- China is holding a once-every-five-years meeting starting this Wednesday
- President Xi Jinping, already China's most powerful leader in years, is expected to consolidate power even further
China will hold a once-every-five-years meeting this week that is expected to usher in a new era of leaders — but no change at the top of the totem pole.
Held in the Chinese capital city of Beijing, the meeting is closely watched for signs of policy shifts in the world's second-largest economy.
Even though the meeting is a major national event that is well-publicized — it has a dedicated website and has been trending topic for days on Chinese microblog Weibo — proceedings are shrouded in secrecy. For a start, the duration of the meeting this year is still unknown.
So what exactly is the Chinese Communist Party Congress?
In short, it's a meeting to vote on the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Held every five years, the event's duration is not officially reported, but the last Congress ran over eight days.
About 370 full and alternate members of the party's elite Central Committee will be elected at the Congress. Full members have voting rights and they all come from a pre-selected pool of candidates.
Just how important is it?
The Congress is more about ideology than policy, but it still charts the future direction for China and offers a glimpse into its opaque politics.
At the 17th Party Congress in 2007, Xi was appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, which signaled to the world that he was primed to take the top spot in the country's leadership.
Five years later, Xi took office as the general secretary of the Communist Party. He became president of China in 2013.
What is expected to happen this time?
Xi is expected to consolidate his power and remain at the helm. Described by observers as the most powerful Chinese official in decades, Xi last year was recognized as only the fourth person to earn the designation of "core" leader.
China watchers are looking for an amendment in the party constitution at the end of the congress that will incorporate Xi's ideological doctrine in the charter.
Some have even projected that the meeting will effectively appoint Xi as "emperor for life."
Reference:CNBC
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/
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