CHINA Xi Jinping presents his ‘strategy’ for the next five years

It would be a sign that a third term in power has been secured. Call attention to the country’s economic imbalances. Possible return to a more centralized economy. A deal with Li Keqiang’s pro-market wing is not yet out of the question. According to the well-known activist Wei Jingsheng, with or without Xi, the Communist Party will fragment.

Beijing () – Xi Jinping presented his political “strategy” for the next five years, necessary to build a “modern socialist country”. According to several observers, this is one more confirmation that the Chinese president is sure to stay in power for a third term, which would be unprecedented after the era of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

As the official Xinhua daily reports, Xi outlined his five-year plan during a symposium held in the capital on July 26-27. The high-level meeting can be seen as a prologue to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China to be held in the fall. All members of the Politburo Standing Committee attended, including Premier Li Keqiang and Vice President Wang Qishan.

In his speech addressed to the senior officials of the central and provincial administrations, the Chinese leader said that the authorities must face the problem of “insufficient and unbalanced” development of the country. Analysts say the Marxist-flavoured claim could signal Xi’s willingness to return to a more centralized economy at the expense of the market openings of the last 40 years.

Without naming them, Xi seems to re-propose his famous slogans such as “common prosperity”, “double internal and external circulation” or economic “self-sufficiency”. For critics, it is precisely these orientations of the president that have led to the economic failures of the country in the last year.

In his opening speech at the study session, Li said officials and leaders should study Xi’s thinking and follow his guiding principles. It seems one more sign that the Chinese president has a free hand to remain in power. However, the prime minister’s words do not exclude the possibility that he has reached an agreement with Xi on the future balance of power within the Party and the Government, with an important role recognized for the Communist Youth faction he heads. precisely Li.

It should be remembered that in recent months Xi has had to give Li more space to reorient the economy, hard hit by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but above all by the president’s centralist policies.

In a reflection on Radio Free Asia, China’s “father of democracy” Wei Jingsheng, now in exile in the United States, argues that Xi’s new confirmation cannot yet be taken for granted. The fact that the regime’s media devotes little space to the issue, says Wei, suggests that there is an internal struggle within the Party.

Wei believes that whether or not Xi retains power, infighting will tear the Party apart, spelling its end.