If this was a “normal” party congress, President Xi Jinping’s speech would have been his swan song.
But this is not a normal party congress. Instead, the speech felt more like a consolidation, a sort of consecration, of Xi’s vision, Xi’s path and Xi’s China.
The party congress is the most important political event here and this one is arguably the most important in decades. It takes place once every five years and its main purpose is to select those who will lead the country for the coming term.
The first day always opens with an “activity report” submitted by the current president, taking stock of the previous five years and setting the priorities for the next.
According to decades of precedent, now should be the time for Xi to step down, having completed two terms and been in power for 10 years.
But it is almost certain that this will not happen. He managed to remove the two-term limit from the constitution in 2018, meaning he could now, in theory, be leader for life.
That’s why, although today was, in theory, more about politics than personnel, all eyes were on the man giving the speech.
And it was a speech that reiterated its central goals and ideas a lot. More important perhaps is his promise of “national rejuvenation” for China – a highly nationalistic vision where China makes no apologies for its place in the world and the control exercised over its people.
The message was clear: to have a strong China, you need a strong communist party, indeed under Xi it is a party that has penetrated much further and deeper into the lives of ordinary people than it has. for decades.
Many Chinese will have listened carefully to what he had to say about the prosecution zero COVID policy.
Anyone hoping to learn of the relaxation will have been disappointed.
“We have adhered to the supremacy of people and the supremacy of life,” Xi said. “We are committed to putting people and life first, and to embracing zero-COVID momentum.”
But in the context of the current ubiquity of zero COVID regulations in people’s lives, and in a nearly two-hour speech, that was a relatively brief mention. We didn’t dwell on it and we didn’t come back to it, perhaps an awareness of people’s frustration.
The loudest applause from the more than 2,000 delegates came when he was talking about the “reunification” of Taiwanthe self-governing island that China considers its own.
He reiterated a long-standing policy that China wants peaceful reunification but “will never promise to renounce the use of force” and will “reserve the possibility of taking any necessary measures.”
Harsh language yes, but not necessarily harsher than what we’ve heard before, and certainly no commitment to any invasion timeline. A war against Taiwan would be very expensive for China, and it no doubt wants to keep its options open.
The economy was also a big topic with a lot of focus on the “common prosperity” project which aims to tackle inequality, and the so-called “eradication” of extreme poverty in China.
But there was little mention of some of the most extreme challenges currently facing the economy; a housing sector crisis and zero-COVID takeover.
All in all, it was a very confident speech from a very confident leader. Remember, when Xi came to power 10 years ago, there were rumblings of discontent in China, over issues such as corruption and inequality.
In many ways, it delivered much of what it promised; China is richer and stronger than it used to be, and corruption has largely been brought under control.
But it is also a much more closed, more controlled and more paranoid place.
Over the past decade, Xi has dramatically increased his power and that of the state, stepped up surveillance and censorship, and relied on foreign ideas and investment.
He brutally purged his rivals and cracked down on the media, private companies and civil society.
The change he promised continued not through reform but through control. And as long as it’s here to stay, so is this path for China.
