On January 22, the Politburo announced the establishment of the Central Commission for Integrated Military and Civilian Development. Reporting directly to the Politburo, the agency is chaired by top Party and state leader Xi Jinping, becoming his 12th official post. In the wake of the news of Xi’s fresh title—and drawing inspiration from the self-promotion strategy of eccentric recycling tycoon Chen Guangbiao—CDT resident cartoonist Badiucao was gracious enough to design a new business card for the “core” leader:
Complete with an English B-side for Xi’s many diplomatic expeditions:
The address and telephone number used is for an old haunt of Xi’s: the Qingfeng Steamed Bun franchise, where he launched his presidential image-crafting campaign back in 2013.
On January 23, Weibo user ChongziZaiBeijing (@虫子在北京) shared a joke about the President and CCP General Secretary’s ever-expanding list of concurrent official titles. The post was deleted from Weibo, but stored by FreeWeibo:
The provincial governor said to the ailing Auntie Wang: “the General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee, the State President, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Battle Command of the People’s Liberation Army, the Chairman of the National Security Commission, the Group Leader of Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, the Leader of the Central Leading Group for National Defence and Military Reform of the Central Military Commission, the Leader of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, the Leader of the Foreign Affairs Work Leading Group, the Leader of the National Security Work Leading Group, the Head of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, and the Director of the Central Commission for Integrated Military and Civilian Development will come to your home to pay respect. Please work to appropriately coordinate for the arrival.” Auntie Wang responded with a scowl: “I appreciate their expression of sympathy, but I haven’t enough seats to go around in the house.”
[Chinese]
