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CHINA-POLITICS
China’s Communist Party elite open key conclave
BEIJING, Oct 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – China’s Communist Party elite kicked off
a key meeting in Beijing on Monday, as the country’s leadership faces pro-
democracy protests in Hong Kong, a protracted trade war, and a slowing
economy.
The Fourth Plenum of the Party’s Central Committee is a closed-door meeting
of high-ranking officials where the country’s roadmap and future direction is
discussed.
One of the main themes this week will be “upholding and improving” China’s
system of governance and advancing its “modernisation”, said official news
agency Xinhua.
The term governance is about “strengthening the Party’s control over all
governing organs,” explained Jude Blanchette, an expert on Chinese politics
at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The likely outcome of this week’s meetings “will be that the CCP (Chinese
Communist Party) is more firmly entrenched at the core of political and
governing power,” he wrote Friday.
Hua Po, a Beijing-based political analyst, told AFP that the Fourth Plenum
may also result in a document that criticises past policies by former leader
Deng Xiaoping — known for his market-oriented economic reforms — to elevate
Xi’s own status.
It is a practice that Chinese leaders, including the country’s founder Mao
Zedong, have carried out so past policies fall in line with their own
principles, he added.
The key conclave will run from Monday to Thursday in Beijing, and will be
the first since February 2018.
Many of the country’s most significant policies have been announced after
plenum meetings, with the last one focused on a reform plan for state
institutions, giving even more power to the Party.
The one before that approved the scrapping of presidential term limits,
allowing Xi to stay in office for life.
-‘Transformation’-
The push to “modernise” China’s governance and Party- and state-run
institutions comes as Beijing battles international and domestic issues on
multiple fronts.
In semi-autonomous Hong Kong, the Chinese central government has been
shaken by months of anti-Beijing unrest by pro-democracy protests.
A slowing economy — exacerbated by a lingering trade war with the United
States — is also weighing on Chinese leaders, with the country’s GDP growth
hitting its slowest rate in nearly three decades in the third quarter.
Other domestic issues, such as environmental deterioration and economic
disparity between rural and urban areas, are also driving the need for
institutional “transformation”, wrote state-run China Daily on Monday.
This week’s long-awaited conclave will also end a significant delay between
sessions — the longest hiatus since 1977, according to CSIS experts — as
the CCP’s constitution mandates at least one plenum per year.
But analysts say it is unlikely the delay is due to opposition to Xi within
the Party.
The Chinese leader’s power was on full display just a few weeks ago during
a massive military parade commemorating 70 years of Communist Party rule,
pointed out Blanchette.
“Since the Third Plenum, Xi has convened two extraordinary meetings of all
the top Party, State and Military leaders,” wrote Bill Bishop, publisher of
the Sinocism China Newsletter, last week.
The ability to call such high-profile meetings reflects Xi’s power and
authority, he added.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1428 hrs