Over 2,000 party delegates from around the country gathered in Beijing as China’s ruling party embarked on its week-long Communist Party Congress on October 16, 2022. President Xi Jinping, who is widely considered to be the most powerful Chinese ruler since Mao Zedong and is expected to win an unprecedented third leadership term, kicked off the 20th national congress by delivering a strategic plan for the party and the rest of China for the next five years. Accompanied by his two immediate predecessors, Xi’s speech focused on the importance of strengthening national security through military and economic developments and his commitment to achieve zero-COVID.
PANDEMIC FATIGUE
China has long maintained that its governance is unique and cannot be judged through the lens of traditional Western approaches based on capitalism, thus it was no surprise that Xi repeatedly emphasized the Chinese model of peace and common prosperity (a slogan that facilitated last year’s crackdown on the big tech, education and real estate sectors), while labeling his controversial zero-COVID policy as a “people’s war to stop the spread of the virus.” During his speech, Xi added that the party puts “the people and their lives above all else,” which has since caused widespread frustration and disappointment among citizens and investors who had been earnestly hoping for change, not continuity with the current policy.
Despite heightened security measures being implemented across China in the run-up to the congress, the increasing COVID fatigue over lockdowns and travel restrictions has sparked a rare public protest in Beijing. Even though criticisms of the government, particularly in relation to nationwide restrictions associated with Xi’s stringent zero-COVID policy, is a punishable offense in China, images showed two protest banners on a bridge in Haidian in Beijing, a district home to China’s top universities. “We want food, not PCR tests. We want freedom, not lockdowns. We want respect, not lies. We want reform, not a Cultural Revolution. We want a vote, not a leader. We want to be citizens, not slaves,” said one banner, while the other called for a boycott of schools, strikes and the removal of Xi.
In a desperate attempt to contain outbreaks before the congress, the government imposed a number of security curbs in the name of COVID-19 across Shanghai, Xinjiang and 36 other cities. In Shanghai alone, at least 46 residential buildings or neighborhoods across 14 of Shanghai’s 16 districts were designated medium risk and one high risk. As for the highly controlled autonomous territory of Xinjiang, 22 million people have been suspended from traveling in and out of the region after the National Health Commission announced 93 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.
CHINA’S ECONOMY UNDER XI’S LEADERSHIP
Although China’s economy has drastically slowed down since the pandemic, Xi took pride in reflecting how the country has “made tremendously encouraging achievements in both epidemic response and economic and social development,” as well as echoed slogans from previous congresses to emphasize the party’s top priority in development. This is contrary to reports indicating salary cuts and reversal of bonuses among civil servants in China, with section-level cadres in Shanghai having their annual salary reduced from 350,000 RMB to 200,000 RMB ($48,635 to $27,792 USD) and subdivision heads from 240,000 RMB to 150,000 RMB ($33,350 to $20,844 USD) . Our sources also revealed to us that a number of public-school teachers in Chongqing faced pay cuts between 40 to 60%, while teachers from a public high school in Hebei were said to have their monthly salary reduced from 8,000 RMB to 6,000 RMB ($1,112 to $834 USD) and were ordered to volunteer at COVID-19 testing sites in the middle of the night.
There does, however, appear to be a shift in Xi’s attitude toward China’s past conservative economic policies, which placed a high level of scrutiny on the private sector and deemed key private markets as enemies of “common prosperity.” Going forward, Xi pledged to build a “high-level socialist market economic system … unswervingly consolidate and develop the public ownership system, unswervingly encourage and support the development of the private economy, give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, and give better play to the role of the government.” In relation to tech crackdowns, he instructed the tech sector to focus on “national strategic needs, gather strength to carry out indigenous and leading scientific and technological research, and resolutely win the battle in key core technologies,” which commentators speculate is in response to the U.S.’s move to restrict China from obtaining or manufacturing key chips and components for supercomputers.
It is unclear if Xi’s attempt to reinvigorate the nation in the face of challenges such as youth unemployment, the imploding real estate market and a slowing economy will cause greater protest or settle the masses. Our hope is that the country gets back to “business as usual” once congress concludes, allowing our work with refugees to also return to its former levels.
