Country file of Communist China as pivotal Party Congress approaches

Record ID: 1692744

  • Title: Country file of Communist China as pivotal Party Congress approaches
  • Date: 10th October 2022
  • Summary: China's parliament overwhelmingly approved imposing national security legislation on Hong Kong to punish what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism, and colluding with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Critics of the legislation, including some Western governments and rights groups, say it has been used to crush dissent. Its supporters say it was vital to plug national security "loopholes" exposed by the 2019 protests. BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - MAY 28, 2020) (REUTERS) PARLIAMENT IN SESSION TO VOTE ON HONG KONG NATIONAL SECURITY LEGISLATION A World Health Organization-led team of experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited Huanan market, the now-shuttered wholesale seafood center where the new coronavirus was initially detected. The team also paid visits to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the centre of a number of theories that claimed a laboratory leak caused the city's first coronavirus outbreak at the end of 2019. WUHAN, CHINA (FILE - JANUARY 31, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) TEAM AT ENTRANCE OF HUANAN MARKET TAKING A LOOK AROUND AND TAKING PICTURES SECURITY STANDING GUARD WHO TEAM HEADING BACK INSIDE MARKET / DOOR TO MARKET CLOSING WUHAN, CHINA (FILE - FEBRUARY 3, 2021) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE TO WUHAN INSTITUTE OF VIROLOGY CARS CARRYING WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) EXPERTS LEAVING WUHAN INSTITUTE OF VIROLOGY / REPORTER ASKING (English): "DID YOU FIND ANYTHING? DID YOU FIND ANYTHING INSIDE?" China launched a spacecraft carrying three astronauts to part of a space station still under construction for the longest stay in low Earth orbit by any Chinese national. The space station, when completed by the year-end, will lay a significant milestone in China's three-decades long manned space programme. It will also flag the start of permanent Chinese habitation in space. JIUQUAN, INNER MONGOLIA, CHINA (FILE - JUNE 17, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CHINESE ASTRONAUTS NIE HAISHENG, LIU BOMING AND TANG HONGBO AT CEREMONY BEFORE BOARDING SHENZHOU-2 SPACESHIP SHENZHOU-2 SPACESHIP LAUNCHING SHENZHOU- SPACESHIP IN THE AIR
  • 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: LVA00S008701011970RP1
  • 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)
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