Propaganda officials warn state media off using moniker after push to portray leader as man of the people appears to backfire 
 
 Chinese propaganda chiefs have reportedly ordered state-controlled media to refrain from using the nickname “Big Daddy Xi” to refer to the president. 
 
 
 
 Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012 the epithet has been at the centre of an energetic push to portray the Communist party leader as an omnipotent people’s president. 
 
 
 
 An entire genre of “Big Daddy Xi”-themed songs has sprung up, fuelling fears that he is attempting to build a Mao-like personality cult. 
 
 
 
 Singing Xi's praises: chorus of Chinese pop songs celebrate president Read more 
 
 However, China’s official news agency, Xinhua, and the leading 21st Century Business Herald newspaper have received instructions to steer clear of the nickname, Bloomberg reported. 
 
 One Xinhua journalist told the Guardian the news group had become cautious in its use of the nickname “Xi Dada” – which translates as Big Daddy or Uncle Xi – although they had not seen a specific written instruction to avoid the term. 
 
 
 
 The moniker has not appeared on Xinhua’s website since 27 April but did show up in a 1 May story on another party-run news website with the headline: “What Big Daddy Xi said at the Communist party’s Central Party School conference.” 
 
 
 
 It is unclear why Beijing’s propaganda officials have decided to step back from Xi’s nickname. Experts believe it may hint at growing discomfort – both in and outside China – about how the leader is portrayed as a Mao-style autocrat. 
 
 In recent weeks, Chinese officials have expressed discomfort over the perception that a cult of personality is growing around their leader. The website of the Economist was blocked in China after a cartoon on its front page showed Xi sporting a Mao-style Zhongshan suit beside the headline: “Beware the cult of Xi”. 
 
 Writing in the New York Review of Books this month, Columbia University’s Prof Andrew J Nathan accused Xi of bringing back “many of the most dangerous features of Mao’s rule: personal dictatorship, enforced ideological conformity, and arbitrary persecution”. 
 
 Kerry Brown, the author of CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping, said the apparent move to purge Xi’s nickname from headlines was a possible admission that China’s portrayal of its leader had backfired. 
 
 While spin doctors had hoped to paint Xi as a respected globe-trotting world leader, Brown said, large portions of the international community and media now viewed Xi as “a big, big dictator”. 
 
 “That’s a big-time propaganda failure,” he said. “I can imagine that in their five-minute-a-month meeting with Xi Jinping, the head of publicity got told: ‘Whose bright idea was that [nickname]? Send him or her to Gansu [in China’s far west]!’” 
 
 
 
 Brown added: “They don’t want [China] to be seen as an autocracy. So this interpretation of the outside world as a Xi Jinping autocracy must be driving them absolutely nuts.” 
 
 'Rule the party strictly!': Chinese president 'Big Daddy Xi' makes rap debut Read more 
 
 Roderick MacFarquhar, a Harvard University China expert, said the apparent abandonment of the nickname was unlikely to signal a change in direction for the authoritarian leader, who has suggested is the country’s most powerful since Mao. 
 
 
 
 “My own feeling is that he may be tweaking the way he presents himself but I don’t think that he is changing his fundamental principles. [His belief remains] that if there is going to be a ‘Chinese dream’ it has got to be Xi Jinping who is in charge,” MacFarquhar said. 
 
 
 
 “I don’t know whether his spies or informants have told him that ‘Xi Dada’ has made him look rather ridiculous … but there is some talk that the propaganda chief may have been overdoing it deliberately, and maybe Xi Jinping fell for that.” 
 
 Qiao Mu, an outspoken journalism professor from the Beijing Foreign Studies University, said he was unaware of an explicit directive to avoid the nickname but said it was possible verbal orders had been given to tone down the intense media focus on Xi. The academic said he would welcome such a move. 
 
 
 
 “The members of the politburo should all be equal. So why don’t we have a ‘Big Daddy Wang’ and a ‘Big Daddy Zhang’, as well as a ‘Big Daddy Xi’?” 
 
 
 
 MacFarquhar admitted the inner workings of Chinese politics were so opaque it was hard to grasp the significance of the move. “I think there are all sorts of currents around Chinese leaders at the moment and it is difficult to tell who is on whose side,” he said. 
 
 Additional reporting by Christy Yao. ||||| A push to rein in a popular nickname for Chinese President Xi Jinping signals his image-makers are refining their effort to portray him as a populist hero of the masses. 
 
 In recent weeks, news outlets including the official Xinhua News Agency and the 21st Century Business Herald have been cautioned against using “Xi Dada” in reports and on social media, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 
 
 QuickTake China's Pain Points 
 
 Xinhua employees were told last Friday not to refer to Xi as "Dada," said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal policies. The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission received a similar order for its publications, according to another person. 
 
 Since Xi came to power more than three years ago, the name -- literally Xi Big Big, or Big Daddy Xi in his hometown vernacular -- has proliferated on social media, with videos, songs and poetry praising him as an affable father figure. While that image has helped offset perceptions of his privileged upbringing as the "princeling" son of a revolutionary leader, it’s fueled criticism that the Communist Party was building a new personality cult like the one blamed for political turmoil under Mao Zedong. 
 
