Xi is expected to issue a lengthy address at the opening session, but little change is foreseen in China’s strict one-party rule, intolerance of criticism and hard-line approach toward COVID-19 including quarantines and travel bans
China opened a twice-a-decade Communist Party conference Sunday at the end of which leader Xi Jinping is expected to receive a third five-year term, breaking with recent precedent and establishing him as arguably the most powerful Chinese politician since Mao Zedong.
With Xi expected to remain, little change is foreseen in China’s economic and foreign policies, as well as his intolerance of criticism and hard line approach to COVID-19 including quarantines and travel bans. As with most Chinese political events, little information has been released beforehand and the outcome will only be announced after a week of closed-door sessions.
The changes will “incorporate major theoretical views and strategic thinking” developed since the last congress five years ago and “meet new requirements for advancing the party’s development and work in the face of new circumstances and new tasks,” said Sun, a deputy head of the party’s Propaganda Department.