•At the end of the week-long congress on October 22, the new Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 20th Central Committee will then address the media, both local and international.
•Although no one knows yet what will happen, it is widely expected that current President Xi Jinping will be given the mandate to continue for an unprecedented third term.
Kenya will be keenly following the change of guard in China over the next one week as the Asian country embarks on a journey to elect the country’s new leadership.
China’s ruling party, Communist Party of China (CPC), is on the final stretch of the journey that will culminate in the election of a new leadership to steer the country for the next five years.
The new leadership is expected to come up with ways of enhancing bilateral relations with other developing countries, especially in Africa.
It remains to be seen how China and Kenya will relate, given both countries will be dealing with new leaderships following the election of President William Ruto as Kenya’s fifth president in August.
Ruto has criticised the previous regime’s appetite for borrowing and has promised to cut down on borrowing and introduce measures to help reduce spending.
However, China, which has emerged as Kenya’s dependable partner for financial aid and loans, remains confident that the relationship between the two countries will improve for the better.
The CPC has put on a brave face amid challenges of a slowing economy. The party said despite the global economic challenges, it has steered the country towards a steady economic growth over the last decade.
“During that period, we contributed on average over 30 per cent to global growth,” Sun Yeli told an international press conference at the Hotel Nikko New Century Beijing via video link in Saturday evening.
He is the spokesperson for the 20th CPC National Congress to be held at The Great Hall of the People in Beijing from Sunday, October 16 to October 22.
CPC’s new leadership has been entrusted on 2,296 delegates, who will be in the week-long meeting to deliberate on key issues including adoption of the amendments to the party constitution, which will guide the country for the next five years.
Yeli said the 2,296 delegates represent 4.9 million primary-level party organizations and over 96 million CPC members across China.
The congress secretary general will be Wang Huning and it is from here that the 20th CPC Central Committee, the highest organ of the party which basically leads the country, will be elected alongside the 20th CPC Central Commission for the Discipline Inspection.
At the end of the week-long congress on October 22, the new Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 20th Central Committee will then address the media, both local and international.
Although no one knows yet what will happen, it is widely expected that current President Xi Jinping will be given the mandate to continue for an unprecedented third term.
He took over the leadership of the country in 2013. The congress comes at a time when China’s economy is said to have be slowing down.
However, Yeli said the country’s economy has been performing above expectation given the size of the country which has a population of more than 1.4 billion people.
The spokesperson said China has overcome many obstacles to build a moderately prosperous society, beyond expectations set over 40 years ago.