Xi crowned as ‘Linxiu’

• After less than five years as China's leader, Xi Jinping has become one of the most powerful people in the nation's modern history and crowned as ‘Linxiu’.

What is linxiu?

• The title doesn’t come with particular powers, but it gives Mr. Xi special stature. By giving Mr. Xi the honor in a formal document, senior Communist Party officials have shown that, willingly or not, they’ve bowed to his dominance.
• Mr. Xi had already built up a lot of power since he became the national leader in 2012. But according to him, he is in the middle of a hard, long-term struggle to transform China’s economy, streamline the military and clean up the Communist Party. Mr. Xi’s new title is meant to reinforce his authority to push through policies in the face of doubts and foot dragging.
• The term “core leader” goes back only a few decades, and has been given to four leaders: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and now Mr. Xi. Mao, though, never used it to describe himself.
• After him, it goes back to the upheavals of 1989, when party elders made Mr. Jiang the Communist Party general secretary after deposing Zhao Ziyang. Deng tried to strengthen Mr. Jiang by calling him the uncontested “core leader” of his generation.
• Difference between Mao, Deng and Xi:
• Mao and Deng established their tremendous personal authority through decades of revolutionary struggle and war. They didn’t need formal titles to exude dominance, and they made some of their fateful decisions — like Mao’s launching of the Cultural Revolution or Deng’s decision to use armed force against protesters in 1989 — outside conventional political channels.
• But Mr. Xi’s power is less personal than Mao’s or Deng’s. By the time Mr. Xi rose in the party, Chinese politics had become more settled and tied to procedures, and he has been skilled at creating and remaking rules and institutions to magnify his power. He has done that, for example, by creating leading groups under him to make policy, and by giving sharper teeth to the party’s discipline agency.

Analysis:

• China is facing daunting economic challenges and foreign policy tensions, and needs a singularly strong core leader to steer the country through difficult changes. This status is meant to help Mr. Xi’s fight against corruption.
• Mr. Xi could alter the informal retirement rules for the Politburo Standing Committee, the top rung of power.
• Mr. Xi’s elevation to core leader is a chip that he can use when negotiating the makeup of the next leadership. It does not mean that Mr. Xi will get everything he wants, but it adds to his bargaining power. 

By: Vishal