Xi Jinping expected to also mention OBOR in his party congress address?

A 3D street painting of the emblem of Chinese Communist party to celebrate the upcoming congress. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
China's Communist party congress – all you need to know
Senior party officials will meet in Beijing on 18 October for a twice-a-decade political conclave that experts believe will shore up Xi Jinping’s position
Tom Phillips in Beijing and Benjamin Haas in Hong Kong
Friday 13 October 2017 13.09 BSTFirst published on Thursday 12 October 2017 05.22 BST
China’s top officials will gather in Beijing on 18 October for the 19th national congress of the Communist Party of China, a twice-a-decade political meeting that is likely to see president Xi Jinping further bolster his position as one of the most powerful leaders in modern Chinese history … for more go to https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/12/chinas-communist-party-congress-all-you-need-to-know#img-1 
Xi Jinping expected to also mention OBOR in his party congress address?

KUALA LUMPUR (October 2017): China's Communist Party is scheduled to hold its 19th Party Congress on Wednesday Oct 18, 2017, and is expected to be keenly monitored by soverign governments globally.

President Xi Jin Ping is not only going to outline his and party’s leadership direction and consolidation, he is also expected to brief his party comrades on China’s march towards globalisation, both economically and militarily.

Will Xi mention in his address China's ambitious multi-billion-dollar One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative to promote trans-border cultural and economic ties that is also aimed at expanding China's economy?

Here’s a compilation of four news reports in the run-up to the Communist congress for the reading convenience of I Love Malaysia-China Silk Road readers and followers:

"China's Communist Party makes final preparations for key congress

WORLD
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017
11:30 AM MYT


BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party opened a meeting on Wednesday to make final preparations for a key party congress later this month, state media said, a five-yearly event where President Xi Jinping is expected to further tighten his grip on power.

The seventh plenary session of the party's Central Committee will review draft reports on the work of the party, its discipline and anti-corruption commission, and amendments to be made to the party's constitution, all of which will be delivered at the 19th Party Congress that opens on Oct. 18, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The congress will "summarise historical progress and precious experiences" in advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics gained with Xi at the party's core, Xinhua said.

"The congress will also thoroughly examine the current international and domestic situation and draw out guidelines and policies that respond to the call of the times," the news agency said, without giving specifics.

It is unclear how long the plenum will last, but it could be just a single day. It will end with a long communique, issued by Xinhua, that is usually full of party phraseology but could be short on specifics.

Last October, the party gave Xi the title of "core" leader, a significant strengthening of his position ahead of the congress, at which a new Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China, will be constituted.

The party's constitution will be amended at the end of the congress, likely to include a reference to Xi's thinking or ideology as a guiding party principle.

Mao Zedong and the reformist former leader Deng Xiaoping already have their names enshrined in the document, although Xi's two immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, do not.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Paul Tait)

China's Xi kicks off congress with formal election in ally's province

WORLD
Thursday, 20 Apr 2017
8:16 PM MYT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping was formally elected on Thursday as a delegate to an important Communist Party congress this year, when he will seek to consolidate power, as a representative of a province run by an ally and a candidate for promotion.

The once-every-five-years congress will see Xi further cement his hold on power by appointing allies into the party's ruling inner core, the 25-member Politburo and the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.

A party meeting in the poor southwestern province of Guizhou elected Xi unanimously as one of their delegates to the congress, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The dates of the congress have not been announced.

Though Xinhua did not explain why Xi would be representing Guizhou - in China's largely rubber stamp parliament he represents the commercial hub of Shanghai - the province's top official, Chen Miner, is a trusted confidant of Xi.

Chen has at times ridden on the coat-tails of his former boss since they worked together in Zhejiang province, where Xi was provincial party leader.

Sources with leadership ties have told Reuters that Chen could jump straight into the Standing Committee during the congress, in what would be a show of just how strong Xi is, rather than him having to appoint leaders from competing power bases.

In national politics, Chen is only a member of the 205-member Central Committee, and an elevation to the Standing Committee, which has ultimate power over the world's second-largest economy, would involve a two-step promotion, missing out the Politburo.

Xinhua made no mention of Chen though he was almost certainly one of the delegates who chose Xi, but said Xi's election was accompanied by long, enthusiastic applause.

For decades, Guizhou was one of China's most backward provinces, but in recent years the central government has poured in billions of yuan, with a focus on poverty alleviation and big data.

Xi's election to represent Guizhou was a great honour for the province and big impetus for its fight against poverty, Xinhua reported.

"When I heard the news that the general secretary had been unanimously elected, I was extremely excited. This is yearned for by the public and commands their support," one of Xi's electors, Liu Fang, told Xinhua.

Provincial party branches are now choosing a total of 2,300 delegates to the congress, a process that will be completed by June, Xinhua added.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Factbox - History of China's Communist Party Congress

WORLD
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017
11:40 AM MYT

Shrouded in secrecy, the five-yearly gatherings have marked key events in the party's tumultuous 68-year reign over China and remain a source of intrigue today.

Here are some congresses that have shaped modern China:

- The party held its first Congress in 1921 at secret meetings in and around Shanghai. The conclave formally established the aims and charter of the fledgling Communist Party, which included a young Mao Zedong.

