What’s new: The Communist Party of China’s (CPC) 20th Central Committee will hold a key policy meeting where the country’s leaders will set out reform agenda from July 15 to 18 in Beijing, state media reported.
The third plenary session’s dates were announced during a Thursday meeting of the Central Committee’s Politburo, China’s top decision-making body, chaired by President Xi Jinping, according to state-owned Xinhua News Agency.
The plenum will “primarily examine issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization,” the Xinhua report said.
The Politburo said during its Thursday meeting that the main goal of deepening reform is to continue to improve the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and modernize the country’s governance system and capacity, as China aims to establish a high-level socialist market economy and “basically achieve socialist modernization” by 2035.
The background: The CPC Central Committee plenary sessions are important events in China’s political calendar, as the some 200-member committee usually holds seven sessions during its five-year term, with each session having a particular focus.
The first plenum is usually responsible for electing the party’s new leadership, the second discusses personnel issues for state agencies, while the third and fourth make major decisions on economic reform and national policies. The fifth session puts forward suggestions for the next five-year plan. The sixth and seventh usually focus on party building and preparation for the next CPC National Congress.
The 20th CPC Central Committee was elected in October 2022.
Han Wei contributed to the story.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
