Beijing: China’s ruling Communist Party on Thursday reaffirmed the “core” leadership of President Xi Jinping as the head of the party and the powerful military, while backing a major purge of top military officials and endorsing a new 5-year plan for a more resilient domestic market.
The announcement came after the Chinese Communist Party’s 370-member-strong key body, called the plenum, met from Monday to Thursday.
It called on the party and country to unite behind Xi as it ended its four-day meeting. The 72-year-old leader is in his unprecedented third term in power, becoming the only Chinese leader after party founder Mao Zedong to do so.
The meeting also endorsed a new 5-year plan to build a more resilient domestic market and achieve greater self-reliance to ward off the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariff war and resultant global trade tensions.
At the session, a call was issued to the party, the entire military, and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to rally more closely around the Party Central Committee with Xi at its core, according to an official communique.
“All of us in the Party must acquire a deep understanding of the decisive significance of establishing Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party
Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and of establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” it said.
The plenum took place ahead of a likely meeting between Trump and Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit scheduled to take place in South Korea from October 30 to November 1.