Exclusive | Riding out the storm: will China change course when its elite meet in Beijing?
- Once on the rise, China has gone from strength to struggle in the past year
- Those challenges that could mean a shift in policy at the annual gathering of the National People’s Congress
China’s annual gathering of its legislative and political advisory bodies – known as the “two sessions” – is one of the key events in the country’s political calendar and provides a rare opportunity for observers to get close to its movers and shakers. This year’s meetings come as China continues to fight a trade war with the United States and battle the headwinds of an economic slowdown. They also mark 12 months since President Xi Jinping amended the constitution to remove a presidential term limit and arrive as the nation prepares to celebrate 70 years of communist rule. In the second of a three-part series about the key issues surrounding this year’s “two sessions”, Jun Mai and Nectar Gan look at political challenges for China and Xi.
A decade ago, China looked to be a tower of strength. While the rest of the world panicked over the collapse of global financial markets, China basked in the afterglow of a successful summer Olympics in Beijing and 9 per cent economic growth.
China had arrived, it seemed. For the first time in its modern history, its return to the club of global great powers appeared within reach and inevitable.
The change of top leadership from a colourless Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping – whom many considered the most powerful leader in decades – seemed to have only hastened the unstoppable march. A wave of euphoria carried China forward for the next decade to hit its high-water mark last year.
A People’s Daily front-page commentary just over a year ago summed up the sentiment.
“The drawbacks of capitalism-led political and economic systems are emerging; the global governance system is experiencing profound changes and a new international order is taking shape,” the author wrote under the pen name “Xuan Yan”, meaning “declaration”.
“Internally, China has already switched from fast growth to quality growth … Globally, the chaos of the world is in great contrast with the prosperity of China. The world is looking east and the view of China has become an ideal.”
The article was titled “Grasp the historical opportunity with great potential”, echoing one of Xi’s comments a week earlier.