President Xi Jinping’s grip on power faces two critical tests this week as a Chinese Communist party congress deliberates whether to write his name into the party constitution, and a new senior leadership line-up is revealed.

The party’s 19th Congress, which opened last week with a long report by Mr Xi, will end on October 24 with the appointment of a new Central Committee comprising the party’s top 200 officials, and the announcement of possible revisions to the party constitution. A day later, the revealing of a new Politburo Standing Committee will confirm whether Mr Xi has stacked the party’s top ranks with his loyalists. 

A formal reference to “Xi Jinping Thought” in a revised constitution would confirm Mr Xi’s status as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, the party’s revolutionary hero.