The (re)making of China…in Mr Xi's image

What now, that the Chinese Communist Party has passed a decision exalting President Xi Jinping as one of the country’s greatest leaders?

The party’s awed commentary on Mr Xi says so much more than the rhetoric. The official summary said that under Mr Xi’s leadership, China has “made historic achievements and undergone a historic transformation.” Under Mao Zedong, the founder of China’s Communist rule, Deng Xiaoping, chief architect of China’s economic takeoff and Mr Xi, the summary said, China had “achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong.”

Has it really? Become strong, that is?

And has Mr Xi really led his country to what the official summary calls an historic transformation?

Some would argue the only historic transformation on Mr Xi’s watch is that China is headed in the wrong direction. Despite its one-party system and strong party control, China had, until Mr Xi, understood the perils of having a sole leader, a supreme master wh…