‘China needs another Mao, Xi fits the bill’

The four-day meeting of the plenum of Communist Party of China (CPC) kicks off China’s political season which will culminate in changes at the top leaders except Xi and Premier Li Keqiang in the autumn next year when the party convenes its 19th Congress during which a new Politburo Standing Committee will be appointed. Xi, 63, currently heads a seven-member Standing Committee of the CPC which virtually rules China. 

Since he took over the leadership in November 2012, Xi has emerged as the most powerful leader of China in recent times starting his ten-year tenure as head of the party and powerful military, besides the Presidency. While the Standing Committee in the past represented collective leadership principle enunciated over three decades ago, critics say Xi’s emergence as a powerful leader has overshadowed other six members of the Committee including Li.