EXPLAINER: How power and ideology define Xi’s rise in China

BEIJING — Chinese leader Xi Jinping emerged from a party conclave this week not only more firmly ensconced in power than ever, but also with a stronger ideological and theoretical grasp on the ruling Communist Party’s past, present and future. Although already named the “core leader,” Xi gains further cachet from such phrases’ inclusion in the resolution issued Thursday by the party’s Central Committee on historical questions concerning the party over the past 100 years. “By firmly supporting and upholding General Secretary Xi’s core position, the whole party will have an anchor, the entire Chinese people will have a backbone and the giant vessel of China’s rejuvenation will have a steady hand on the helm,” Jiang Jinquan, director of the Central Committee’s Policy Research Office, told reporters at a Friday briefing. “No matter what choppy waves we might encounter, we will always be able to stay calm and composed.” While Xi is almost certain to remain head of the party after next year’s congress, likely to be held around November, it’s not clear how many of the other six members of the Politburo Standing Committee — the apex of political power in China — will stay on. “Under the strong leadership of the party’s central committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core, we will rally the entire party like a piece of unbreakable iron and march forward in lockstep,” Qu Qingshan, director of the Institute of Party History and Literature, said at Friday’s briefing.