China’s Xi addresses Taiwan, Hong Kong, and zero-Covid

• China’s leader Xi Jinping committed to guiding his country through serious difficulties in order to achieve national renewal.
• Xi made a confident speech at the commencement of the 20th Party Congress.
• He is certain to win a third term in office, which he is expected to be a record-breaking third.

On Sunday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping committed to guiding his country through serious difficulties in order to achieve national renewal, promoting a nationalistic vision that has put China on a collision course with the West.

Xi made a confident speech at the commencement of the 20th Party Congress, where he is certain to win a record-breaking third term in office. He also emphasized China’s increasing power and influence over his first ten years in office.

But he also emphasized the dangers and difficulties the nation faces again and time again.

The past five years, according to Xi, have been “very uncommon and extraordinary,” with China being guided by the Communist Party through “a dismal and difficult world environment” and “great risks and obstacles that arrived one after another.”

The Covid-19 epidemic, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were the initial obstacles that Xi named, all of which he believed China had overcome.

Xi claimed that the Chinese government had engaged in “major struggles” against “independence forces” in the island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory despite never having held it under its control, as well as “protected people’s lives and health” from Covid and turned Hong Kong from “chaos to governance,” among other accomplishments.

As a change from prior addresses, Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist of the Australia National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, noted that Xi’s choice to bring up the Taiwan issue early in his speech conveys a “newfound urgency on making progress on the Taiwan issue.”

When he brought up Taiwan again later in his speech, Xi received the biggest and longest round of applause from the almost 2,300 hand-selected delegates in the Great Hall of the People.

His declaration that China would “strive for peaceful reunification” was followed by a somber caution that “we will never promise to renounce the use of force and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures.”

“History is moving in the direction of China’s reunification and the revival of the Chinese nation. Our nation must be fully reunited,” Xi declared amid thunderous applause.

A subtly veiled allusion to the deteriorating relations between China and the West, which have been made worse by Beijing’s tacit backing for Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was made by Xi when he also emphasized the “rapid changes in the world situation.”

In an apparent shot at what Beijing sees as a US-led global order that needs to be overturned, he said China has “taken a clear-cut stand against hegemony and power politics” and “never wavered” in opposition to unilateralism and “bullying.”

China, according to Xi, would concentrate on “high-quality education” and innovation to “renew prosperity” in the nation’s crisis-stricken economy over the next five years. Just months after his disastrous crackdown on the nation’s private sector and big IT businesses, Xi said China will “speed up efforts to attain greater self-reliance in research and technology.”

In addition, Xi promised to quicken the process of transforming the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a “world-class force,” vowing to increase the PLA’s capacity to protect national sovereignty and develop strategic deterrence. Additionally, he exhorted the PLA to increase its “capacity to win” and strengthen its training.

About 50 different times, the Chinese word meaning “security” was used in Xi’s address. He referred to national security as the “basis of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and urged strengthening security in “all aspects,” both domestically and internationally.

The philosophy of Marxism was another area of study. Victor Shih, a specialist in elite Chinese politics at the University of California, said: “I don’t think there will be any easing of the ideological climate in the following five years.”

The instructions outlined in Xi’s inauguration speech, according to Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, were an extension of his prior policy. He claimed that by highlighting the difficulties and struggles, it supports “the need for a strong party and its great leader.”

Cementing ability

On Sunday morning, the week-long convention got underway amidst increased security, tighter zero-Covid regulations, and a frenzy of propaganda and censorship.

The congress, which will be the Communist Party’s most significant gathering in decades, is expected to solidify Xi’s position as China’s most powerful leader since late Chairman Mao Zedong, who reigned until his death at the age of 82. As Xi intensifies an assertive foreign policy to increase China’s worldwide weight and rewrite the US-led global order, it will also have a significant impact on the rest of the globe.

Zero-Covid

In the weeks before the congress, authorities substantially tightened restrictions across China to stop even small Covid outbreaks, enforcing extensive lockdowns and conducting more frequent mass Covid tests due to a small number of instances. However, outbreaks of illnesses brought on by the more contagious Omicron variety have persisted. China reported roughly 1,200 cases on Saturday, with 14 of those occurring in Beijing.

In a remarkably infrequent demonstration against Xi on Thursday in Beijing, public ire over zero-Covid rose to the fore. Online images showed two banners criticizing Xi and his policies were up on a busy overpass before being removed by authorities.

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