Xi Jinping’s plans for a third term

President Xi Jinping is expected to begin an unprecedented third term as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leader and military commander-in-chief as delegates gathered in Beijing for the party’s five-yearly congress.

Despite strict Covid laws remaining in place, more than 2,000 party officials have travelled to the capital for the week-long congress, where Xi’s reappointment as general secretary and military leader is “widely seen as a fait accompli”, said the Financial Times (FT). He is also expected to be designated state president for the third time at the next session of China’s parliament in March, said the paper.

There is no official term limit for the role of general secretary of the CCP, but a third term for the Chinese leader represents “a break with unofficial two-term limits” that other recent leaders have followed, said the Associated Press.

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What are China’s global ambitions?

Over the past decade, part of Xi’s agenda has been to pursue the advancement of “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. As NPR explained, an integral piece of this goal is “reclaiming what the party sees as China’s rightful standing in the world”.

Xi used a two-hour speech at the opening of the CCP congress to reiterate his aims on the global stage, repeating “his mantra that now is a historical opportunity for China to raise its standing and influence in the world”, said the broadcaster.

“At present, momentous changes of a like not seen in a century are accelerating across the world,” Xi said. “A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is well underway, and a significant shift is taking place in the international balance of power, presenting China with strategic opportunities in pursuing development.”

Xi said that China’s “great rejuvenation” is now an “irreversible historical process”, and said he planned to turn his country into a “great modern socialist country” that presented a “new choice” for humanity and for countries on the path to modernisation.

His words were a “nod to China’s emergence as an alternative to Western democracies”, said The Washington Post, while the FT said that they showed Xi has “decisively abandoned decades of caution in Beijing’s foreign relations” as he seeks to fulfil his vision of China’s “great rejuvenation”.

Quartz said that since taking power in 2012, Xi has “deeply altered” China, presenting the country as “more belligerent and assertive on the world stage”, while an “intensifying technological competition with the US” has put the world’s two largest economies “at loggerheads”, ultimately overshadowing much of China’s policy-making and geopolitical relationships.

Will China pursue ‘reunification’ with Taiwan?

An integral part of Xi’s “great rejuvenation” project is China’s so-called “reunification” with Taiwan. China views the democratically ruled Taiwan as part of its own territory, while the island’s government believes it is sovereign, with US President Biden repeatedly backing that stance.

Xi used his speech to reiterate Bejing’s position that it seeks “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan, but added that China would “never promise to renounce the use of force and reserves the option of taking all necessary measures”.

Xi’s words on Taiwan were some of the most “bellicose” sections of his speech, said The Guardian. He used “aggressive language to make a barely veiled attack on US ‘interference’” and told the conference that “resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, it is a matter that must be resolved by the Chinese”.

Speaking to the FT, Sonny Lo, a Hong Kong-based political analyst, said that Xi had sent “a clear message to Taiwan and to the US” that China “has the determination to resolve the Taiwan issue within the next decade”.

Will Xi rule for life?

Term limits for China’s presidency were scrapped in 2018, “clearing the way for Xi to rule for life if he so chooses”, said The Washington Post. But while winning a third term as party leader “elevates Xi’s status” there are still “no clues to what he’ll do beyond 2027”, noted Bloomberg.

Any insight into Xi’s longer-term plans for power is likely to come with the next appointments to the Politburo Standing Committee, essentially the top echelon of the party. Xi has so far “predominantly promoted officials born in the 1960s” to the body, and therefore they are “too old to be viable successors after his third term”.

But elevating party officials in their fifties “could hint Xi will step aside at the next congress, and rule from the sidelines” in the style of former leader Deng Xiaoping.