(1/x) China's national legislative session (两会) starts today. First: opening of CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference)

This is front page of top Party mouthpiece @PDChina from day after same event *LAST YEAR* (3/4/2019).

Compare this to tomorrow's version.

(2/x) Note a few things about this photo.

First, that's a group photo of Xi Jinping & 5 other Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) members, plus Wang Qishan (who *isn't* a PBSC member)

Second, that's a standalone photo of Wang Yang, the seventh PBSC member, and CPPCC chairman.

(3/x) In other words, that front page depicts China's top leaders - they're all there.

Now let's think how they're lined up, and what signals those might send to any halfway saavy mid-level Chinese bureaucrat or an ordinary citizen with a eye for political trends.

(4/x) In the group shot, Xi Jinping is at the center. Obvious since he's #1 - Party general secretary.

You've also got the interesting choice to include Wang as well - signaling the outsized role that (as Xi's close ally) plays, notwithstanding his lack of a formal PBSC role.

(5/x) But then you've also got the big picture of Wang Yang too - much larger than those of other individual leaders in the group shot.

Sure, that seems obvious - this is a story about the opening of the CPPCC, and Wang Yang is chairman. So his picture should be bigger, right?

(6/x) But - at least to my mind - that arrangement also reflects a clear set of political signals & choices as well.

This kind of photo represents at least a partial genuflection in the direction of China's Party/state institutions.

(7/x) Even if Xi was *far* more powerful than other leaders when that photo was taken (2019), political norms of the time still dictated giving some face to:

a) the formal *positions* held by leaders (i.e., Wang Yang's role as CPPCC chairman)

b) the collective role of the PBSC

(8/x) And that's why watching the parallel 2020 photos + arrangement that come out on the front page of the @PDChina over the next couple days will be so interesting and important.

Those will be very visual political signals as to whether - and how far - that is changing.

(9/x) Needless to say, if you wake up tomorrow and find the @PDChina's front page is an ultra-massive photo of Xi with a glowing sun-like aura around him, it won't even requiring deciphering - it will hit you over the head like a load of bricks.

Not that I'm *expecting* that...

(10/x) Here we go! Side-by-side comparison of corresponding 2019 (l) & 2020 (r) @PDChina layouts re: CPPCC opening. Nearly identical.

Note: Photo of Wang Yang marks only 2nd time in 2020 such a standalone photo of a top leader other than Xi has appeared on @PDChina front page.

(11/x) What to make of that? I'm with @niubi that Xi receiving the Maoist 人民领袖 designation in Dec. 2019 was big. One of the key questions in China's domestic politics going forward is: how far does China shift towards a system more purely focused on a single man?

(12/x) But a photo like this suggests to me that even if that's the direction that China is moving in, it isn't *already* there.

There has to be at least *some* institutional resistance (or at least inertia) operating against such a move.

(13/x) Is it on part of Xi himself, preferring to have other Party leaders on hook along with him amid pressing economic & social challenges?

Is it resistance from other Party leaders who recognize risks (not least to themselves) associated w/reviving Maoist political practices?

(14/x) Is it just bureaucratic inertia (this is photo we used in 2019, so we'll repeat it and add masks)? Don't know.

(15/x) But my gut tells me that photos like this + on-off use of 人民领袖 that @niubi has flagged in his excellent Sinocism newsletter are surface manifestations of a complex back-and-forth over a core political issue in China:
rule of single man vs rule by bureaucratic system.

(16/x) Just for anyone who is *really* interested in this, here's the 2019 @PDChina front page to compare with tomorrow's version - i.e., the day after opening of the National People's Congress (which this year, opens today).

(17/x) Side-by-side comparison of 2019 (l) & 2020 (r) People's Daily front page on the opening of China's National People's Congress.

Whatever black-box-politics are playing out in Beijing right now don't seem to be altering basic default layout of the Party's mouthpiece at all.

(18/x) Comparing 2019 & 2020 @PDChina coverage gets more difficult from here, b/c 2020 两会 schedule is shorter. But these seem to be relevant pages to compare. 2019 (l), 2020 (today) (r).

Layout similar. But Xi *dominates* in text. Will explain below for non-Chinese readers.

(19/x) Visually, the layout is similar - focus on group meeting w/Xi at the center.

But note difference. Both headline & content of the 2019 article focus on doings of ALL 7 PBSC members.

Not so in 2020 - only Xi (plus/Wang Yang merely 参加看望和讨论).

(20/x) This slow mutation of Party propaganda is definitely worth watching - it's how you can imagine the trappings of China's collective leadership steadily fading further in favor of a more Xi-centric portrayal - consistent w/"People's Leader" designation @niubi has flagged.

(21/x) Yet again! Watch and see China's other top leaders disappear from @PDChina front page.

These two days - 2019 (l), 2020 (r) - reflect days in which PBSC committee members attended break-out sessions with individual provincial delegations.

Can you spot the differences?

(22/x) Back in 2019, 5 of the PBSC members (including Xi) attending delegations had their names listed on front page, and were EACH discussed in text.

Not so in 2020. Only Xi. It's *all* Xi. Both in headline *and* in text.

(23/x) Ah, you might ask - maybe b/c of this year's shortened NPC schedule, perhaps other PBSC members were otherwise occupied?

Nope. Check out today's page 2 - upper left (may need to click on photo). That's the piece on Wang Yang & Han Zheng attending prov. delegate sessions.

(24/x) Aside from Xi, China's other top leaders are steadily being "disappeared" from the front page of Party's main mouthpiece.

Not totally. Not completely (see earlier remarks in this thread). But we can now see some new visual & textual trends compared w/just a year ago.