Country file of Communist China as pivotal Party Congress approaches

Record ID: 1692734

  • Title: Country file of Communist China as pivotal Party Congress approaches
  • Date: 10th October 2022
  • Summary: At the end of 2017, then U.S. President Donald Trump snagged over $250 billion in deals from his maiden trip to Beijing. However, months after the trip, the two countries began launching a series of tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's exports, as Trump's administration sought to tackle a range of issues from the large trade imbalance with China to forced technology transfers. BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - NOVEMBER 9, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF XI AND THEN U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP INSPECTING GUARD OF HONOUR China removed presidential term limits from its constitution at the third plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in 2018, giving Xi Jinping the right to remain in office indefinitely, and confirming his status as the country's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - MARCH 5, 2018) (REUTERS) XI WALKING IN FOR THE FIRST SESSION OF 3TH NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS DELEGATES CLAPPING XI ARRIVING AT SEAT, CHINA'S PREMIER LI KEQIANG WALKING TO HIS SEAT AFTER XI DELEGATES WALKING TO SEATS
  • Embargoed: 24th October 2022 01:39
  • Keywords: China history party congress xi jinping
  • Location: SEE SCRIPT BODY FOR LOCATIONS
  • City: SEE SCRIPT BODY FOR LOCATIONS
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA00P008701011970RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: China's ruling Communist Party opens its 20th congress on Oct. 16 in a session that is likely to end with President Xi Jinping anointed for an unprecedented third, five-year term as the supreme leader, and a shuffle of personnel on the decision-making Politburo.
    About 2,300 party members from across the country will gather, mostly behind closed doors, at the cavernous Great Hall of the People on Beijing's Tiananmen Square for a once-in-five-year congress that typically runs for about one week.
    Xi will unveil his new leadership team, and the congress will also see a sweeping reshuffle of the top echelons of China’s power structure, putting in place people who will set policies – economic, diplomatic, security and social - for the next five years and beyond.
    Xi, 69, has steadily consolidated power since becoming party general secretary a decade ago, eliminating any known factional opposition to his rule. He is expected to exert largely unchallenged control over key appointments and policy directives at a congress that many China-watchers liken to a coronation.
    Despite headwinds that have buffeted his path to a third term - from a moribund economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and rare public protests to rising frictions with the West and tensions over Taiwan - Xi is poised to secure a mandate to pursue his grand vision for the "rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" for years to come.
    Since assuming power, Xi, the son of a communist revolutionary, has strengthened the party and its role across society and eliminated space for dissent.
    Under Xi, China has also become far more assertive on the global stage as a leader of the developing world and an alternative to the U.S.-led, post-World War Two order.
    (Production: Aleksander Solum, Phyllis Xu)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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