China’s Communist Party conclave opens to hand President Xi new term

The conclave, which ends next Tuesday, will select new top party members, including in the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s all-powerful ruling body.

China’s Communist Party opened a twice-a-decade congress on Wednesday expected to enhance President Xi Jinping’s already formidable powers over the world’s second-largest economy.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is applauded as he walks to the podium to deliver his speech at the opening ceremony of the 19th Party Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on October 18.(AP Photo)

Xi entered a packed chamber in Beijing’s imposing Great Hall of the People, along with his two predecessors Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, to roll out the party’s vision for the next five years as he prepares to secure a second term as general secretary.

Authorities stepped up policing for the week-long congress, with red armband-wearing “security volunteers” fanning out across the capital, karaoke bars closing and online kitchenware firms even suspending knife sales.

The 64-year-old leader, who was to give his speech in front of a huge hammer and sickle in the hall’s chamber, is expected to use the congress to stack the Communist Party’s leadership with loyalists.

The CCP will amend its constitution to add Xi’s “new vision and thinking” on governance, congress spokesman Tuo Zhen said, without indicating whether Xi’s name would also be added.

The addition would signal Xi’s inclusion in the pantheon of Chinese leadership. Such an honour has only been bestowed upon modern China’s founder, Mao Zedong, and the father of economic reforms, Deng Xiaoping.

Xi, considered China’s most powerful leader since Deng or even Mao, could use the congress to lay the foundation to stay atop the 89-million-strong party even longer than the normal 10 years, according to analysts.

This would break the unwritten two-term limit accepted by his immediate predecessors Jiang and Hu, and end the era of “collective leadership” aimed at preventing the emergence of another Mao.

“Xi has consolidated power, that’s obvious,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, China specialist at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Potential rivals have been swept aside under Xi’s vast anti-corruption campaign, which punished 1.3 million Communist Party officials over five years, and Tuo warned that strengthening self-governance would be a “never-ending journey”.

Xi’s rise has also been marked by a relentless crackdown on dissent, with authorities even refusing to free Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo as he lay dying of cancer in July.

On the global stage, he has restructured the military, asserted China’s claims to disputed seas and used the country’s economic prowess to increase its influence in Asia and beyond.

He has taken up the mantle of globalisation in the face of US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy.

But foreign companies will look for signs at the congress that Xi will live up to his promises to further open up China’s economy in the next five years.

Legitimacy at risk

The conclave, which ends next Tuesday, will select new top party members, including in the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s all-powerful ruling body.

Xi and Premier Li Keqiang are expected to remain on the committee while the five other current members are supposed to step down under an informal retirement age set at 68.

But Xi may lobby to retain his 69-year-old right-hand man Wang Qishan, who heads the leader’s signature anti-graft campaign. This would create a precedent for Xi himself to remain in charge beyond retirement age in 2022.

“If Xi expresses intent to lead beyond his 10-year limit, this would be reminiscent of the Mao era, which would be damaging to Xi’s legacy and call his legitimacy into question,” said Simone van Nieuwenhuizen, a Sydney-based researcher and co-author of “China and the New Maoists”.

But a Xi heir apparent could emerge from the congress.

One former potential successor who was outside Xi’s circle, Sun Zhengcai, was ousted from the party last month due to graft allegations.

Chen Miner, a former Xi aide who succeeded Sun as political chief in the city of Chongqing, is now well positioned for promotion.

“The question is what is Xi going to do after he secures absolute power after the 19th party congress,” said Hu Xingdou, a Chinese governance expert at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

“If he can lead China’s modernisation, establish a modern state system, avoid the cycle of peace and upheaval of China’s 2,000-year history, then we can say his influence may be bigger than Mao’s.”

lth/dly/sls