It is the dream of Chinese leaders to have their thoughts and visions so highly regarded that they are enshrined as essential elements in the ideological canon of the Communist Party. Recent leaders Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin tried to dream up visions that would get them into the party’s liturgy, but without success. Now president and party boss Xi Jinping is having a stab at immortality. The People’s Daily newspaper has reported that Xi’s speeches have been collected into a political philosophy and may be enshrined in the party’s constitution as a “guiding ideology.”