- In 1969, the ninth Congress met at the peak of the Cultural Revolution, a decade of chaos and near-civil war unleashed by Mao in 1966 to shore up his power base. Mao named army Marshal Lin Biao as his successor and more than 80 percent of the party's Central Committee were fired. Two years later, Lin died in a mysterious plane crash in Mongolia after being suspected of plotting Mao's assassination.

- At the 12th Congress in 1982, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping proposed "socialism with Chinese characteristics", hastening China's economic reform path away from stodgy centralised planning to freewheeling capitalism.

- At the 16th Congress in 2002, the party formally allowed private entrepreneurs to become party members, capitalism having previously been officially frowned upon despite the market reforms begun in the late 1970s.

- Despite not being members of the wider 25-person Politburo at the time, Xi and Li Keqiang were promoted straight into the then nine-man elite Politburo Standing Committee at the 17th Congress in 2007, marking them out as rising political stars among the so-called fifth generation of leaders.

- Xi's two immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, had their theories inserted into the party constitution at the congresses of 2007 and 2002, respectively, but without having their names directly mentioned, unlike Mao and Deng.

Sources: Chinese state media, Reuters

(Writing by Ben Blanchard and Philip Wen)

Factbox - Understanding China's 19th Communist Party Congress

WORLD
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2017
11:39 AM MYT

(Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party opens its 19th Congress on Oct. 18, with President Xi Jinping expected to further tighten his grip on power.

Here is how the Congress works and some pointers on what is at stake.

AGENDA

- The five-yearly Congress elects about 370 full and alternate members of the party's elite Central Committee in a session lasting about one week, drawing from a pre-selected pool of candidates expected to be only slightly larger than 370.

- The new Politburo Standing Committee, the party's top echelon of power, which currently has seven members, will then be unveiled after the one-day Central Committee plenum ends.

- A series of other appointments will also be made over the congress period. These include provincial party chiefs and governors and heads of some state-owned enterprises.

- Xi will keep his position as general secretary of the party, but there is much uncertainty about who else will get onto the Standing Committee, including whether Wang Qishan, who has overseen Xi's crackdown on corruption, will be allowed to remain in some role despite reaching retirement age.

POLICIES

- Xi will give a keynote report to the opening session of the Congress, appraising the party's work over the past five years and mapping out challenges for the coming five years. Details of the speech remain a closely guarded secret ahead of time.

- The Congress is more about ideology than concrete policies, and one area of focus will be to see how the fight against corruption may change in the next five-year term.

- The party's constitution will be amended at the end of the Congress, likely to include a reference to Xi's thinking or ideology as a guiding party principle, joining Mao Zedong and the reformist former leader Deng Xiaoping, whose names are already enshrined in the document.

VENUES AND DURATION

- State media have not said how long the Congress will last, but the 18th Congress in 2012 went on for about a week.

- The delegates will convene at Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People for full sessions, but most group meetings - where delegates will discuss Xi's report and the list of candidates - will take place behind closed doors at the Jingxi Hotel in western Beijing.

DELEGATES

- The party was founded at the first congress in Shanghai in 1921 when 13 delegates, including a young Mao Zedong, represented the fewer-than 60 Marxist activists nationwide. The party swept to power in the 1949 revolution after a bloody civil war.

- The 19th Congress is a gathering of China's most powerful people: incumbent state leaders, cabinet ministers, top military generals, provincial party chiefs and governors, mayors of major cities as well as managers of large state-controlled enterprises and banks.

- A total of 2,287 delegates were selected to attend this year's Congress, from all walks of life and including representatives from every ethnic minority. The average age of the delegates is just under 52 and a quarter of the delegates are women. The party has more than 89 million members.

- The party says the delegates were chosen for their high moral and political standing, ability to get things done and achievements in their areas of work. A third come from the grassroots, being workers or farmers.

- Celebrity delegates include the astronaut Jing Haipeng and Zhao Yunlei, a women's badminton Olympic gold medallist. The oldest delegate is the 102-year-old Jiao Ruoyu, who joined the party in 1936.

Sources: Chinese state media, Reuters.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard)”
FILE PHOTO: Chinese President Xi Jinping at the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit in Shanghai May 21, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
12 Oct 2017 05:45PM聽(Updated:聽12 Oct 2017 08:43PM)
Asia Pacific
Xi propaganda kicks into overdrive ahead of China Communist Party congress
BEIJING: Inside the packed exhibition hall in central Beijing is a showcase of China's recent achievements: the country's first operational aircraft carrier; a gleaming fleet of high-speed trains; happy villagers lifted from poverty. While the display officially celebrates the accomplishments of the Chinese people over the past five years, it is made clear that President Xi Jinping is the man to thank. To enter the exhibition, staged by the Communist Party's propaganda department, visitors pass through a circular antechamber with red walls emblazoned with slogans inspired by Xi's concepts on governance. Hundreds of images of Xi adorn the walls in each of the exhibition's ten halls: in combat fatigues surveying the troops, holding court with foreign dignitaries, even showing his softer side by petting a baby elephant. By contrast, photographs of other party leaders are much smaller and displayed in less prominent spots. Even a dinner receipt for 160 yuan (US$24.25) bearing Xi's name is on display, reflecting his frugality … for more, go to http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/xi-propaganda-kicks-into-overdrive-ahead-of-china-communist-party-congress-9304734 

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