Plenums of the Communist Party’s Central Committee are normally dull affairs that slip by largely unnoticed. Yet the sixth plenum of this National Congress, held in Beijing last month, was notable for the historical resolution it passed, only the third in the Party’s history. The document cemented Xi Jinping’s position as Party ‘core’, and Xi Thought as “the essence of the Chinese culture and China’s spirit.” As such, China’s leader has prematurely closed the history books, pla