At North Korea’s biggest political event, Kim Jong Un showed that he has absorbed lessons from one of the world’s most entrenched leaders: Chinese President Xi Jinping.

One of the more obvious signs at the Ninth Party Congress was the use of Chinese-style name badges, which suggested that DPRK officials are copying the format of the Chinese Communist Party’s meetings.

But a far more important parallel came in Kim’s push to reshape governance by incorporating his “five-point party-building line” into the Workers’ Party rules, seeking to reinforce what Pyongyang calls the “monolithic leadership system” revolving around the