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quietus [soylentnews.org] writes:

If you still want your Mao memorabilia, you better hurry down to Tiananmen Square, Beijing, while you still have the chance.

In China, the State Council [wikipedia.org] is somewhat comparable to the Cabinet. Headed by the Prime Minister and consisting of the heads of the various Ministries (Defense, Commerce, Education, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Justice, Civil Affairs, State Security, Public Security and so on), it handles the day-to-day running of the country while formulating economic policy.

Its operational procedures are described in a document, conveniently titled "Working Procedures for the State Council". On March 18, an updated version of that document was published, and it has a couple of changes [rfa.org].

First off, the State Council now has to “report any major decisions, major events and important situations” to the Central Committee “in a timely manner.” Previous edition sentences like "administration according to law, seeking truth from facts, democracy, openness, pragmatism and integrity” have been scrapped, as has the requirement for the State Council “to correct illegal or inappropriate administrative actions”, or to “guide and supervise” the bureaucracy. In other words, its wings have been seriously clipped.

Secondly, any and all references to Marxism/Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, the thought of Deng Xiaoping and the ideologies of former presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are now verboten. Only references to Xi Jingping Thought are allowed, as that is “the essence of Chinese culture and the spirit of the times”.

To drive the point home, the Central Committee of the CCP launched another nationwide disciplinary campaign among its 96 million members.

This round will check them for loyalty to supreme leader Xi Jinping, weeding out “black sheep” [wikipedia.org] and “two-faced” [wikipedia.org] officials.

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