On November 11, China’s Communist Party, after a four-day behind-closed-doors meeting of its Central Committee called its sixth plenum, passed what it called a “Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century”.
As unexciting as a wordy resolution of a “plenum” may sound, few things have mattered more in the history of Chinese politics over the past few decades. Indeed, it was a resolution from another plenum in 1978 that set China on the course of economic reforms after the chaos of the Maoist years, and ushweered in an extraordinary period of growth.
How history may remember the CPC’s latest plenum is an altogether different question. This was only the third such “historical resolution” passed by the party in its 100-year history.
The previous two resolutions had significant ramifications on the direction of China’s politics. In 1945, Mao Zedong passed a resolution that heralded a turn away from Stalin’s influence and established what the party calls “Mao Zedong Thought” as its leading political ideology. In 1981, Deng Xiaoping passed a resolution that marked another sharp turn — away from Maoism and a personality cult to the reform era.
Those resolutions certainly left very different legacies. One led to three decades of Maoist chaos, from the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) to the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) that led to millions of deaths. The other launched China’s growth story and propelled it towards becoming the world’s second-largest economy.
They both did, however, have one thing in common — they established the unchallenged dominance of a single leader who would have the power to dramatically alter the course of his country.
Important plenums
A plenum is essentially a gathering of the more than 300 members of the party’s Central Committee. It usually takes place in secrecy and behind closed doors. A plenum usually lasts for three to five days, and little is known about what transpires during the meeting. The meetings usually take place in the Jingxi Hotel in west Beijing, although occasionally, as was the case this week, they are convened in the sprawling Great Hall of the People, the Parliament building that sits on the western side of Tiananmen Square.
The meetings roughly take place once a year. The party chooses a new Central Committee every five years at its National Congress, and each Central Committee holds seven plenums during its term, focusing on a particular theme. Historically, the third plenum has dealt with the economy, while the sixth plenum has focused on matters of politics and ideology.
A plenum often cited as the most significant in China’s history is the third plenum of the 11th Central Committee that was held in Beijing from December 18 to December 22, 1978. The plenum marked the start of the “reform and opening up” era and the return of Deng Xiaoping, who had been among many officials purged by Mao during the Cultural Revolution.
An equally important plenum was held three years later. The 11th Central Committee’s sixth plenum, convened in Beijing between June 27 and 29, 1981, passed the party’s first resolution on history since 1945. What was called a “Resolution on certain questions in the history of our party since the founding of the People’s Republic of China” criticised the Cultural Revolution, acknowledged Mao’s mistakes, and brought an end to rule by personality cult.
Rewriting the past
This week’s resolution on history, the first such resolution in 40 years, differs sharply in its portrayal of the party’s 100-year history as an unalloyed triumph. The full text of the resolution has not been made public, but a lengthy communique that runs into 5,000 words did not mention either the Great Leap Forward or Cultural Revolution. It celebrated the party’s 100-year history, saying that under its leadership “the Chinese people had stood up and the time in which the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused by others was gone”.
It hailed the legacies of Mao and Deng, with the two former leaders receiving seven and five mentions respectively. Deng’s two successors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao received single mentions.
The communique devoted considerable space to the current leader, Mr. Xi, whose name was mentioned 17 times. It referred to “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, his ideology, as “embodying the best of the Chinese culture and ethos in our times and representing a new breakthrough in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context”.
It made several mentions of the need for party members to “resolutely uphold” Mr. Xi’s “core position in the party” and to “ensure that all party members act in unison”.
Controlling the future
The significance of plenums and resolutions goes beyond historical narrative. For Mao and Deng, the resolutions on history that they passed heralded significant changes in their country’s future. And in the days leading up to the sixth plenum, party historians were comparing the latest plenum to those that had altered the course of China’s history.
Han Qingxiang, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, told official media that China’s “national rejuvenation is marked by four critical milestones”. These were the party’s founding in 1921, Mao’s establishing of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Deng’s decision to launch the reform and opening up in 1978, and the 18th National Congress in 2012. That was the congress that brought Mr. Xi to power.
Power, and the struggle to hold on to it, is ultimately what past plenums have been driven by. Indeed, even the latest resolution on history is more about the future than it is about the past.
The latest plenum leaves Mr. Xi in a dominant position ahead of next year’s 20th National Congress, when he will complete 10 years at the helm and mark the start of his third five year term. This is why it repeatedly emphasises Mr. Xi’s “core position” and the duty of every party member to protect it and support the idea of a “unified centralised leadership”.
In the coming months ahead, this message will filter through its rank and file, and ultimately find its way to textbooks in schools and colleges.
The message, reading between the lines, is plain and simple: Mr. Xi is here to stay. In that sense, 2021 is not very different from 1945 and 1981. What is less clear, however, is how it will be remembered 40 years into the future.
