China’s annual congress ends with show of unity behind Xi
China’s national legislature has wrapped up its annual session with the usual show of near-unanimous support for ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s vision for the nation.
The week-long event, replete with meetings carefully scripted to allow no surprises, highlighted how China’s politics have become ever more calibrated to elevate Mr Xi.
Yesterday’s agenda lacked the usual closing news conference by premier Li Qiang, the party's second in command. The news conference has been held most years since 1988 and was the one time when journalists could directly question a senior Chinese leader.
The decision to scrap it emphasises Mr Li’s relatively weak status. His predecessors played a much larger role in leading key economic policies such as modernising state companies and leading housing reforms that transformed China into a nation of homeowners.
The nearly 3,000-member National People’s Congress approved a revised State Council law that directs China’s version of the cabinet to follow Mr Xi’s vision. The vote was 2,883 to eight, with nine abstentions.
Other measures were passed by similarly wide margins. The most nays were recorded for the annual report of the supreme court, which was approved by 2,834 to 44.
In brief closing remarks, Zhao Leji, the legislature's top official, urged the people to unite more closely under the Communist Party’s leadership “with comrade Xi Jinping at its core”.
The party leaders who run the State Council used to have a much freer hand in setting economic policy, said Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
“Xi has been astonishingly successful in consolidating his personal hold over the party, which has allowed him to become the key decisionmaker in all policy domains,” he said.
As the party champions innovation and self-reliance in technology to build a modern, wealthy economy, it is leaning heavily on more overtly communist ideology that harkens to past eras. Mr Xi has fortified the party’s role across the spectrum, from culture and education to corporate management and economic planning.
“Greater centralisation of power has arguably helped Xi to improve central government effectiveness,” Mr Thomassaid,“butthebenefitsmaybe outweighed by the costs of stifling political discussion, disincentivising local innovation and more sudden policy shifts.”
Developing "new quality productive forces” – a term coined by Mr Xi last September – emerged as a catchphrase at this year’s congress.
The term suggests a prioritising of science and technology as China confronts trade sanctions and curbs on access to advanced computer chips and other areas that the US and other countries deem to be national security risks.
On the diplomatic front, Wang Yi remains as foreign minister. He had stepped back into the post last summer after his successor, Qin Gang, was abruptly dismissed without explanation after half a year in the job.
Xi has been astonishingly successful in consolidating his personal hold over the party Neil Thomas