Prepare for worst, safeguard Xi's leadership: China's Communist Party tells its cadre

Beijing: President Xi Jinping's close aide and ideologue of the ruling Communist Party has warned the party carde to prepare for the worst, ahead of the key China-US make or break talks to end the trade war between the world's two largest economies, media report said Friday.

Wang Huning, the "ideological guru" of the Communist Party of China (CPC) who is also part of the seven-member Standing Committee, the highest-ranking body of the party, told the senior officials to safeguard Xi's leadership and toe the party line, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Xi, 65, is regarded as the most powerful leader after Mao Zedong, heading the party, the military and the Presidency.

The CPC wrapped up a four-day study session on Thursday in which hundreds of party officials from all over the country took part. The meeting deliberated on risk controls which underlined the leadership's deep concern about growing external volatility and uncertainty amid its high-stakes trade war with the US, the Post reported.

Xi, Premier Li Keqiang and other top party officials attended the four-day meeting called to discuss the prevailing scenario in view of the emerging strategic confrontation with the US and the effects of the economic slowdown.

Xi and Wang both told cadres that they must develop "bottom-line thinking" or be prepared for the "worst-case situation", the Post reported.

"Wang identified a long list of risks faced by Beijing, urging the cadres to safeguard Xi's leadership and toe the party line. Wang also told the officials that they must follow up by showing what they had learned through 'actions and results'", it said.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will lead a 30-member delegation for the talks with US trade representative Robert Lighthizer to be held on January 30-31 in Washington to negotiate an agreement before the March 1 deadline.