BEIJING”•The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will be convened here on Wednesday, when President Xi Jinping is expected to get a fresh mandate as the party’s general secretary and China’s president for another five years.
It is also likely he will be endorsed as China’s third paramount leader after the late Chairman Mao Zedong, who founded the People’s Republic of China, and Deng Xiaoping who transformed China’s economy by opening up to the world.
A total of 2,287 delegates have been elected to attend the congress”•the largest political party in the world with more than 89 million members”•to pave the way for the further development of China, the second-largest economy in the world after the United States and which has been contributing more than 30 percent to global growth since 2008.
Those attending the congress, which is convened every five years, will include high-ranking government officials, party leaders and military officers as well as CPC members from “front-line production and manufacturing.”
According to the statement issued by the CPC Central Committee’s organizational department, more CPC members from front-line production and women have been elected as delegates to this year’s congress compared with the 18th party congress.
Of the 771 “front-line production and manufacturing” delegates, 198 are workers, 86 are farmers and 283 are professional technical personnel. The representation of female CPC members and members from ethnic minority groups has also increased.
“This is a historic event since we are at the decisive stage of completing the building of a modern prosperous society,” said Yao Wen, deputy director general and counselor for Policy Planning in the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“I believe this congress will reveal the progress made by China and its elements and its experiences in the past five years, and will make plans for the future five years or even longer time for China,” Yao said.
He said the 19th Party Congress was critical amid President Xi’s proposed two centenary goals: to complete the building of a modern prosperous society in all its respects and, by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, to transform the country into a modern and strong country.
