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By then, Mr. Xi had already defied optimistic expectations, Chinese and American, by acting on his deep-seated belief that political and economic openness had undone the Soviet Union and would also destroy Chinese Communism unless the party doubled down on what Lenin called “democratic centralism.”

The decision that elevated him to “core” also emphasized “democratic centralism” — giving all senior officials a say — and said they should come from the “five lakes and four seas,” meaning from varied backgrounds.

Other campaigns have been more ideological: the “Eight Musts” of 2012 stressed the importance of the party’s monopoly of power as well as of “reform and opening”; a campaign was launched in February requiring officials to bone up on Mao’s essay, “Working Methods of Party Committees”, and “improve their consciousness of democratic centralism”.

Vietnam follows the classic communist doctrine of democratic centralism, whereby the party is the only permitted political player.

"This is a big step backwards and a reassertion of the Leninist principle of 'democratic centralism' … which is 100% centralism and 0% democratic."