– Xi Jinping poised to secure third leadership term

By Samuel Sukhnandan in Beijing
CHINA’S ruling Communist Party will hold its national congress on October 16, when President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third five-year term as party general-secretary and the country’s top leader.
The twice-a-decade conclave will also see personnel changes in the party’s powerful decision-making body, the 25-member Politburo and the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s highest circle of power.

Nearly 2,300 delegates representing all provinces and regions in China are expected to convene in Beijing to elect the Central Committee, with over 200 full members and 150 alternate members.
So far, each electoral unit across the country has convened a party congress or party representative meeting and elected 2,296 delegates to the 20th Party Congress, according to China’s state broadcaster, China Central Television (CCTV).

Aside from that, the seventh plenary session of the Communist Party’s 19th Central Committee, which is expected to run for around four days, will discuss a draft work report to be delivered by President Xi at the congress and finalise plans for China’s top leadership for the next five years.

The work report, which will outline basic policies and development goals of the party and the world’s second-largest economy through 2027, is also expected to detail achievements in the 10 years since Xi became party chief.

President Xi rose to the post at the 18th National Congress in 2012 and took office in March of the following year.

Achievements
Under his leadership, China has witnessed enormous economic growth and solidified its standing as an economic and geopolitical superpower. China has also become the world’s dominant manufacturer of almost everything, as well as the main trading partner for most of the developing world.

Poverty elimination was one of President Xi’s signature national policies. Since he took power, China has also lifted over 100 million members of its rural population out of poverty and has embarked on a long-term goal of achieving developed-nation status by 2035.

A resolution on the country’s modern history was adopted by the China Communist Party last year, which touted his accomplishments since he became its leader.
The previous congress in 2017 enshrined in the party constitution, “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” which made his status comparable to Communist-led China’s founding father, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the country’s reform endeavours.

President Xi’s term in office has also been initially marked by an ambitious foreign policy of strengthening China’s global leadership through the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as by territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Confidence
Domestically, the country has grappled with slowed economic growth and repeated lockdowns owing to President Xi’s insistence on stamping out the COVID-19 pandemic through a strict “Zero-COVID Policy.”
After a two-month lockdown of its financial hub, Shanghai, and a default crisis in the real estate sector, China’s economy teetered on the verge of contraction in the second quarter, growing by only 0.4 percent.

Despite this, many world leaders, including former President Mr Donald Ramotar, have expressed a strong belief that the Communist Party, led by President Xi, can turn things around and return China to a path of massive growth and development.

In fact, Mr Ramotar told China Daily’s “Wired Column” recently, “I have full confidence in the Communist Party of China,” referring to China’s development. He believes that China’s eradication of absolute poverty is a great achievement.

The Chinese Communist Party is now working to tackle “relative poverty,” which is the state of having standard living expenses that cannot be met with the household income. While this will be a much more difficult task, Mr Ramotar said, looking back at China’s development, the Chinese Communist Party has always found creative solutions to complex issues.

Mr Ramotar, who met with President Xi in 2013 in Trinidad and Tobago during a China-Caribbean bilateral engagement, has often spoke highly of China’s development and its important contribution to safeguarding world peace and assisting developing countries.

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party, the most important political event in China this year, is expected to run for one week.
(Reporting courtesy of NCN Editor, Samuel Sukhnandan, who is currently in Beijing on a China International Press Communication Centre (CIPCC) 2022 Fellowship at the invitation of the China Public Diplomacy Association)