China’s communist rulers have added the name of Chinese President Xi Jinping to a set of rules governing the work at the political apex of the country to further concentrate his power at the top, according to state media.

Xi, who is general secretary of the Communist Party of China, will become the core of the party under new regulations enacted by the Politburo on Monday and set to be approved in October.

The regulations, on the work of the party’s Central Committee, were to uphold the authority of the committee with comrade Xi at the core and to maintain its centralized and unified leadership, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The latest development marked a major step toward upholding and improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernizing China’s system and capacity for governance, it added.

Bao Tong, a former aide to late disgraced premier Zhao Ziyang, told Radio Free Asia that the move meant Xi would cling on to power indefinitely.

“This is official affirmation set out in party documents that Xi will forever be the core of the party leadership,” Bao said.

“It won’t expire, unless the document itself is invalidated. He will be the core leader for as long as the document exists.”

Ban also pointed out that the first man to propose the idea of core leadership was late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. “Under Deng’s definition of the core, ‘the person’s word was law’.”

According to Xinhua, the 5th Plenum of the 19th Central Committee coming up in October will approve the regulations, which also specify the committee’s leadership status, system, functions and powers, decision-making and self-improvement. Party members have been asked to take the lead in the implementation.

Pang Jun, a scholar from Shanxi in northern China, said the move consolidated Xi’s power even more.

The Chinese president had already extended his power to private enterprises through the work of the united front and the control of higher education, Pan said, adding that "Xi wants to control everything and is simply setting out unwritten rules in explicit terms.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play