Chinese President Xi Jinping’s attendance at the funeral earlier this year of a one-time propaganda minister was a surprise; Deng Liqun, who died aged 99, was never a top-ranked official and had been a political enemy of Xi’s father.
Xi’s presence, sources said, was in fact part of a nascent effort to heal wounds across China’s ideological divide after his unrelenting crackdown on corruption alienated senior officials from the ruling Communist Party, government and military.
Xi wants to consolidate support ahead of the 19th party congress in 2017, when the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power in China, is reshuffled, said the sources, who have close ties to the leadership.
While Xi is expected to rule until 2023, he needs to get allies on the committee who will back his three-year war on corruption and his plans for reforming China’s slowing economy, experts said.
Xi has been involved in a number of funerals this year for ex-officials who spanned China’s political spectrum.
Funerals of notable figures have a unique place in Chinese politics and are carefully choreographed by the party.
Attendance is often scrutinised for clues as to whether retired officials are among the mourners, indicating they still have clout.
Xi’s bridge-building shows a different, more nuanced side of a president who appears to the outside world as China’s most top-down ruler since Mao Zedong.
The Chinese leader’s anti-graft campaign has netted scores of senior officials, targeted influential families and frightened a bureaucracy to the point where some officials won’t make decisions for fear of drawing attention to themselves.
It has also traumatised political factions.
