China vows reform at long delayed party conclave

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather is July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad.

Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm.

The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the last party congress in October 2022.

Further deepening reforms and promoting the modernization of China will comprise the main agenda of the third plenum, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing the party’s politburo, during a regular meeting.

Third plenums have been typically held in the autumn since the 1990s. The party was widely expected to hold one in either October or November last year, but it did not.

“The meeting had been expected to happen late last year, but was postponed without explanation,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics.

“We should get a better sense of the leadership’s medium-term reform priorities during the third plenum,” he said.

The plenum will open amid a subdued economy, with the massively indebted property sector, once accounting for a quarter of GDP, a major drag on household sentiment.

The economy still faces many challenges, with “effective demand” still lacking, the pressure on enterprises sizable, and risks and hazards in key areas numerous, Xinhua reported, citing the politburo meeting.

“Domestic circulation is also not smooth, and the complexity, severity and uncertainty of the external environment has obviously increased,” Xinhua reported, adding that China’s economic foundation remained stable.

China has not collapsed as predicted by the “China collapse theory,” nor will it peak as forecast by the “China peak theory,” Xi said last month.

“I have repeatedly emphasized that reform and opening up are crucial tools for contemporary China to catch up with the times. China’s reform will not pause, and its opening-up will not cease,” he said.

“We are planning and implementing a series of significant measures to comprehensively deepen reform,” he said.

Third plenums have typically focused on reforms after the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s. Some have left a long-lasting and historical impact on the economy. The third plenum in December 1978 under Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) initiated China’s economic reforms, igniting China’s transformation into a global economic powerhouse.