China’s Communist Party on Thursday adopted only the third “historical resolution” in its 100-year history, concluding a four-day plenum by enshrining current leader Xi Jinping’s place among the party’s tallest leaders and boosting his status ahead of a congress next year that will mark the start of his third term.
A communique adopted after the annual meeting of the Central Committee, called a plenum, said the party had adopted a “Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century”, which devoted considerable space to praising Mr. Xi’s leadership and calling for the party to “resolutely uphold his core position”.
It also announced the holding of the 20th Party Congress next year. It made several mentions of the need for party members to “resolutely uphold” Mr. Xi's “core position in the party” and to “ensure that all party members act in unison”.
This was the third resolution on history passed by the party, and the previous two marked significant changes in its political direction. In 1945, Mao Zedong passed a resolution that heralded a turn away from Stalin’s influence and established what the party calls “Mao Zedong Thought” as its leading political ideology. In 1981, Deng Xiaoping passed a resolution that marked another turn — away from the excesses of Maoism and a one-man personality cult to the reform era that launched China’s growth and propelled it towards becoming the world’s second-largest economy.