 Edicts banning the use of the name by state-controlled media show authorities feel they need to tone down the rhetoric, said Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based historian and political commentator. 
 
 "The deification effort has hit a snag," Zhang said. "The approach was a bit too crude and went overboard, and it met with resistance and even sparked repulsion. The propaganda team needs something different to accentuate Xi’s authority." 
 
 Fan Club 
 
 The name "Xi Dada" dates back to the early days of his ascension as party secretary, with a verified fan club using it in a December 2012 post on the Twitter-like Weibo, according to the website of the party’s People’s Daily newspaper. It’s a term used in Shaanxi, the northwestern region where Xi’s father was born and where the future president toiled as a "sent-down youth" during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. 
 
 Tourists pose for photos at the Qing-Feng Steamed Dumpling Shop in Beijing on Dec. 29, 2013, a day after Xi Jinping dropped in unexpectedly and ordered a simple lunch meal. Photographer: Ng Han Guan/AP Photo 
 
 Xi personally endorsed the nickname in September 2014, when he gave a school teacher visiting Beijing from the southwest province of Guizhou permission to address him by it. "Xi Dada" became a central feature of a social media campaign encouraged by state-controlled media, including smiling cartoons of Xi and photos of his impromptu visit to a Beijing dumpling shop. 
 
 Before Xi’s visit to the U.S. last September, the People’s Daily posted the online video "Who Is Xi Dada?" featuring foreign students expressing admiration for the "cute" leader. A song with the lyric, "If you want to marry, marry someone like Xi Dada, a man full of heroism, with a strong backbone," was circulated widely this year. 
 
 Personality Politics 
 
 Such imagery struck others as a regression to personality politics. Deleted Weibo posts collected by the U.S.-based China Digital Times website include protests against the term, with one August 2014 post describing it as "only used by prostrating lackeys hungry for a daddy." 
 
 Why authorities are now reining in the term is unclear. A 21st Century Business Herald journalist, who was informed about the policy recently and asked not to be identified, said the name was overused and probably seen as counterproductive. While media and government agencies have been told not to use the nickname, there’s no indication it’s being blocked from Internet searches or scrubbed from web pages and social media accounts. 
 
 One contributing factor may have been public criticism of the Lunar New Year Gala in February, an event watched by 690 million people, according to China Central Television. Stages symbolizing steps in Xi’s political career and sequences extolling his leadership of last year’s military parade led Internet users to dismiss the show as politicized and an extended version of CCTV’s state-managed nightly news broadcast. 
 
 "My guess is that Xi doesn’t want his image to be too familiar and warm," said Perry Link, author of "An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics," and a professor of Chinese studies at the University of California at Riverside. "He would rather it be imposing and awe-inspiring, like Mao’s." ||||| It was the dream of pop stardom that convinced Zhou Dandan, a belly dancing instructor from Hubei province, to pen her paean to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. 
 
 For Tang Jianyu it was a desire to canonise her country’s commander-in-chief. “He is the ideal husband for any girl,” gushed Tang, a 39-year-old amateur musician from Wuxi in Zhejiang province. 
 
 As Xi moves into his fourth year as president of the world’s most populous nation, the two musicians are part of a growing chorus of Chinese minstrels singing the praises of the man they call “Xi Dada” which translates as Uncle or Big Daddy Xi. 
 
 A rapidly expanding list of pop hits celebrating the president includes tracks such as Our Xi Dada, The Idol Xi Dada, If You Want to Marry, Marry Somebody Like Xi Dada, China has its Xi Dada, Be a Man Like Xi Dada and, best known of all, Xi Dada Loves Peng Mama (a reference to China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan). 
 
 “I want to sing Big Daddy Xi’s praises,” explained Zhou, 29, who is from the city of Xiangyang and uses the stage name “A Yi Mi La”. “There are millions of reports telling Xi’s story so it struck me I should write a song about him.” 
 
 She added: “I think he is a very ambitious [leader]. He is very bold but at the same time cautious.” 
 
 Part of the fast-growing Xi repertoire seems to be genuinely spontaneous tributes to a leader whose high-profile anti-corruption campaign has won him many fans. 
 
 Other works – such as a big budget television song and dance extravaganza that was reportedly bankrolled by the government of Hunan province – appear part of a coordinated propaganda push to bolster Xi’s standing. 
 
 “We are in your hearts! You are in our hearts! You love us, the people! We the people deeply love you!” the performers of that state-backed song chant. 
 
 Some detect a troubling attempt to build a Mao-esque personality cult around Xi. 
 
 Carl Minzner, an expert in Chinese governance at New York’s Fordham University, said Xi’s time in office had seen an increasingly intense and fawning focus on the Communist party chief in the media and some sections of the arts. 
 
 “You put all those things together … and it’s a budding cult of personality. And the fear about that is that this has echoes that go back to the Maoist era and you just wonder how that might get used,” he said. 
 
