joe Biden and asserted that democracy was not an “exclusive patent” of the US and the West.
Defending party’s decision to enhance Xi’s status as core leader, Jian Jinquan, Director of policy research of the CPC, told a press conference here that for a party with 95 million members and the country with 1.4 billion people, “it will be unimaginable had there not been a core of the party”. It will result in a “lack of cohesion and nothing can be accomplished,” Jian said.
Xi’s elevation as a core leader is the “call of the times, the choice of history, and the common aspiration of the people,” Jian said.
“In firmly upholding and safeguarding General Secretary Xi’s core position, the Party has its decision-maker, the people have their mainstay, and the giant ‘rejuvenation’ ship of the Chinese nation has its helmsman,” he said.
“And in the face of rough waves, we will be able to ‘stay on the fishing boat despite the wind and waves.'”
Jian while eulogising Xi’s leadership sought to project the CPC as democratic party, refuting criticism of its autocratic functioning. He specially attacked US President Biden’s plan to hold a summit of democracies next month as Washington seeks to rally countries with democratic systems.
“Recently, the US has put together the so-called summit for democracies to revitalise the western democracy. To convene such a summit against the backdrop of loads of problems for the western democracies is such an irony. The intention is nothing but bashing other countries and dividing the world, which cannot be achieved,” he said. (PTI)
