(Beijing) President Xi Jinping defended his draconian policy to fight COVID-19 and his offensive against corruption by opening the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress on Sunday, which should give him a historic third term in office within a week. head of the country.
Updated at 0:12
Except for a dramatic change, this new coronation, which should take place on October 23 the day after the end of the congress, will make Mr. Xi the most powerful leader since the founder of the regime, Mao Tse-tung (1949-1976).
The 20e CPC congress comes “at a critical time when the whole Party and people of all ethnicities are on the road to building a modern socialist country”, Xi said in his opening speech to the approximately 2,300 delegates gathered in the huge People’s Palace on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Arrived at the podium to thunderous applause, Xi Jinping, 69, took stock of the past five years for more than an hour and a half and delivered his roadmap for the next five.
He blasted “external forces” meddling from Taiwan, an island the Chinese regime considers part of its territory.
“We will strive to pursue the prospect of peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the greatest efforts, but we will never commit ourselves to abandoning the use of force and we reserve the possibility of taking all necessary measures” , he threatened.
PHOTO MARK SCHIEFELBEIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 20th Communist Party of China Congress in Beijing on Saturday
He also felt that Hong Kong had gone “from chaos to governance” after Beijing’s severe takeover of the territory, where huge pro-democracy demonstrations had taken place in 2019.
Protect the “health of the people”
Above all, while one of the main questions revolved around whether or not to maintain the strict “zero COVID-19” strategy inseparable from the Chinese president – Mr. Xi claimed that China had, thanks to this policy, put human lives first. first of all.
China has “highly safeguarded people’s safety and health and achieved significant positive results by coordinating epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development”, he said.
This “zero COVID-19” policy has reinforced social control over citizens, whose all movements are now computerized, in this country already criticized on the international scene for human rights violations.
The near-closure of the country and repeated confinements have put a stop to growth, which this year should be the weakest in four decades, excluding the period of COVID-19.
If the official press hammered home this week that “folding down” in the face of the virus would be “irresponsible”, the economic cost of this strategy and the popular discontent it arouses are undeniable.
An anger that sometimes goes beyond social networks: this week and despite reinforced security measures in the capital, a man hung two banners hostile to the Chinese leader and zero COVID-19 on a bridge in Beijing. One called on citizens to go on strike and oust “the traitor dictator Xi Jinping”.
“Serious dangers”
In his speech, Xi Jinping also defended his fearsome anti-corruption campaign, responding to critics who accuse him of using it to bring down rivals and consolidate power.
“The fight against corruption has won a landslide victory and has been comprehensively consolidated, eliminating the serious latent dangers within the party, the state and the army,” he said.
According to official figures, at least 1.5 million people have been sanctioned during this campaign, which Mr. Xi launched as soon as he came to power in 2012 to bring down the “tigers” (top leaders) and the “flies” ( petty officials) eager for bribes. The offensive accelerated as the congress approached.
Finally, the Chinese president assured that his country, one of the biggest polluters on the planet, would “actively promote” the fight against global warming.
The 2,300 or so delegates of the CPC, who have come from all the provinces and some of them dressed in their traditional outfits, will appoint the new Central Committee by next Saturday, a kind of party parliament with some 200 members, including the political bureau and its 25 heads is the decision-making body.
In reality, they will only validate the decisions taken upstream by the various factions of the Party: this is moreover how Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, chosen as a man of compromise between the factions before imposing his control over the years.
A crucial point will be the composition of the future Standing Committee, this group of seven or nine personalities at the highest peak of power. But Mr. Xi is unlikely, analysts say, to give any indication of a possible successor.