 In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the revered China scholar David Shambaugh said: “I thought the Chinese system had moved beyond one-man-rule and personality cults.” 
 
 He added: “Xi has obviously reversed this carefully crafted norm, and I do not think it is good for China. This is not the 1960s.” 
 
 Daniel Leese, author of Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in China’s Cultural Revolution, said Xi had a long way to go before emulating Mao’s cult following. However, he too saw hints of a personality cult developing around Xi. 
 
 Unlike the portrayal of Mao Zedong, Xi was not depicted as a god-like figure. “He is not superhuman,” Leese said. 
 
 Rather, propaganda chiefs sought to craft the image of an approachable public servant who boasted both supreme leadership skills and the ability to act as a detached and influential political referee. 
 
 Budding poets are also attempting to get in on the act, including Pu Liye, the author of one recent ode to Xi. “General secretary, my eyes follow in your wake. And in these eyes my verse takes shape,” reads one of the poem’s opening lines. 
 
 Pu, a journalist at the state-run Xinhua news agency, declined to discuss his homage to Xi, which was received with widespread derision on the internet, but he confirmed that he wrote the politically-charged stanzas. 
 
 “I don’t want to say much,” he said. “Is that OK?” 
 
 Additional reporting by Christy Yao ||||| Experts and activists react to ‘bombshell’ decision to scrap two-term limit that was designed to guard against Mao-style personality cult in China 
 
 The news broke at three minutes to four on a chilly winter’s afternoon in a two-sentence bulletin. 
 
 
 
 “The Communist party of China central committee proposed to remove the expression that the president and vice-president of the People’s Republic of China ‘shall serve no more than two consecutive terms’ from the country’s constitution,” Xinhua, China’s official news wire, reported. “The proposal was made public Sunday.” 
 
 
 
 It was a typically dreary communique from the party-controlled propaganda agency. But to those who have spent their lives battling to decrypt the enigma that is elite Chinese politics, the text’s historic significance was unmissable. 
 
 “A bombshell,” said Susan Shirk, one of the United States’ foremost China specialists. 
 
 
 
 “I wasn’t anticipating such an open declaration of the new regime … I thought maybe he would stop short of this.” 
 
 “He” is China’s 64-year-old leader, Xi Jinping, a man who, after Sunday’s sensational and unexpected announcement, appears poised to lead the world’s second largest economy and one of its largest military forces well into next decade and quite possibly beyond. 
 
 
 
 “It means that for a long time into the future, China will continue to move forwards according to Xi’s thoughts, his route, his guiding principles and his absolute leadership,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor from Beijing’s Renmin University. 
 
 
 
 Bill Bishop, the publisher of the Sinocism newsletter on Chinese politics, said the move confirmed Xi’s mutation into a species of “Putin-plus” – only Xi was “much more effective, much more powerful and, frankly, much more ambitious” than his Russian counterpart. 
 
 
 
 Shirk, who was US deputy assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton, said: “What is going on here is that Xi Jinping is setting himself up to rule China as a strongman, a personalistic leader – I have no problem calling it a dictator – for life.” 
 
 The first five years of Xi’s reign, which began after he was named the Communist party’s general secretary in late 2012, have seen what many call the worst political crackdown in decades. Activists, dissidents and intellectuals greeted Sunday’s move with trepidation. 
 
 Xi Jinping to cement his power with plan to scrap two-term limit Read more 
 
 “It will get worse, for sure … the consequences will be very severe,” warned Wu’er Kaixi, a prominent Chinese dissident who fled into exile after helping lead the 1989 Tiananmen protests. 
 
 Wu’er, who now lives in Taiwan, was among those who signed an “emergency statement” condemning Xi’s decision to scrap presidential term limits as another step towards “tyranny”. “We shall not stay silent … this country is our country, and we cannot allow the ambitions of a few people lead [it] into a dark abyss,” the petition read. 
 
 Predictably, state media – from which China’s authoritarian leader has demanded “absolute loyalty” – put a more positive spin on the decision to scrap rules that were introduced in the 1980s to guard against the kind of catastrophic cult of personality that grew up around Chairman Mao. 
 
 
 
 An English-language editorial in the Global Times, a party-run tabloid, claimed “all Chinese people” backed the move and saw Xi as the right man to lead them into “a new era for a hopeful China”. “The change doesn’t mean that the Chinese president will have a lifelong tenure,” the newspaper claimed. 
 
 
 
 “Removal of the two-term limit of the president of PRC doesn’t mean China will restore life-long tenure for state leader. Such speculation is misreading,” tweeted the paper’s editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin. 
 
 Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) Removal of the two-term limit of the president of PRC doesn't mean China will restore life-long tenure for state leader. Such speculation is misreading. 
 
 Shirk, who now chairs the 21st Century China centre at the University of California, San Diego, disagreed. 
 
 
 
 “This was the one formal rule that could have blocked him from staying on and being leader for life. So eliminating it really brings the intentions out into the open and I think it eliminates any ambiguity about what is going on here,” she said. “He’s really made a power play that is stunning in its success.” 
 
