China Briefing | ‘Di Jihong’ and ‘Gao Jihei’ are signs China’s flattery of Xi Jinping has gone too far
- Going by official media, the intensity of pledges of allegiance to the president were reminiscent of the 1960s heyday of Mao Zedong
- But China’s propaganda apparatus shouldn’t lean too heavily on what has worked before, as the people have grown more mature about indoctrination
In the preceding two weeks, China’s “two sessions” – the annual meetings of the country’s national legislature and the top political advisory body – have gone through the usual but important routine of hearing and approving Premier Li Keqiang’s annual government work report outlining China’s economic growth targets for the year; the budget; statements by the top judge and the top prosecutor; as well as a new foreign investment law.
Throughout the nearly two weeks of meetings, those deputies – from top government officials to lowly village party secretaries – would invariably begin their speeches by praising the wisdom of the central leadership with Xi as the “core”, talking up his “Xi Jinping Thought” political theory or exhorting others to rally around the president before they went on to offer comments on specific issues.
The intensity of these pledges of allegiance was reminiscent of the heyday of Mao Zedong in the 1960s, when the Chinese people even quoted Mao’s aphorisms from the little red book before starting their daily routines.
In an era when Xi is often described as the most powerful leader since Mao, the efforts to build up Xi’s cult of personality since he came to power in 2012 have been truly extraordinary – posters, websites dedicated to his words, courses on his teachings and slick quiz television shows to get the youth studying Xi’s thoughts.
China’s massive propaganda apparatus only needs to dust off the old playbooks and update them for today. But relying on history has its limitations, and doing so can inflict insidious consequences and acute embarrassments on the party and its leadership in this digital age when the Chinese people have grown more mature and sophisticated about political indoctrination.
