Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday opened the country’s 19th Communist Party congress with a three-hour speech to 2,000 delegates. He laid out the “Chinese dream”, an ambitious plan to make China a “great modern socialist country” in the next 30 years.
The speech, officially known as the party work report, is China’s most important policy document. The closed-door summit takes place once in five years. It decides who will rule China and comes up with a plan for the country for the next term.
At the last party congress in 2012, Xi became the Communist Party’s general secretary and China’s top leader
Through the week, the congress will discuss and approve Xi’s report and appoint a new Central Committee that will elect the party’s politburo and standing committee.
According to state media, the party is expected to rewrite its Constitution to include Xi’s “work report” or political thoughts, the BBC reported. This would elevate Xi, who already enjoys popularity among the citizens, to the status of previous party giants Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaopin.
On Wednesday, Xi covered politics, the economy, foreign policy, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He said it was the dawn of a “new era” of Chinese politics and power, and that they aimed to attain a “moderately prosperous society” by 2020, Bloomberg reported.
The president also warned against separatism, referring to movements in Xinjiang province, Tibet and Hong Kong. He said China “would not close its doors to the world” and promised to lower barriers for foreign investors, Xinhua reported.
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