BEIJING: China’s Communist Party announced Saturday that it agreed to amend its constitution, ahead of a keenly-watched congress, with speculation mounting that leader Xi Jinping’s name will be added to the document, enshrining his legacy.
The Central Committee said it had passed an amendment to the party’s constitution at the end of a plenary meeting held in advance of the main twice-a-decade congress, which opens Wednesday and is expected to see Xi tighten his grip on power.
“The document will be submitted to the upcoming 19th CPC National Congress for review,” it said in a statement released through the official state news agency, without giving further details.
The congress is expected to see Xi granted the customary second five-year term as general secretary of the Communist Party, thereby renewing his de facto mandate to serve as president of the world’s second-largest economy.
The official Xinhua news agency said last month that the constitution will be amended during the congress to “reflect the new governance concepts, thoughts and strategies” developed by the Central Committee since the last meeting five years ago.
Analysts speculate that Xi’s name could be added to the party’s constitution, elevating him into the exclusive pantheon of Chinese leaders.
That privilege has only been granted to Xi’s two most powerful predecessors, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
The Communist commandments currently features “Mao Zedong Thought” and “Deng Xiaoping Theory,” with the political philosophies or ideas of other leaders included without their names.
This weeks congress is hotly anticipated to herald a significant shake-up in the leadership ranks, with five out of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee that rules over China set to be replaced.
Saturday’s statement from the Central Committee also endorsed the expulsion of Sun Zhengcai, the former Chongqing city head once considered a possible successor to Xi.
He was kicked out of the party in September after being ensnared in a wide ranging anti-corruption drive by Chinese leader that has toppled party officials, including potential rivals.
China Communist Party agrees to amend constitution at key conclave
China Communist Party agrees to amend constitution at key conclave
French court slashes jails term for trio over 2020 teacher beheading
- Brahim Chnina, the Moroccan father of a girl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, had his 13-year sentence reduced to 10 years
PARIS, France: A French court on Monday reduced on appeal the jail sentences of three men convicted over the 2020 terrorist beheading of a teacher who showed a class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered in October 2020 by an 18-year-old radical Islamist of Chechen origin in an act that horrified France.
His attacker, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was killed in a shootout with police.
Two friends of Anzorov, French national Naim Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, a Russian of Chechen origin, had their sentences of 16 years in prison reduced to six and seven years respectively by a Paris court of appeal.
Both were accused of having driven Anzorov and helping him to procure weapons before the beheading.
Brahim Chnina, the Moroccan father of a girl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, had his 13-year sentence reduced to 10 years.
His daughter, then aged 13, was not actually in the classroom at the time and during the first trial apologized to the teacher’s family.
The court however left the 15-year term for French-Moroccan Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui untouched.
The quartet were among the seven men and one woman found guilty in 2024 of contributing to the climate of hatred that led to the beheading of the history and geography teacher in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris.
Paty, who has become a free-speech icon, used the cartoons as part of an ethics class to discuss freedom of expression laws in France.
