Every five years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meets in conclave, a major political event which must renew the leadership team of the country of 1.4 billion inhabitants.
In power since 2012, Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, who is also army chief and President of China, is on the eve of a third five-year term at the head of the organization and therefore of the country.
On Saturday, the CCP confirmed the duration of the event. “The 20th Congress of the Communist Party will open on Sunday […] and will take place from October 16 to 22,” spokesman Sun Yeli told a press conference.
In previous editions, the CPC General Secretary and his new team – the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee – were introduced the day after the congress closed.
– River speech and behind closed doors –
Saturday’s introductory press conference took place in front of two giant screens. To cover the Congress, journalists have indeed been required since Friday to confine themselves to a “health bubble”, as part of strict measures linked to the “zero Covid” policy.
Away in a hotel in western Beijing, accredited journalists are subjected to a battery of screening tests.
During this two-hour videoconference, the spokesperson for the congress answered questions from the Chinese and foreign press during a well-oiled staging. No questions were asked about Xi Jinping.
“The epidemic is still there, it is a reality that must be faced,” said Sun Yeli, when asked about the future of the zero Covid policy whose negative effects on the economy are increasingly evident. .
“Everyone cares a lot about China’s economic development,” he said.
“The growth rate is an important indicator but it is not the only one,” he said, as China is due to unveil its gross domestic product (GDP) figures for the third quarter on Tuesday, disturbed by draconian confinements.
From Sunday, some 2,300 delegates chosen by the various Party assemblies will meet behind closed doors, after a ceremony in Beijing at the People’s Palace which dominates Tiananmen Square.
Xi Jinping, 69, will take stock of the past five years and deliver his roadmap for the next five in a speech broadcast on television.
The previous speech in 2017 lasted more than three hours.
