Xi Jinping Lays Out Roadmap For Communist China’s Future During Historic Address
The 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China opened in Beijing on Wednesday. By the way, it has about 100 million members. For China, this is the most important event which takes place every 5 years. But, globally, it's important too, as, figuratively speaking, if China catches a cold, then the rest of humanity will cough.
Therefore, about 2,000 foreign journalists are covering the work of the Congress. Here's Anastasia Sakhovskaya with the story.
It may be the most modern thing about China's politics. Using rap, a video released by the state broadcaster explains what modernization is. In social networks, the video was viewed by hundreds of millions of users.
3.5 minutes sum up 3.5 hours. Xi Jinping delivered the longest speech in the country's history. Now the 32 thousand-character report is being translated all over the world. Entering "a new era of socialism," China sets goals for this century.
Xi Jinping: "In the first stage, from 2020 to 2035, we'll boost the middle class, and in the following 15 years we'll work hard to achieve modernization on the whole".
The largest army on the planet is to be modernized within the same period. Higher informatization, strategic potential, a stronger state security system, a one-China policy, but no threats to the outside world. China calls on everyone to abandon the Cold War mentality.
The middle class means that another 40 million people will be lifted out of poverty through state subsidies and innovations. Farming startups are growing, and farmers are selling goods through the Internet.
"The Hunan province that I come from is a poor region. I like what I've heard. The state will help us to get rich".
Eric Kipkorir Biegon: "Poverty is to be fought everywhere in the world, it's worth learning about".
The data released on Thursday says that the GDP grew by 6.8%. The economic recession, which is talked about so much, hasn't affected China very much.
Firstly, its echoes would be felt globally, even overseas. Secondly, it is still a third of the world's growth. 220 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants, 120 thousand kilometers of railways, including the fastest train in the world.
One of the locomotives of the world economy has only slowed down and changed direction — from pursuing profit margin to quality.
Xi Jinping: "It's necessary to focus on the improvement of the supply system, being open brings progress while being closed brings backwardness. China's open doors will not be closed. They can only open even wider to the world".
Trade and investment procedures, especially foreign ones, are to be simplified. New ties are already being established among various organizations.
In the hall with a painting of birches in the snow was a delegation of Heilongjiang Province, which is the closest to Russia. It is responsible for a third of all investment going into Russia. Almost 10 billion dollars are invested in the Far East alone.
Jia Yumei, vice governor of Heilongjiang: "Trade, transport are actively developing. The state is very supportive of our cooperation with Russia".
Journalists from 134 countries, the radio broadcast is in Chinese, English, and Russian, and the TV broadcast is also in Spanish, French, and Arabic. Xi Jinping emphasizes the role of the media in winning the citizens' trust in opposition to the abundance of unreliable information on the net. China intends to create a clean and controlled internet.
China's President is addressing 300 people in the presidium, almost 2,300 delegates in the hall. The main hall of the Great Hall of the People can host up to 10,000 people. Journalists are in the second and third tiers. It's the first time so many journalists, including foreigners, have been invited to the opening of the Congress.
People are waiting in line to get a copy of the report. Sidelines are fussy. The attention is focused on female delegates, who are now a quarter of all the delegates, and the representatives of small nations, who are one in ten.
"I'm from the Yunnan Province, the people of Yao, we're strongly supported by the party".
It's the so-called delegate corridor, where the delegates are being interviewed. You can get here only by a special invitation — one is issued for each media entity. Many people want to get here, as this is the first time that such an open press conference has been organized.
Vesti's Beijing office and RIA Novosti were the only Russian media agencies to get invitations to a press conference where they could ask questions from the heads of the largest Chinese companies.
Chang Juiming, a delegate: "We offer only our own way of management, it's just like how salads are prepared in the West. The ingredients and vegetables are the same, but the dressing is completely different. Our regime is confidence".
By the way, some local media reported that delegates are being treated to comfort foods, with fruit and boiled vegetables replacing former delicacies such as shellfish. Everything is inspired by the closeness to the people, a result of fighting privileged thinking and corruption. 2.5 million cases were filed against officials of all ranks, from flies to tigers — the highest party members from the Central Committee.
The ascetic strictness and businesslike atmosphere is stressed by the head of the TASS Chinese office. It's the 5th congress attended by him.
Andrei Kirillov: "This is a reflection of a general policy to combat extravagance and excess. In recent years, 240 top officials have been sentenced to prison for their abuses. The transparency, the revelations of the extent of the bribery problem. This appears to be a new element of China's Communist Party".
The recent high profile cases include the arrest of Sun Zhengcai, the Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing, who was expected to have a chair in the new Politburo Standing Committee. The seven most influential party members are elected by closed voting.
General Secretary Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will retain their posts, and five members of the committee may change. All the more so since they increased the pension age threshold to 68 years.
Posts among the newly appointed are usually distributed according to seniority, with the two youngest being considered future successors to the General Secretary and Premier.
The choice of candidates used to be influenced by former party leaders like Hu Jintao, who was sitting on the right hand of Xi Jinping at the opening. But will he follow the unspoken rules that have been observed over the previous quarter of a century?
The media is compiling the list of contenders. Hu Chunhua, the Communist Party Secretary of Guangdong province, Chen Min'er, the Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing, favored by Xi Jinping and expected to become premier in 5 years. Vice Premier Wang Yang and Li Zhanshu. In fact, all of them are Xi's close allies.
A lot of guesswork is involved in putting together this political puzzle — nobody knows whom China's president will choose. It will be revealed only on Wednesday, but journalists are preparing to watch closely who will sit in which chair at the first plenary of the party. And now it's the most interesting of all Chinese puzzles. Anastasia Sakhovskaya, Mikhail Artyukhin for Vesti News of the Week from Beijing, China.