 Jerome Cohen, a New York University expert in Chinese law and human rights, said China appeared to have forgotten “one of the main lessons of Mao’s long despotism” and be slipping into “another long period of severe dicatorship.” 
 
 
 
 For all Xi’s apparent dominance – achieved through a ruthless purge of rivals within China’s political, military and security establishment – experts believe his political project is not guaranteed to endure. 
 
 
 
 “A lot will depend on how the economy goes over the next 10 or 20 years,” said Steve Tsang, the director of the Soas China Institute. “If the economy continues to grow at 6% or 7% then the world will be a different one in 20 years time because China will be dominant.” A sustained economic slowdown, however, could consign Xi’s rule to the history books. “He knows that,” Tsang added. 
 
 
 
 Shirk agreed China’s “tragic” return to what she called “a kind of neo-traditional dictatorial system” was fraught with danger for both the country and its leader. 
 
 
 
 “When you are surrounded by sycophants, yes men, people who are too afraid to tell you what they really think, then there is a risk that the leader makes bad decisions,” she said. 
 
 
 
 “I’m not saying that we are going to have a famine like the Great Leap Forward or that China is going to turn into chaos like the Cultural Revolution. But … already there are some bad decisions being made.” 
 
 To illustrate her point, Shirk pointed to a new city being built near Beijing (“That is the sort of thing dictators always do. Don’t they love to do that?”) and Xi’s “overblown” signature foreign policy project, the Belt and Road infrastructure campaign which she claimed was facing a growing global backlash. 
 
 
 
 Xi’s relentless tightening of political and social controls also carried risks. “It’s hard for me to see how this kind of police state that puts such severe restrictions on civil society and on information and on the educational system is really going to be a successful modern China,” Shirk said. “I expect there is going to be some form of push back eventually – he’s already lost the intellectuals.” 
 
 Wu’er said was outraged but not surprised by Xi’s power grab and hoped it would serve as a wake-up call to western leaders who had ignored dissidents’ warnings about China’s leader and instead “nurtured” Xi’s ambitions to become “a new 21st century dictator”. 
 
 
 
 The international community had enabled Xi by showering him with gifts and praise, the veteran activist claimed. 
 
 
 
 “Now he has become this monster that we are about to see.” ||||| China's Communist Party formally elevated President Xi Jinping to the same status as party legends Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping on Tuesday, writing his name into its constitution and setting up the nation's leader for an extended stay in power. 
 
 The move will make Xi the most powerful Chinese leader in decades, with ambitions to tighten party control over society and make his country a superpower on the world stage, with a political philosophy directly opposed to that of the West. 
 
 [Latest: China’s Xi Jinping unveils his top party leaders, with no successor in sight] 
 
 The unanimous vote to enshrine "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era" in the constitution came on the final day of a week-long party congress, a gathering of the party elite held every five years in the imposing and cavernous Great Hall of the People on the western side of Beijing's Tiananmen Square. 
 
 There is no "Little Red Book" of pithy quotations as there was under Mao but instead a ­mightier, drier tome of Xi's speeches on "The Governance of China." Nevertheless, his ideas will now become compulsory learning for Chinese ­students from primary school through university. 
 
 Xi's is an explicit rejection of Western ideas about democracy and free speech in favor of Communist Party leadership in every aspect of life, and a desire to challenge the United States' preeminent role in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. 
 
 
 
 A poster with a portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping is displayed along a street in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday. (Aly Song/Reuters) 
 
 On Wednesday, more evidence of Xi's power will emerge when he introduces to the media the other members of the Communist Party's top leadership, the Politburo Standing Committee. Experts say it is unlikely that a clear successor will emerge or be anointed, leaving Xi's preeminent position free of an obvious challenge. 
 
 
 
 The 19th Party Congress effectively marks the start of Xi's second five-year term as party general secretary. But the chances are now higher that this will not be his last — or at least that he will remain the most powerful person in China beyond 2022. 
 
 [Xi Jinping and six other men will rule China, but women are left behind] 
 
 "The amendment of the party constitution effectively confirms Xi Jinping's aspiration to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century — that means a top leader with no constraints on tenure or retirement age," said Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a political expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 
 
 The inclusion of Xi's name in the party document makes him only the third Chinese leader to be so honored, with his ideology joining Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng ­Xiaoping Theory as a "guide to action." 
 
 China's Communist Party imposed a system of collective leadership after the death of Mao. It was a party scarred by the madness, cruelty and famine that one man had prompted through disastrous policies, notably the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. 
 
 As a result, Xi's two predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, ruled through consensus — as the "first among equals" at the top of the ladder — and were limited to two terms in power. 
 
 Now the party is moving in the other direction. 
 
 [As Xi gets a second term, Chinese wonder if he’ll be another Putin] 
 
 'Assertion of authority' 
 
 Xi's power is not unlimited, and many of his key policy measures reflect ideas adopted by the party before he took power. Yet the past week has seen an explosion of sycophancy toward China's leader, after his mammoth 3 ½ -hour speech kicked off proceedings last Wednesday. This is a personal style of rule, much like President Vladi­mir Putin's in Russia. 
 
