President Xi Jinping will preside over the final meeting of China’s top leaders, days before the opening of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress that’s set to hand him a landmark third term in power.
The closed-door gathering of the roughly 370 members and alternate members of the Central Committee was scheduled to begin Sunday in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The conclave will review the speech Xi will deliver at the start of the congress on Oct. 16, the most authoritative policy statement in the world’s second-largest economy every five years. A draft amendment to the party constitution, which could see Xi’s doctrine further elevated, will also be discussed, along with a report by the party’s top anti-corruption body, according to state media.
Like most things in elite Chinese politics, the meeting will take place behind closed doors, likely concluding with a communique announcing that Xi’s speech and the constitutional amendments have been submitted to the party congress.
The seventh plenum — as this gathering in China’s five-year political cycle is called — will likely bring Xi another step closer to shattering leadership norms by staying in power beyond the party’s de facto retirement age of 68 and two-term standard.
China’s closest thing to a national election, the congress will see the ruling party install a new 25-member Politburo, from which the all-powerful, seven-seat Standing Committee will be selected. The week-long event also provides a forum to vote on policies and revise the party’s charter, although in reality most of those decisions have been made in advance.
