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The Sixth Plenum of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) cemented the position of Chairman Xi Jinping has termed Cultural Revolution as "a catastrophe" and the Tiananmen incident as "political turmoil".
This was done to put Xi in the same league as former CPC leaders Mao Tse Tung and Deng Xiaoping, reported The HK Post. Faced with global opposition and the increasing need to keep the CPC together, Xi faces an uphill task in the coming decade. That is why the Sixth Plenum chose to pass a resolution, only the third such resolution in the history of the CPC, codifying the past and envisaging the future under Xi Jinping. Two things stand out from this document, first the importance given to Xi's leadership, for now, and in the future and second, continuity in the Party's stance on the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen incident reported HK Post. The document states that the party has never swerved from its rejection of the Cultural Revolution, which plunged China into a decade of chaos and violence from 1966. The reference to the Cultural Revolution as a 'catastrophe' is a clear indication that many within the CPC want to make sure Deng's legacy of ending the Cultural Revolution and launching reforms and opening-up policy would never be abandoned, reported HK Post. The Third Resolution also touched on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, repeating the party's long-held position that the event was "political turmoil" caused by both external and domestic forces. The Third Resolution is about the "new era" that President Xi wants to build for China. If the historical consensus is one aspect, then equal importance is given to the new "post-reform and opening-up era", signalling that Xi Jinping wants to forge ahead without wasting any time. Any effort to question the past could lead to further internal divisions within the CPC, something Xi can ill afford at this juncture, reported HK Post. From a foreign policy perspective, the Plenum stresses "major-country diplomacy", as is to be expected of a China aspiring to be a world power. This, of course, does not mean that it will withdraw its attention towards India, which China continues to view as supporting the US and its allies against the CPC and therefore an adversary. More importantly, however, China's recent actions along the border show that it views India as a challenger and that it will work towards its gains on the border as fast as it can. Given this situation, India must not let her guard down, advised HK Post. (ANI)
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