Xi Jinping 'more powerful than Mao Zedong,' analysts say

Washington: Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's historic third term as China's President will likely see more hardline policies out of Beijing on the economy, foreign relations and human rights, analysts told Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA).
On Sunday, Communist Party Xi Jinping presented the Party's new central leadership at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where he secured a historic third term as the country's top leader. Top aides of Xi were promoted in Communist Party of China's Politburo Standing Committee but no woman could find a place in the top leadership position for the first time in years, according to the newly released list by state media.
Through the 20th National Congress, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has demonstrated that Chairman Xi Jinping is the nucleus of power in China and that none can dare stand against him.
Xi had packed the Politburo Standing Committee with his close allies showing that he can now act as he pleases, according to Germany-based ethnic Mongolian rights activist Xi Haiming.
"This is the last madness," Xi Haiming told a recent political forum in Taiwan. He said, "Xi has emerged, naked, as Emperor Xi, as a dictator."
"Too many people in China are lining up to be his eunuchs, kowtowing to him, waiting for the emperor to ascend to the throne," he was quoted as saying by RFA.
China is now firmly back in the Mao era, according to a Chinese journalist, who refused to be identified due to fear of reprisals.
"This 20th National Congress is the beginning of the Mao era," Geng said. "People used to say it was the 9th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party that was bad, because it hailed Mao Zedong as the red sun."
According to analyst Wen Zhigang, the old system of "collective leadership" is well and truly dead.
"Collective leadership no longer exists, and the leader sits, aloof ... a leader of the people who is above the party," Wen said.
According to senior China researcher Wu Guoguang, Xi has more say over who gets to be premier -- his second-in-command Li Qiang -- than late supreme leader Mao Zedong did.
"Xi Jinping wields greater power to appoint his preferred premier than Mao Zedong did," Wu told RFA. (ANI)