The Communist Party congress will highlight Xi Jinping’s power
No one in the new Politburo will be a threat to the party chief
No other regular political event in China involves the mobilisation of people and resources on the scale of a Communist Party congress. None other dominates the agenda of so many officials, for so long. Never mind that the country is being battered by pandemic-related lockdowns—red banners everywhere urge citizens to “joyously welcome” the gathering that will open on October 16th. As they do every five years when such events are held, the country’s eyes are turning to the capital, Beijing, for the party’s big reveal, the tightly choreographed culmination of months of secretive dealmaking.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Showtime”
From the October 15th 2022 edition
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