 Throughout the week, senior officials lined up, one after the other, to laud what they described as Xi's profound, courageous, thrilling, insightful masterpiece of a speech, which shone "the light of Marxist Truth" and moved some of them from the bottom of their hearts, some said. 
 
 "In retrospect, it was an overwhelming assertion of authority to a degree unseen since Mao," said François Godement, director of the China-Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. 
 
 Xi still would have to overcome significant obstacles if he wants to remain in power beyond the next party congress, in 2022 — including a convention that officials retire if they are 68 or older, said Yanmei Xie, a China policy expert at Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing. By that time, Xi will be 69. 
 
 There had been speculation that Xi would break from previous practice by asking Wang ­Qishan, his right-hand man and powerful head of the anti-corruption authority, to stay on another five years. Yet the 69-year-old Wang's name does not appear on a new list of Central Committee members, implying that the retirement convention remains in place, at least for now. 
 
 Xi also would have to amend the constitution if he wanted a third term as president — or appoint a loyal follower to the top job while retaining power behind the scenes, as Putin did in Russia in 2008. 
 
 Nevertheless, the fact that Xi's name figures in the constitution puts him on a par with the party's "immortals," Mao and Deng, who had no term limits and did not retire, said Xie. 
 
 And the drumbeat of propaganda about loyalty to his leadership — combined with the constant threat of an unforgiving anti-corruption campaign that has taken down several powerful rivals — makes it more difficult for anyone who dares challenge him. 
 
 "The introduction of Xi Thought makes the question of succession while Xi is alive a moot issue," said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism newsletter. "He is the man with an eponymous theory in the party constitution, so no one will have more authority than him" — no matter what title Xi holds, Bishop said. 
 
 Xi Jinping Thought embodies several important principles, experts said: primarily that the party is in control of every aspect of life in China, including the economy, the Internet, politics, culture and religion. The party must be more disciplined and more responsive to people's needs, but its leadership must not be questioned. 
 
 Xi highlighted what he called the "principal contradiction" in modern China, between unbalanced and unequal development and "people's needs for a better life." 
 
 There should be no more blind pursuit of economic growth at all costs, he implied, but a focus on the issues that concern people the most, including the need to curb pollution and provide better education and health care. 
 
 Meanwhile, the market will continue to play an important role in the economy, but the party and key state-owned enterprises will remain supreme. 
 
 No 'convergence' 
 
 But the other big message is that China is on a path to become a true global superpower — very much on its own terms. 
 
 "Under his reign, there is no more hope of convergence," said Godement, at the European Council on Foreign Relations. That would have seen China becoming more open, more ruled by law and more democratic as it became wealthier, and its interests and political system ultimately converging with those of the West. 
 
 The idea of political reform in a Western sense is now firmly out the window: Indeed, Chinese state media no longer hides its contempt for the political and economic systems of the West. 
 
 Xi's message promotes a nationalist, assertive China with a much stronger military — a country that he says will not threaten the world but will resolutely defend its interests. 
 
 "By the middle of this century or before, China aims to close the gap economically and militarily with the United States and become the ultimate arbiter in the Asia-Pacific region," said the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Lam. 
 
 If Mao's era was one of revolution and nation-building, and Deng's was one of reform and opening that set China on the path to becoming a global economic power, Xi's era perhaps is one of control and nationalism, of realizing what he calls "the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation." 
 
 Deng's influence on the course of Chinese history was weighty, but his power was wielded less explicitly, often behind the scenes. As a result, his "Theory on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" was not formally incorporated into the party constitution until after his death. 
 
 Former leader Jiang's ideological contribution is recognized in the document as the "Theory of Three Represents," and Hu's as "Scientific Outlook on Development," but neither man is mentioned by name. 
 
 Read more 
 
 Move over, America. China presents itself as ‘blazing a new trail’ for the world. 
 
 Xi Jinping at China congress calls on party to tighten its grip on the country 
 
 As U.S. retreats in the Pacific, China fills the void with an ambitious plan 
 
 Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world 
 
 Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news ||||| Why China banned Winnie the Pooh and why it matters 0 by Jeremy Luedi March 29, 2016 
 
 China is increasing its censorship efforts both domestically, and internationally by targeting overseas critics and invoking internet sovereignty. 
 
 Oh bother 
 
 As Xi Jinping continues consolidating power, China’s media is facing increasing censorship. While this statement is not a novel one in itself, the manner and severity of recent censorship is. Behold China’s most censored photo of 2015, one that shows Xi Jinping during a parade and a children’s toy car sporting Winnie the Pooh. 
 
 This picture was widely shared on Chinese social media before the powers that be moved swiftly to block it. The friendly yellow bear elicited a decidedly unfriendly response; indeed the Chinese government went so far as to add ‘Winnie the Pooh’ to its internet search blacklist. 
 
 Making Winnie a persona non grata is the government’s response to a playful trend among Chinese netizens who often compare the Chinese leader to the famous bear. 
 
