China's Communist Party defends Prez Xi Jinping's 'core' leader status

Beijing: China's Communist Party on Friday stoutly defended President Xi Jinping's core leader status that enables him to tighten grip on power, saying under him the ruling party will have an "anchor" and the nation a "backbone", even as it asserted that democracy was not an "exclusive patent" of the US and the West.

The Plenary meeting of the Communist Party of China, (CPC) which wrapped up its four-day meet on Thursday, adopted a landmark resolution to cement Xi's "core" status in the country's political history and cleared the decks for him to extend his rule for a record third term next year and perhaps beyond.

The resolution - the only third of its kind in the party's 100-year history after one issued under party founder Mao Zedong and his successor Deng Xiaoping - was reviewed and adopted at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee attended by over 400 senior party officials.

Defending party's decision to enhance Xi's status as core leader, Jian Jinquan, Director of policy research of the CPC, told a press conference here that for a party with 95 million members and the country with 1.4 billion people, it will be unimaginable had there not been a core of the party .

It will result in a lack of cohesion and nothing can be accomplished, Jian said, a day after the Plenum. Only when there is the core of the party central committee, the whole party will have strength, he said. Xi as the core of the party, leader of the people and commander of the army is well deserved. This represents the prevailing aspiration of the people.