At its first meeting after the 19th Party Congress, the new Politburo formally recognised Xi Jinping as the ruling Communist Party’s lingxiu – a reverential term for “leader”. All Party General Secretaries, except Mao Zedong, were earlier referred to as lingdao. At this meeting the Politburo said “General Secretary Xi Jinping is the party’s well-deserved lingxiu, supported by the whole party and loved and esteemed by the people.” Members of the 25-strong Politburo were also told that they should be the first to safeguard the “centralised and unified leadership” and Xi’s “core” status, and submit a written work report to Xi Jinping every year. It will be studied and memorised by officials, rank-and-file party members and even children, with the education minister saying Xi’s thoughts would “go into the textbooks, the classrooms and the brains [of students]”.

Even before the decision-making body confirmed Xi Jinping’s lingxiu status, more than a dozen political and military leaders had used the grandiose title to refer to Xi Jinping during the Party Congress, reflecting a consensus among the party elite to place Xi Jinping at a level of authority above all his predecessors but Mao.

(Comment: Lingxiu – a more spiritual, grander term for “leader” than the commonly used lingdao – is an honorific bestowed only on “great lingxiu” Mao, the founder of communist China, and his short-lived successor, “wise lingxiu” Hua Guofeng.)