 The government’s reaction is disproportionate and puzzling for two reasons. Firstly, where some see harmless fun, Beijing sees a serious effort to undermine the dignity of the presidential office and Xi himself. Authoritarian regimes are often touchy, yet the backlash is confusing since the government is effectively squashing an potential positive, and organic, public image campaign for Xi. 
 
 Beijing’s reaction is doubly odd given the fact that Xi has made substantial efforts to create a cult of personality showing him as a benevolent ruler; going so far as to promote the moniker ‘Xi Dada’, or ‘Uncle Xi.’ 
 
 Treacherous typos 
 
 Beijing’s attack on Winnie the Pooh may be farcical, but it is also an indication of more serious trends in China’s media. In recent months, Chinese media outlets have seen an outpouring of (even by China’s standards) supportive coverage of the government and Xi in particular. 
 
 Such focused messaging by the government does not tolerate any slip-ups, with Xi stating that the media must ‘bear the surname of the party’, in other words show filial loyalty to the party. Consequently, the government has come down hard on what it sees as subversion in the media. 
 
 In December, four journalists were suspended after the China News Service released a headline with a typo misspelling Xi’s speech (zhi ci) as Xi’s resignation (ci zhi). A similar instance occurred in mid-March when Xinhua had to correct a headline which falsely referred to Xi Jinping as China’s ‘last leader,’ as opposed to ‘top leader’. 
 
 On March 15th, Jia Jia, columnist for the state-backed Wujie News, was taken away by police after posting a letter calling on Xi to resign. A further 20 people were detained in connection to the letter, in a heavy-handed response from Beijing. Content of the letter aside, the government’s response can be attributed to the fact that Jia’s letter emerged at the same time as the aforementioned resignation typo. 
 
 The government did not want two news stories independently feeding the same argument and reacted with overwhelming force. The fact that the outlet is partly owned by the Xinjiang government – a restive autonomous region with a large minority Uyghur population – is likely another factor in the government’s response. Wujie News is also partially owned by Alibaba, raising concerns about the internet giant’s foray into media – notably its acquisition of the South China Morning Post in January. 
 
 In February the front-page editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily was fired after two adjacent headlines (in red box below), when read as one, stated ‘media bears Party’s surname, their soul returns to the sea.’ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This was seen as criticism of Xi’s aforementioned statement on media loyalty. On March 29th, another editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily, Yu Shaolei resigned citing government censorship. In his resignation letter Yu regretted his inability to bear the party’s surname, and humorously wished the anonymous official responsible for censoring his social media accounts the best of luck. 
 
 Dangerous books 
 
 Alongside its clampdown on the mainland, the central government is also stifling dissent in Hong Kong, as witnessed by the recent arrest of five staff members of Causeway Books; a store specializing in books banned on the mainland. This event shocked Hong Kongers and the international community, with UK foreign Secretary Philip Hammond stating that “it would not be acceptable for somebody to be spirited out of Hong Kong in order to face charges in a different jurisdiction.” What is concerning is that two of the five employees arrested are EU citizens. 
 
 William Nao of Amnesty International states that, “coming after two Chinese democracy activists were returned from Thailand, it looks like the creeping internationalization of China’s crackdown on dissent.” Conversely, the state backed Global Times argued that Beijing’s actions were not only reasonable but also in conformity with Chinese law. 
 
 China’s internet sovereignty 
 
 In late 2014, Xi Jinping introduced the notion of internet sovereignty; sovereignty which rests in the hands of individual states who may censor content as they please. Xi has personally led China’s drive for internet sovereignty, resulting in the Cyberspace Administration of China calling for the government to have the strongest online voice. Furthermore, China’s ‘Great Firewall’ – the world’s largest and most sophisticated censorship program has been augmented. As of January 2016, it will not only block but also attack internet services deemed unsavoury by the government. 
 
 China’s promotion of internet sovereignty touts a state-centric approach to the Internet, one that adopts the zero sum language of Westphalian sovereignty. Consequently, actions by outside forces that impact China’s domestic internet are to be considered interference in domestic affairs and a breach of national sovereignty. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This line of reasoning has seen China indirectly target dissidents in foreign countries who publish anti-China material. For instance, U.S based dissident Wen Yunchao believes his parents and brother were arrested to pressure him to reveal sensitive information. Similarly, Zhang Ping – a writer based in Germany – states that three of his siblings have been detained in an effort to stop him criticizing China in the German media. 
 
 While Beijing has long sought to silence dissidents, the government’s concerted effort on the matter is raising concerns. Perhaps most troubling is China’s insistence that foreign nationals fall under Chinese law when interacting with Chinese internet services. 
 
 German writer and online satirist Christoph Rehage has come under fire by government backed online commentators for his video claiming that Chinese communist hero Lei Feng and Mulan would make great kids. Rehage, who speaks fluent Mandarin, had his Weibo account closed, cutting him off from his 100,000 followers. When Rehage compared Mao and Hitler in another video, he received numerous death threats, hate mail and abuse via social media and phone from pro-government netizens in China. 
 
