China's Xi talks up security, reiterates Covid stance as congress opens

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for accelerating the building of a world-class military while touting the fight against Covid-19 as he kicked off a Communist Party Congress, by focusing heavily on security and reiterating policy priorities.

Xi, 69, is widely expected to win a third leadership term at the conclusion of the week-long congress that began on Sunday morning, cementing his place as China's most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.

Roughly 2,300 delegates from around the country gathered in the vast Great Hall of the People on the west side of Tiananmen Square amid tight security and under blue skies, after several smoggy days in the Chinese capital.

Xi described the five years since the last party congress as "extremely uncommon and abnormal", during a speech that lasted less than two hours – far shorter than his nearly three-and-a-half-hour address at the 2017 congress. However, he did not read out the entire work report, as he did five years ago.

"We must strengthen our sense of hardship, adhere to the bottom-line thinking, be prepared for danger in times of peace, prepare for a rainy day, and be ready to withstand major tests of high winds and high waves," he said.

Xi called for strengthening the ability to maintain national security, ensuring food and energy supplies, securing supply chains, improving the ability to deal with disasters and protecting personal information.

Analysts generally do not expect significant change in policy direction in a third Xi term.

Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that Xi is attempting to shift the basis of legitimacy from economic growth to security.

Continuity

In recent days, China has repeatedly emphasised its commitment to Xi's zero-Covid strategy, dashing hopes among countless Chinese citizens as well as investors that Beijing might begin exiting anytime soon.

Xi said little about Covid other than to reiterate the validity of a policy that has made China a global outlier as much of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus, which emerged in central China in late 2019.

"We have adhered to the supremacy of the people and the supremacy of life, adhered to dynamic zero-Covid ... and achieved major positive results in the overall prevention and control of the epidemic, and economic and social development," Xi said.

On the economy, he restated support for the private sector and allowing markets to play a key role, even as China fine-tunes a "socialist economic system" and promotes "common prosperity".

"We must build a high-level socialist market economic system ... unswervingly consolidate and develop the public ownership system, unswervingly encourage and support the development of the private economy, give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, and give better play to the role of the government," he said.

Party power

Xi's power appears undiminished by the tumult of a year that has seen China's economy slow dramatically, dragged down by the Covid policy's frequent lockdowns, a crisis in the property sector and the impact of his 2021 crackdown on the once-freewheeling "platform economy", as well as global headwinds.

China's relations with the West have deteriorated sharply, accelerated by Xi's support of Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Xi did away with presidential term limits in 2018, clearing the way for him to break with the precedent of recent decades and rule for a third five-year term, or longer.

"I support the re-election of Xi Jinping to a third term with both hands," Li Yinjiang, a delegate from Jiangsu province, told Reuters. "He can make our country strong and our people happy."

The congress is expected to reconfirm Xi as party general secretary, China's most powerful post, as well as chairman of the Central Military Commission. Xi's presidency is up for renewal in March at the annual session of China's parliament.

In the run-up to the congress, the Chinese capital stepped up security and Covid curbs, while steel mills in the nearby Hebei province were instructed to cut back on operations to improve air quality, an industry source said.

The day after the congress ends on Saturday, Xi is expected to introduce his new Politburo Standing Committee, a seven-person leadership team. It will include the person who will replace Li Keqiang as premier when Li steps down from that post in March after serving the maximum two terms.

ALSO READ:

• China steps up anti-Covid measures in megacities as infections increase

• China leader Xi expected to be given third term on October 23

• Asia