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(Repeat the story on Sunday; there are no changes to the text)
By Yew Lun Tian and Ryan Woo
BEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping called for speeding up building a world-class army while touting the fight against COVID-19 by hosting a Communist Party congress focused on security and reiterating political priorities.
Xi, 69, is expected to win a third term at the end of the week-long congress that began Sunday morning, cementing his position as China’s toughest leader since Mao Zedong.
Some 2,300 delegates from across the country gathered in the great Great Hall of the People west of Tiananmen Square amid heightened security and blue skies after days of smog in the Chinese capital.
Xi described the five years since the party’s last congress as “extremely infrequent and abnormal,” in a speech that lasted less than two hours, much shorter than his speech of just three and a half hours at the 2017 congress because he read the entire execution report, which he did five years ago.
The continuous reports of 2017 and 2022 are approximately the same length.
“We want to maintain our sense of difficulty, adhere to basic thinking, be prepared for danger in peacetime, be prepared for a rainy day and be prepared to face the primary tests of high winds and high waves,” he said.
Xi called for strengthening capacity to maintain national security, safe food and energy sources, secure supply chains, ability to deal with errors and protect non-public information.
The applause came as Xi reaffirmed his opposition to Taiwan independence.
In the full report, Xi used the terms “security” or “protection” 89 times, up from 55 times in 2017, according to a Reuters tally, while his use of the word “reform” dropped to 48 of 68 mentions. five years since.
During his decade in power, Xi has embarked China on an increasingly authoritarian path that has prioritized security, the state of the economy in the call for “common prosperity,” more assertive diplomacy, a more powerful military and increasing tension to capture democratically governed Taiwan. . .
Analysts sometimes don’t expect a significant update in the political direction of Xi’s third term.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that with the slowdown in the Chinese economy, Xi will shift the basis of legitimacy from economic expansion to security.
“His narrative is: China faces many dangers, the country is in a state of war, figuratively, and he is the savior. With this narrative, he can make other people join him,” Wu said.
CONTINUITY
In recent days, China has underscored its commitment to Xi’s 0 COVID strategy, raising the hopes of countless Chinese citizens and investors that Beijing may possibly begin enforcing a policy that has caused widespread frustration and short-term economic damage.
Xi has said little about COVID, other than reiterating the validity of a policy that has made China a global exception, as much of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus, which emerged in central China in late 2019.
“We have adhered to the supremacy of other people and the supremacy of life, we have adhered to zero-COVID dynamics. . . and we have achieved primary positive effects on overall and epidemic prevention, and economic and social development,” said Mr. . Xi.
On the economy, he reaffirmed his commitment to the personal sector and the option for markets to play a key role, even as China tunes a “socialist economic system” and promotes “common prosperity. “
“We want to build a high-level socialist market economic system. . . Relentlessly consolidate and expand the system of public ownership, relentlessly inspire and progress the personal economy, make the market fully play the decisive role in resource allocation and greater play the role of government,” he said.
PARTY POWER
Xi’s strength does not seem diminished by the tumult of a year in which China’s economy has slowed sharply, driven by COVID common policy lockdowns, a crisis in the real estate sector and the effect of his 2021 crackdown on the once-free. “platform economy”, as well as global headwinds.
China’s relations with the West have deteriorated dramatically, angered by Xi’s by Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The son of a Communist Party revolutionary, Xi revitalized a deeply corrupt and increasingly irrelevant party, expanding its presence in all facets of China, with Xi officially as its “core. “
Xi got rid of presidential term limits in 2018, paving the way to break with the precedent of recent decades and govern for a third term of five years or more.
“Xi Jinping’s re-election to a third term with both hands,” Li Yinjiang, a delegate from Jiangsu province, told Reuters. “He can strengthen our country and make our other people happy. “
The congress is expected to reconfirm Xi as general secretary, China’s toughest post, as well as chairman of the Central Military Commission. Xi’s presidency will be renewed in March at the annual consultation of China’s parliament.
In the run-up to the congress, the Chinese capital has tightened safety and COVID restrictions, while metal generators in neighboring Hebei province were ordered to reduce operations to air quality, an industry source said.
The day after the congress ends on Saturday, Xi is expected to provide his new Politburo Standing Committee, a seven-user leadership team. It will come with the user who will update Li Keqiang as premier when Li leaves office in March after taking office. maximum two terms.
(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian, Ryan Woo, Martin Quin Pollard, Eduardo Baptista, Kevin Yao and Dominique Patton; Written by Tony Munroe; Edited by William Mallard)