 Furthermore, an influential government backed website called for him to be punished under Chinese law for libel against Mao, refuting CCP stances, and spreading vile opinions. According to China’s new internet sovereignty framework, the so called Seven Bottom Lines, Rehage could be bound by Chinese law, despite residing in Germany. 
 
 Zhu Wei, deputy director of the communication law center at the China University for Political Science and Law explains the government’s reasoning vis-a-vis Rehage: “We have to look at his intention. If he meant the video just as a commentary on something, without it being disseminated in China, then it has nothing to do with Chinese law. But if he made the video in order to have it disseminated on websites in China, or have other people repost it in China, then he comes under Chinese law.” 
 
 In imperial China the punishment for teaching a foreigner Mandarin was death. China’s imperial rulers did not want foreigners interacting with the Chinese people except through official interpreters. While Rehage and Beijing’s other foreign critics are not in mortal danger, China’s current rulers are seeking to ensure that the country’s digital reality is immune to alternate interpretation. ||||| Rare accolade puts Xi’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics into Communist charter and sets him on course for indefinite spell in power 
 
 Xi Jinping becomes most powerful leader since Mao with China's change to constitution 
 
 Xi Jinping has been consecrated as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong after a new body of political thought carrying his name was added to the Communist party’s constitution. 
 
 
 
 Is Xi or isn't Xi? Who said it - Jinping or Mao Zedong? Read more 
 
 The symbolic move came on the final day of a week-long political summit in Beijing – the 19th party congress – at which Xi has pledged to lead the world’s second largest economy into a “new era” of international power and influence. 
 
 At a closing ceremony in the Mao-era Great Hall of the People on Tuesday it was announced that Xi’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era had been written into the party charter. 
 
 “The congress unanimously agrees that Xi Jinping Thought … shall constitute [one of] the guides to action of the party in the party constitution,” a party resolution stated. 
 
 In a brief address to more than 2,200 delegates, Xi said: “Today we, more than 1.3bn Chinese people, live in jubilation and dignity. Our land ... radiates with enormous dynamism. Our Chinese civilisation shines with lasting splendour and glamour.” 
 
 “Our party shows strong, firm and vibrant leadership. Our socialist system demonstrates great strength and vitality. The Chinese people and the Chinese nation embrace brilliant prospects,” Xi added. 
 
 
 
 Some see the historic decision to enshrine Xi’s concept as a clear hint that he will seek to remain in power beyond the end of his second - and supposedly last - five-year term, in 2022. 
 
 An even clearer indication of whether he is set on staying in power should come on Wednesday morning when Xi introduces China’s new top ruling council, the politburo standing committee, during a fiercely choreographed piece of political theatre that signals the start of his second term. 
 
 
 
 If the committee’s line-up - which is almost certain to be made up of seven men - includes no obvious successor, that would represent further proof that Xi plans to rule at least until 2027 and possibly beyond. 
 
 Since the Communist party of China was founded in 1921, only one leader, Mao himself, has been honoured in such a way while still alive, in his case with a political philosophy called Mao Zedong Thought. 
 
 
 
 Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s economic opening, also boasts a school of eponymous ideology in the party charter, Deng Xiaoping Theory, but that was included only after his death in 1997. 
 
 Bill Bishop, the publisher of the Sinocism newsletter on Chinese politics, said the birth of Xi Jinping Thought confirmed the rare levels of power and prestige enjoyed by its creator. “It means Xi is effectively unassailable … If you challenge Xi, you are challenging the party – and you never want to be against the party.” 
 
 Jude Blanchette, an expert in Chinese politics from New York’s Conference Board research group, said: “This is about amassing power and credibility and legitimacy and authority within the system to drive through more effectively what he sees as the right path for China. 
 
 “If you tower above the party, then it is very difficult for anyone below you to decide they don’t want to implement your commands.” 
 
 Xi Jinping’s Leninist quest for a dynasty inspires congressional love-in Read more 
 
 Writing in the Financial Times, Australia’s former prime minister Kevin Rudd said the fanfare around China’s leader suggested Xi, who took power in 2012 and had been expected to step down in 2022, would in fact rule well into the next decade. “Five years ago I said he would be China’s most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping. I was wrong. He is now China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong,” Rudd wrote. 
 
 However, Susan Shirk, the head of the 21st Century China Centre at the University of California, San Diego, disputed the portrayal of Xi as an almighty Mao-like figure. 
 
 “He’s ruling differently, for sure, and people are intimidated by him because of the anti-corruption campaign.” But Shirk said she was reserving judgment on whether Xi was attempting “a real dictatorial play” until the new line-up of China’s top ruling council, the politburo standing committee, was announced on Wednesday. 
 
 If that committee included at least one of three possible successors – Hu Chunhua, Chen Min’er or Zhang Qingwei – that would signal Xi’s intention to step down in 2022, she said. If no clear successor emerged, however, it would fuel fears that Xi was “going for broke, all-out to be a dictator” and planned to remain in power indefinitely. 
 
 “I’m prepared to call him a dictator after that. But I am waiting to see,” said Shirk, US deputy assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton. 
 
