China's Communist Party congress: all praise Xi Jinping but draw the line at Mao

Xi will be joined at the event by more than 2,300 other delegates in voting on the Central Committee, the party's top policymaking body. Provincial chiefs around the country have publicly showcased their loyalty to the party in various ways, often lavishing personal praise on Xi. A communique at a Guangxi party conclave in April said officials must stay loyal to, defend and follow the leader "Forever". In January, Jiangsu party head Wu Zhenglong urged officials to be "Firm defenders" and "Loyal followers" of Xi. And in April, Guizhou party boss Shen Yiqin, said it was a blessing for the country and all its people that Xi was anointed the party's core leader. Chinese athletes' record medal haul at the Beijing Winter Olympics owed much to "a wise leader", the delegation's secretary general Ni Huizhong said during a ceremony to celebrate the feat in April, attended by Xi. An increasingly emotional show of support for Xi has underlined the limit of the party's constraints against the cult of personality, said Deng Yuwen, the former editor of a party newspaper who now lives in the United States. With no clear successor in the top echelons of the party, Xi is expected to stay on for a third term as party leader, the first to do so since Mao's death in 1976."To a certain extent, Xi needs the public show that proves he has the support of the entire party for his new term before the 20th party congress," Deng said. Chen Quanguo, the party boss who had headed the Tibetan delegation, then won a seat on the 25-strong Politburo at the 19th party congress the following year. Tianjin party chief Li Hongzhong famously declared that "Non-absolute loyalty means absolute disloyalty" as he pledged support for Xi. Li, too, won a Politburo seat a year later.