https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-xi-boddhisatva/xi-jinpings-latest-tag-living-buddhist-deity-chinese-official-says-idUSKCN1GK0V6

Speaking on Wednesday on the sidelines of China’s annual meeting of parliament, the party boss of the remote northwestern province of Qinghai, birthplace of the Dalai Lama, said Tibetans who lived there had been saying they view Xi as a deity.

Wang Guosheng said the province had been following Mao Zedong’s advice about inspiring the masses to love the party and its leader, distributing “images of the leader” to people in poverty-stricken areas being moved into new homes.

He did not specify if these were images of Mao or Xi.

“The ordinary people in the herder areas say, only General Secretary Xi is a living Bodhisattva. This is a really vivid thing to say,” Wang said.