 
 
 Were Xi to stay in office beyond the anticipated decade, he would be the first leader to do so since Deng Xiaoping. According to unwritten leadership rules introduced in the 1990s to ensure orderly power transitions, the party’s general secretary should serve for no more than 10 years. 
 
 “The idea that Xi Jinping retires in five years is incredibly unlikely,” said Blanchette. 
 
 Xi has been the focus of a chorus of songs of praise since the congress began last week. 
 
 
 
 Chen Quanguo, the party chief of Xinjiang, hailed his leader’s teachings as “intellectually incisive, visionary and magnificent”. Jilin province’s party boss, Bayanqolu, went even further. “General Secretary Xi Jinping is … the party’s helmsman,” he gushed, deploying a term famously used to hail Mao. 
 
 Blanchette said such displays of loyalty were “a striking indication of just how singular the party is under Xi”. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Xi Jinping opens the Communist party congress – video. 
 
 He added: “We are not at the point, like in the Cultural Revolution, where mangoes that Mao Zedong touched are worshipped. But we are certainly seeing a movement towards a new type of politics … one that is borrowing heavily from [the Mao era].” 
 
 Bishop said two factors explained Xi’s emergence as one of the most dominant figures in modern Chinese history. One was the 64-year-old’s own ambition. “Xi is sort of a Chinese Machiavelli”, who grew up in a revolutionary family hearing tales of Mao’s legendary political manoeuvrings. “A lot of that stuff must have sunk in,” Bishop said. 
 
 But Xi’s rise also reflected a broader consensus within the party that a strongman was needed to help China avoid a Soviet-style collapse. In 2012, on the eve of Xi taking power, Bishop said there had been a sense among China’s political elites that “if Xi didn’t clear things up, then the place was going to implode and the Communist party was done”. 
 
 
 
 Back then, a common refrain was: “Xi is our last hope.” 
 
 
 
 On Tuesday, Xi pitched himself as the leader of a “sacred” mission to restore China to its rightful place in the world. 
 
 
 
 “Living in such a great era, we are all the more confident and proud, and also feel the heavy weight of responsibility upon us,” he said. “We must have the courage and resolve to build on the historic achievements made by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Chinese Communists generation after generation, create new accomplishments befitting this great epoch and stride forward to an ever promising future.” 
 
 
 
 In a triumphalist editorial published shortly after Xi’s closing address, the party’s official news agency, Xinhua, said the advent of Xi Thought underlined how China was now rising “like never before”. 
 
 
 
 “China is set to regain its might and re-ascend to the top of the world,” it boasted. “Those expecting China to fall will be disappointed. Finger pointing and questioning the legitimacy of the Chinese way are of no avail. It is time to understand China’s path, because it appears it will continue to triumph.” 
 
 Outside the Great Hall of the People, delegates and members of the public gave Xi’s elevation the thumbs up. 
 
 
 
 “It’s very exciting. We really need a new guide for a new era,” said Li Wanjun, a delegate from the north-eastern province of Jilin. 
 
 
 
 Lin Xingyuan, a 35-year-old IT worker who was queuing to enter Tiananmen Square, agreed. 
 
 
 
 “It’s very inspiring,” he said, before being cut off by a green-clad member of the Communist party’s People’s Armed Police force who said interviews were forbidden in the area. 
 
 Additional reporting by Wang Zhen
– It seemed a good idea at the time, but China's propaganda officials are now reportedly walking back one particular attempt to paint President Xi Jinping as the "people's president" by asking state media to stop referring to him by his nickname, per the Guardian. That nickname is "Xi Dada," or "Big Daddy Xi," and while the intent of the moniker was, as another Guardian article frames it, to "craft the image of an approachable public servant," it seems to have instead created a cult of personality that some fear is reminiscent of Mao Zedong. Sources tell Bloomberg that both the Xinhua News Agency and the 21st Century Business Herald were "cautioned" last month about using "Xi Dada," even though the name doesn't appear to have been blocked from online searches or scrubbed online, and no explicit written ban seems to have been issued. The nickname got its start after a fan club started circulating it in 2012, per the People's Daily, and Xi himself gave it the thumbs-up in 2014. There's even a series of songs that have been dedicated to Big Daddy Xi, including "Our Xi Dada" and "Xi Dada Loves Peng Mama" (referring to his wife). "I thought the Chinese system had moved beyond one-man-rule and personality cults," noted Chinese scholar David Shambaugh scoffs to the Guardian. "I do not think it is good for China. This is not the 1960s." Experts speculate it's that sort of thinking that may have caused officials to try to pull back the name, even blocking the Economist website for posting a cartoon Xi in a Mao-style getup next to the headline, "Beware the cult of Xi." Some say Xi is likely not pleased. "That's a big-time propaganda failure," the author of a book on Xi's rise tells the Guardian. "I can imagine that in their five-minute-a-month meeting with Xi Jinping, the head of publicity got told: 'Whose bright idea was that [nickname]? Send him or her to Gansu [in China's far west]!'" (Did Taiwan's president call him "Big Daddy Xi" during their historic handshake?)