Since 2020, China has reported 5,226 COVID-19 fatalities among its population of 1.4 billion. In contrast, more than 1 million people have died of the disease in the United States
From April through June, the world’s second-largest economy barely grew as authorities battled the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Cities across China, including its financial capital Shanghai, have been subjected to various degrees of economically disruptive and socially stifling lockdowns.
President Xi Jinping is widely expected to win a third five-year term as the party’s general secretary at the congress, becoming the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The congress comes at a tumultuous time, as China’s economy is dragged down by Xi’s COVID policy and a deep property sector crisis, and as his support for Russia’s Vladimir Putin further alienates China from the West.