Chinese leaders preparing official history to elevate Xi

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leaders are preparing a political history that would give President Xi Jinping status beside the ruling Communist Party’s most important figures, setting the stage for Xi to extend his rule next year. A meeting of some 200 Central Committee leaders that began Monday was considering a resolution on the party’s major achievements and historical experience. That would be the third statement of its kind in the party’s 100-year history after one issued under Mao Zedong, founder of the communist government in 1949, and Deng Xiaoping, who launched reforms that turned China into an economic powerhouse. Issuing a similar statement under Xi would signal he has amassed enough authority to ignore two-decade-old party practice that says he should step down next year.