Mr Xi is reviving chapters from Mao’s playbook as he is expected to begin an unprecedented third term in office next year and eventually rule indefinitely.

The self-criticism sessions cement the idea that China no longer follows the collective leadership model set up by former leader Deng Xiaoping to prevent the mistakes of the Mao era, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.

“Xi didn’t make self-criticism – that’s the important point,” Mr Tsang said. “In other words, everybody would have done something wrong, with the exception of Xi Jinping, who can do no wrong.”

Mr Tsang said the self-criticism sessions also signal the end of internal policy debates at the highest echelons of the Communist Party, removing checks and balances and paving the way for potentially serious errors.

“Now it all depends on Xi Jinping getting it right, and Xi Jinping is not God,” he said.

The meeting comes after the committee last month passed a resolution essentially rewriting the country’s history to highlight its glory while brushing over tragedies such as the widespread violence and famine brought about by Mao’s policies or the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.

Only Mao and Deng before Mr Xi had passed such historical resolutions. Experts say the resolution cemented Mr Xi’s future as the country’s leader for decades to come.

Rana Mitter, a China history and politics professor at the University of Oxford, said the self-criticism sessions are also reminiscent of another Mao era, the “rectification period” between 1942 and 1944, which marked Mao’s own consolidation of power within the Communist Party.

During that period, people who wanted to prove themselves as worthy party members had to study ideological texts and then criticise themselves through the lens of the text “in an extremely intense manner,” Mr Mitter said.