China’s Congress ends with a show of unity behind Xi’s ‘vision for greatness’
The National People’s Congress approves, with a vote of 2883 to 8, a revised State Council law that directs China’s version of the Cabinet to follow President Xi’s vision; the weeklong event highlights how the country’s politics have become ever more cal
hina’s national legislature wrapped up its annual session on Monday with the usual show of nearunanimous support for plans designed to carry out ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s vision for the nation.
The weeklong event, replete with meetings carefully scripted to allow no surprises, has highlighted how China’s politics have become ever more calibrated to elevate Mr. Xi.
Monday’s agenda lacked the usual closing news conference by the Premier, the party’s secondincommand. The news conference has been held most years since 1988 and was the one time when presspersons could directly question a top Chinese leader.
The decision to scrap it emphasises Premier Li Qiang’s relatively weak status. His predecessors played a much larger role in leading key economic policies such as modernising state companies, coping with economic crises and leading housing reforms that transformed China into a nation of homeowners.
The nearly 3,000member National People’s Congress approved a revised State Council law that directs China’s version of the Cabinet to follow Mr. Xi’s
Cvision. The vote was 2,883 to eight, with nine abstentions. Other measures passed by similarly wide margins. The most nays were recorded for the annual report of the Supreme Court, which was approved by a 2,834 to 44 vote.
‘Unite more closely’
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, Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics fellow at the Asia
Society Policy said in an comment.
“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 selfreliance 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
Institute, emailed centralisation of power has arguably helped Xi to improve central government effectiveness,” Mr. Thomas said, “but the benefits may be outweighed by the costs of stifling political discussion, disincentivising local innovation and more sudden policy shifts.”
Along with following the guidance of ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ and other party directives, 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 knowhow in computer chips and other areas that the U.S. and other countries deem to be national security risks.
Wang Yi retained
On the diplomatic front, China kept Wang Yi as Foreign Minister. He had stepped back into the post last summer after his successor, Qin Gang, was abruptly dismissed without explanation after a halfyear on the job.
Analysts thought the Communist Party might use the annual Congress to appoint a new Foreign Minister and close the book on an unusual spate of political mishaps last year that also saw the firing of a new Defence Minister after a few months on the job.
The Organic Law of the State Council was revised for the first time since its adoption in 1982. The revision calls for the State Council to “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China.” It also adds the governor of China’s central bank to the body.
Echoing words seen in just about every proposal, law or speech made in China these days, it spells out that China’s highest governing officials must adhere to the party’s guiding ideology, which refers back to MarxismLeninism and Mao Zedong Thought and culminates in Mr. Xi’s philosophy on “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”
Alfred Wu, an expert on Chinese governance at the National University of Singapore, said the revision institutionalises previously made changes, making it harder to reverse them. He described the Congress as a “oneman show” that shows Mr. Xi’s determination to create a system in which the party leads on policy, diminishing the role of the State Council and the legislature.
‘Change everything’
“His determination is very clear,” Mr. Wu said. “He is willing to change everything.”
During this year’s Congress, many provincial meetings were opened to the media for the first time since the COVID19 pandemic, though they were carefully scripted with prepared remarks and none of the spontaneity once glimpsed in decades past.
The contrast with polarised politics in the U.S. and robust debate in other democracies could not be more stark: China’s political rituals, void of any overt dissent, put unity above all.
Marching orders endorsed by the Congress include calls to ensure national security and social stability at a time when job losses and underpayment of wages have sparked a growing number of protests.