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China’s Xi Jinping gave a speech that lasted nearly two hours at a Communist Party congress on Sunday, kicking off a conclave that is widely expected to extend his rule into a second decade.
More than 2,300 hand-picked delegates from around the country have converged on Beijing for the week-long event, which happens once every five years. It will set the tone for policy in the coming years and reshuffle the country’s top officials.
In the Great Hall of the People, on Tiananmen Square, Xi trumpeted the party’s achievements since he came to power a decade ago, and outlined principles for party rule and policies in the years to come.
Below are four key takeaways from his speech:
Covid
Since the early days of the pandemic, China’s Covid control policies have meant tight borders, mandatory mass testing, invasive digital surveillance, forced quarantines and snap lockdowns – often of entire cities.
On Sunday, Xi told the 20th Party Congress that China’s approach « put people and lives above all else ». He offered no signals that China’s tough Covid rules would end any time soon.
« In launching an all-out people’s war to stop the spread of the virus, we have protected the people’s health and safety to the greatest extent possible and made tremendously encouraging achievements in both epidemic response and economic and social development, » he said.
This is hardly a surprise. Case numbers and deaths in China have been kept in check. And Xi has staked his reputation on the « dynamic zero Covid » policy by backing it firmly, time and again.
After nearly three years of the policy, though, frustration and weariness are growing in China. Just three days before the congress started, protest banners were hung on a Beijing overpass denouncing the Covid policies and calling for Xi’s ouster in a rare display of civil disobedience.
Economics
Xi urged for economic improvement in China, though it will be an uphill battle. China started the year aiming for economic growth of « around 5.
