China’s Communist Party won’t hold its third plenum until December. Is the Xi-Biden summit the key reason?
- The party usually holds its third plenums in October or November but this time later in the year is looking more likely
- Organisers may be taking more time to resolve various outstanding issues, observers say
The party meeting is meant to set out a basic path of economic reforms for years to come and has not been held this late in the year since 1978, when, in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, leaders ushered in long-needed economic reforms and paved the way for China to become the world’s second-biggest economy.
Signs that the plenum could be later than usual became clear from late October, when the Politburo, the party’s 24-man decision-making body, did not announce a date for the plenum at its monthly meeting.
The earliest window of announcing the date is the next Politburo meeting at the end of November, pushing the third plenum to December at the earliest.
Other than 2018 – when an extra session for a constitutional amendment disrupted following sessions – third plenums in recent decades have generally been held in October or early November, according to a tally by the South China Morning Post.