Formally introduced into the CCP lexicon at the 19th National Congress in October 2017, this verbose phrase is meant to be the distillation and assertion of Xi Jinping’s legacy and position as the Party’s top leader – what is often in Chinese called the leader’s “banner term,” or qizhiyu (旗帜语). The inclusion of the phrase in the amended CCP Charter at the congress marked Xi’s rise to a level of personal power not seen since his predecessors Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong, both of whom also had their names included in their banner terms. But Xi’s ultimate goal is a shortened form of this phrase truly putting him on a rhetorical par with Mao: “Xi Jinping Thought.” Read More