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<strong>People&rsquo;s Daily, the authentic voice of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has made a sensational omission. In a writeup on a critically important Party conclave, which concluded last month, it did not make any reference to Xi Jinping, China&rsquo;s omnipresent political giant, who doubles as CPC&rsquo;s General Secretary and the President of the People&rsquo;s Republic of China (PRC).</strong></p>
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The absence of any reference to Xi, who starred at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC in November, has triggered an avalanche of speculations.</p>
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That tongues among the political elites of Beijing are wagging is not surprising. There was more than one reason for&nbsp;the rumour mill to get&nbsp;rolling. Apart from marginalising Xi, the article heaps praise on Deng Xiaoping&mdash;the architect of China&rsquo;s political reforms. Xi kept Deng&#39;s formidable legacy, of powering China&rsquo;s economic rise through fundamental market reforms in the shade, though he never formally repudiated it. Instead, Mao Ze Dong&rsquo;s iron-fisted rule, and his personality cult, with caveats, was lionised, as part of a New Era scripted by Xi. The Chinese President visualises the &ldquo;new era&rdquo; reaching a new point of inflection in 2049, when, he envisages that the PRC would become the foremost power in the world in all spheres of human endeavour.</p>
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The <em>People&rsquo;s Daily</em> article has been written by Qu Qingshan, president of the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Surprisingly he has a reputation of being a Xi Jinping loyalist.</p>
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<strong>What is the article about?</strong></p>
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The commentary is full of praise for Deng, who appeared on the political scene after the death of Mao in 1976. It was also a time when the entire China was traumatised by Mao&rsquo;s disastrous Cultural Revolution, and confused about its future direction.</p>
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In its back-to-Deng message, the article described the reform and opening-up policy marshalled in the 1970s by the Little Helmsman&mdash;Deng&rsquo;s nom de guerre&mdash;as &quot;a great awakening of the Party&quot;.</p>
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Deng also &quot;liberated people&#39;s thoughts from the long-running constraint of leftist dogmatism,&quot; writes Qu, president of the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, as <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Analysis-When-China-s-leading-paper-ignores-Xi-all-bets-are-off">reported</a> by the <em>Nikkei Asia Review</em>.</p>
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Shifting focus away from Xi, the writeup lauds Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao who extended Deng&rsquo;s legacy, ahead of Xi&rsquo;s arrival centre-stage in late 2012.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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The effort to revive Deng is puzzling as Qu, on account of his status and official position, would have been part of drafting the &quot;resolution on history,&quot; which seeks to elevate Xi&rsquo;s status over Deng.&nbsp; This resolution was passed during the sixth plenum.</p>
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Qu&rsquo;s commentary appears to presage the rumble of a bitter power struggle between the reformists who see Deng as their inspiration and Xi&rsquo;s loyalists supporting the President&rsquo;s unique brand of digital authoritarianism.</p>
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Unsurprisingly, Qu&rsquo;s line was swiftly slammed in another follow-up article which also appeared in the People&rsquo;s Daily. An article written by Jiang Jinquan, director of the Policy Research Office of the Party Central Committee showers fulsome praise on Xi&#39;s policies. Jiang&rsquo;s article studiously ignores Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. Mao &lsquo;s name is mentioned twice, while there are six references to Xi, as reported by Nikkei.</p>
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It is now apparent that ideological war within the CPC between Deng-Jiang-Hu followers and&nbsp;Mao-Xi disciples has begun to rage. It is likely to culminate at next year&rsquo;s 20th Party Congress, when a new line of leadership for the next five years will be decided. &nbsp;</p>
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