The Two Establishes (两个确立, liǎng gè quèlì) is a canonical political formulation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) codified at the Sixth Plenum of the 19th Central Committee in November 2021, contained in the Party's third "Historical Resolution" — the Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century. The formulation has two limbs: establishing Xi Jinping's position as the core of the CCP Central Committee and of the whole Party (确立习近平同志党中央的核心、全党的核心地位), and establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era (确立习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的指导地位). It builds on the earlier designation of Xi as "core leader" at the Sixth Plenum of the 18th Central Committee in October 2016 and the inscription of Xi Jinping Thought into the Party Constitution at the 19th Party Congress in October 2017 and the PRC State Constitution in March 2018.
Procedurally, the Two Establishes functions as a discipline test rather than a legal instrument. After its promulgation in the 2021 Historical Resolution, the Central Committee instructed all Party organs, state organs, the People's Liberation Army, and mass organizations to "study, propagate, and implement" the formulation through study sessions (学习), self-criticism meetings (民主生活会), and written loyalty declarations. Provincial Party committees were required to issue implementation opinions; the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) folded adherence into its inspection (巡视) criteria; and the Organization Department incorporated it into cadre evaluation. Failure to invoke or affirm the Two Establishes in official speech became, in itself, evidence of political unreliability.
The formulation is paired operationally with the older Two Safeguards (两个维护): safeguarding Xi's core position and safeguarding the centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee. Where the Two Safeguards prescribe conduct, the Two Establishes asserts ontological fact — the recognition from which the safeguarding duty flows. Together they sit alongside the Four Consciousnesses (四个意识) and Four Self-Confidences (四个自信) in what the Party's propaganda apparatus styles the "Two Establishes, Two Safeguards" architecture. The phrase is now mandatory in the opening sections of Politburo communiqués, Central Committee plenum bulletins, and provincial Party congress work reports.
Contemporary deployment has been uniform across the system. The 20th Party Congress political report, delivered by Xi on 16 October 2022, treated the Two Establishes as the principal political achievement of the preceding five years and described it as "of decisive significance" (具有决定性意义) for advancing the new era. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Wang Yi, the People's Bank of China under Pan Gongsheng, and the PLA's Central Military Commission have each issued formal study programs. Provincial leaders — Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining, Guangdong's Huang Kunming, Beijing's Yin Li — open major speeches with explicit invocation. Diplomatic cables from Chinese embassies routinely reference the formulation when briefing host governments on internal Party developments.
The Two Establishes should be distinguished from the narrower "core leader" designation (核心), which Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin held but which Hu Jintao notably did not. The "core" status alone concerns the individual; the Two Establishes additionally elevates the theoretical canon attached to that individual, fusing person and doctrine in a manner not seen since Mao Zedong Thought was enshrined at the Seventh Party Congress in 1945. It is also distinct from the Two Affirmatives (两个确认) occasionally used in earlier Party documents and from Deng Xiaoping's principle of collective leadership (集体领导), which the current formulation has substantively superseded without formally repealing.
Edge cases and controversies cluster around three issues. First, the absence of a fixed sunset or succession provision: because the Two Establishes binds the Party to a living individual, it has been read by external analysts — including in reports by the Mercator Institute for China Studies and the Asia Society Policy Institute — as foreclosing orderly leadership transition. Second, the formulation's interaction with the 2018 abolition of presidential term limits (PRC Constitution Article 79) reinforces personalist rule. Third, internal Party discussion preceding the 2021 Resolution reportedly debated whether to use the stronger phrase "decisive significance" — its eventual inclusion in the 20th Congress report signaled victory for Xi's faction over more cautious formulations. Discipline cases brought by the CCDI in 2022–2024, including against former Justice Minister Tang Yijun and figures in the Rocket Force, have cited inadequate adherence to the Two Establishes as an aggravating factor.
For the working practitioner, the Two Establishes is a diagnostic instrument. Its presence, prominence, and precise wording in a Chinese official's speech indicate that official's political alignment and the document's authoritative weight; its absence signals either drafting carelessness — itself politically dangerous in Beijing — or deliberate distance. Foreign ministries tracking PRC elite politics, analysts forecasting Politburo Standing Committee composition ahead of the 21st Party Congress in 2027, and journalists parsing plenum communiqués use the formulation as a barometer of Xi's continuing dominance. Treating it as mere boilerplate misreads the document; treating each variation as substantive intelligence is the established analytical practice in Western China-watching institutions.
Example
At the 20th Party Congress on 16 October 2022, Xi Jinping declared the Two Establishes to be "of decisive significance" for the Chinese nation's rejuvenation, a phrase subsequently mandated in all provincial work reports.