Politics
20:25, 18-Oct-2017
Why does the 19th Party Congress matter?
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Every five years, the Communist Party of China holds a National Congress, a time to reflect, assess and hit the "Refresh" button.
The party re-shuffles its top leadership and sets the nation’s priorities for the next five years.
That makes every Congress important. But what makes the 19th Party Congress stand out is the backdrop.
China has been making big changes. In the last five years, the Party built a New Silk Road to Europe and beyond, took the lead in the Paris climate accords after the US backed out, lifted almost 70 million people out of poverty, restructured the military, reformed the financial system enough to convince the IMF to make the renminbi a global reserve currency.
If all that happened in Xi Jinping’s first five years, the question is what will he and the Party do in the next five? That’s another reason to watch this event closely.
The 19th Party Congress will elect new members to the Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee - a group whose decisions could guide China’s development for decades to come.
Because of its size, what happens in China…now happens to the world.