Writing in Hongkong's South China Morning Post on March 24, 2018, its former Editor-in-Chief Wang Xiangwei pointed out that the Party's official newspaper 'People’s Daily' in a front page editorial last week described Xi Jinping as “the helmsman of the nation” and the “guide of the people”, both terms very close to how Mao used to be referred to. It is the first time that Xi Jinping has been publicly referred to as "the helmsman". Perhaps mindful of the historical comparison, People’s Daily used the Chinese word Zhangduozhe for Xi instead of the word Duoshou for Mao but in its English version, Xinhua seemed unable to find any variation other than “the helmsman”.

(Comment: Mao Zedong used to be  reverently addressed as the “Great Teacher, Great Leader, Great Supreme Commander, and Great Helmsman” during the heydays of the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976).