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BEIJING. – A high-profile meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted a landmark resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC’s 100 years of endeavours, according to a communiqué released yesterday.

CPC laders set the stage for President Xi Jinping to extend his rule next year, praising his role in the country’s rise as an economic and strategic power and approving a political history that gives him status alongside the most important party figures.

Central Committee members declared President Xi’s ideology the “essence of Chinese culture” as they wrapped up a leadership meeting. A party statement said it was “of decisive significance” for “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

President Xi, who has amassed more personal authority than any leader since at least Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, has widely been expected to pursue a third five-year term as party general secretary. That would break with a two-decade-old party tradition that would require the 68-year-old leader to step down next year.

The party leadership’s resolution on its history is only the third since its founding 100 years ago, following one under Mao Zedong, the first leader of the Communist government, and another under Deng, who launched reforms that turned China into an economic powerhouse. The decision to issue one under President Xi symbolically raises him to their status.

The party removed term limits on President Xi, the son of one of Mao’s generals, as he  might need more time to make sure economic and other reforms were carried out.

The party statement emphasized its successes in overseeing China’s emergence as the world’s second-biggest economy.

President Xi is leading a “Common Prosperity” initiative that calls for narrowing income and wealth gaps between China’s billionaire elite and the poor majority. Companies are under pressure to share their wealth with workers and the public by raising wages and paying for rural job creation and other development efforts.

Since its founding in 1921, the Party has made seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation its mission, said the communiqué.

China’s economic development has become much more balanced, coordinated, and sustainable, and the party has consistently promoted broader and deeper reform across the board. – Xinhua