China today launches a twice-a-decade party conference at which Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is expected to receive a third five-year term that breaks with recent precedent and establishes himself as arguably the most powerful Chinese politician since Mao Zedong (毛澤東).
Xi is expected to issue a lengthy address at the opening session, but little change is foreseen in his formula of strict one-party rule, intolerance of criticism and a hard-line approach toward COVID-19, including quarantines and travel bans even as other countries have opened up.
As with most Chinese political events, little information has been released beforehand and the outcome of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is only to be announced after several days of closed-door sessions.
Photo: AFP
At a two-hour news conference yesterday, the congress’ spokesperson Sun Yeli (孫業禮) reaffirmed the government’s commitment to its “zero COVID” policy, despite the economic costs, and repeated its threat to use force to annex Taiwan.
China reserves the right to use force over Taiwan as a last resort in compelling circumstances, though peaceful reunification is its first choice, Sun said.
However, he said China would not tolerate what he called a movement toward full independence supported by hardliners and their overseas backers.
Photo: Reuters
Sun offered few details about what if any changes would be enacted to the party’s charter at the meeting, which is expected to last about a week.
The congress is the 20th in the history of the century-old party, which boasts about 96 million members, more than 2,000 of whom are to attend the Beijing meetings.
The changes would “incorporate the major theoretical views and strategic thinking” concluded in the five years since the last congress, said Sun, a deputy head of the CCP’s Propaganda Department who is not well known outside party circles.
The amendment or amendments would “meet new requirements for advancing the party’s development and work in the face of new circumstances and new tasks,” Sun said.
Xi has left little room for further political aggrandizement, having placed himself thoroughly in charge of domestic affairs, foreign policy, the military, the economy and most other key matters overseen by party working groups that he leads.
The congress comes as China’s economy is facing major headwinds amid a near-collapse in the real estate sector and the toll on retail and manufacturing imposed by COVID-19 restrictions that upped the regime’s already intense monitoring of the population and suppression of free speech.
Sun offered no hope that China would be backing away from the “zero COVID” policy, which Xi and other leaders have made a political issue despite criticism by the WHO and others that it is not a practical long-term solution given improvements in vaccines and therapies.
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