If all goes according to plan, until the end of the meeting, which will be held twice in ten years, the 69-year-old will be reconfirmed as the party’s general secretary, cementing his position as China’s toughest leader since Mao Zedong.
Security has been tightened around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where some 2,300 delegates from all of China’s provinces will gather Sunday in the Great Hall of the People.
And while Xi continues to insist that the country stick to its policy of containing and eliminating the coronavirus within its borders, Congress will be held under strict fitness protocols.
In a highly choreographed conclave, usually behind closed doors, participants will decide on the members of the party’s 200-plus or minus-200-member Central Committee, which in turn selects the 25-person Politburo and its omnipotent Standing Committee, the country’s highest governing body.
But in reality, “everything is a foregone conclusion, because the congress takes a position until the factions agree,” sinologist Jean-Philippe Beja told AFP.
Critics say Xi also eliminated potential political rivals in recent years through his long crusade against corruption.
Xi’s speech on the first day will give an assessment of the previous mandate, but also a roadmap for the next five years, for both the country and the country.
At the 2017 congress, Xi promised a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics and promised that Beijing would have interaction with the world.
“Openness brings progress, while self-isolation leaves someone behind,” he said. “China will not close its doors to the world; we will only open up more and more. “
– Covid curbs –
But years later, China has done the opposite.
While the rest of the world has gradually returned to pre-pandemic norms, Beijing is sticking to a radical zero-covid policy characterized by restrictions, mandatory quarantines, and repeated lockdowns.
In addition to causing hardship for Chinese citizens, the strategy also scared the business community.
The economic expansion has ground to a halt at a time when long-standing problems, such as the housing slowdown, are coming to light.
“Beijing’s zero-covid policy has discouraged much-needed investment and failed to win the hearts and minds of young Chinese, who have suffered the most economically and socially,” said Yu Jie of the Asia-Pacific program at the Chatham House tank.
“Many Chinese are worried about a return to an era of isolation” that had not been seen in China since the country’s opening in the late 1970s, sinologist Beja told AFP.
China’s relations with the United States have also deteriorated over the past five years, and Xi’s more assertive foreign policy has triggered disputes from India to Australia and Canada.
Western countries have rejected competing rhetoric opposing the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as its territory to be taken by force if necessary.
They also accused China of widespread human rights abuses in the western region of Xinjiang.
“President Xi’s unprecedented third term augurs well for human rights in China and around the world,” said Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch.
With 96. 7 million members, the Chinese Communist Party is one of the largest political organizations in the world, but its functioning remains largely obscure.
Observers can guess the long-term composition of the Standing Committee.
Since the 1990s, Politburo members have retired after two terms; however, a third term for Xi would break that precedent, meaning even less speculation than the same about the next generation of leaders.
The selection of who will surround Xi will be crucial, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute.
“I think Xi will be careful to send a transparent message that no one on the Politburo Standing Committee will be the successor to the XXI Congress,” he said.
The composition of the Politburo will be the day after the assembly ends.
If, as expected, Xi Jinping remains general secretary, then he will run for a term at the annual assembly of China’s National People’s Congress next March.
Although the XX Party Congress promises only a five-year term, many will remain in force for much longer.
“The uncertainty is absolute,” political analyst Jean-Pierre Cabestan.
“But given the promotion of Xi Jinping thought, the recovery of the cult of personality, the importance of his strength at the center of the party leadership, suggests who will remain in force for a long time, perhaps for life. “