China’s President Xi Jinping is seen in a big screen during an evening news program at a mall in Beijing on November 11, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

China’s Communist Party officials have praised the country’s president as helmsman and people’s leader, in a show of support for Xi Jinping ahead of a key party congress at which he is expected to be handed an unprecedented third term as party leader.

As long as we uphold Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, ... the giant vessel of Chinese rejuvenation will have a helmsman and will be able to brave any storms, Jiang Jinquan, the head of the policy research office of the Communist Party, said at a news conference about the Sixth Plenum on Friday.

He stressed that Xi fully deserves to be called a people’s leader.

The four-day, closed-door meeting of the ruling party is known as the Sixth Plenum. The party officials finished the meeting on Thursday and passed a historical resolution which highlighted its achievements under Xi’s leadership.

According to a communique of the plenum released on Thursday, the party reflected on its achievements in the 100 years since its establishment and concluded that it must rally around Xi more closely.

Xi is expected to secure a third term as party leader at the 2022 party congress next autumn.

The Chinese Communist Party was founded on July 1, 1921 and is now one of the world’s most powerful political groupings.

Members constitute nearly 6.6% of China’s population. In 2019, it had 91.9 million members.

The party has been in power since 1949.

Last June, Xi asked the party’s members and officials to advance toward the second centenary goal of fully building a modern socialist country, as well as national rejuvenation.