How US-China trade war could chip away at the ‘cult of Xi’

He is the most powerful leader in modern Chinese history since Mao Zedong. Last October, President Xi Jinping’s Thought on the Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was enshrined in Communist Party dogma at the 19th National Congress in the fabled Great Hall of the People. Only Chairman Mao had been honored in this way while he was still alive. Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s economic miracle, joined the Great Helmsman after his death in 1997 with his “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” Theory.

These fundamental doctrines are now at the heart of the CCP constitution and are taught at universities across the country. The cult of Xi was firmly in the ascendancy.

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