by: Jessica Ferreira
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) concluded the long-awaited Third Plenary Session of the 20th Party Congress, with a focus on the urgency of economic modernization and security, according to a panel of experts gathered by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).
The meeting brought together the Party’s top leaders, including all the members of the Central Committee and the Politburo and set out to examine a draft decision of the CCP Central Committee on the comprehensive deepening of reform to advance Chinese modernization, which sets out the CCP’s plans for governing the economy in the coming years.
The resolution, which was made public on Sunday and adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee on Thursday, sets out China’s economic program for the next five years, covering several areas such as national security, the economy and China’s foreign relations.
According to the speakers at the MERICS debate on Tuesday, the Third Plenum’s decision stands out for a number of important reasons. Firstly, the 2029 benchmark could, according to Katja Drinhausen of MERICS, be a sign of a loss of confidence in the system, while at the same time invoking a sense of urgency to achieve it.
With regard to the economy, CSIS’s Jude Blanchette said that although there will not be a radical break in which President Xi Jinping abandons his party-state-centered vision of economic governance and returns to robust free market mechanisms, China will continue to prepare itself and its economy, with a particular focus on innovation, technology and electric vehicles, strengthening itself at a time of geopolitical tensions with the West.
Alongside the issue of national security, which occupied significant ground in the resolution, Blanchette argued that China’s decision to break down barriers with regard to national security, with a commitment to establishing security measures and new language on promoting security in neighboring regions, comes in the context of concern for national security, with the argument that threats often arise externally.
In this regard, Manoj Kewalramani, from the Takshashila institution, added that “China emphasizes in the document that it wants to mark its position in the region, with special emphasis on building a new international architecture. However, the window of strategic opportunity is closing from Beijing’s perspective and that’s also why we see this 2029 mark”.
Historically, Third Plenaries have focused on economic policy, with the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress in December 1978 initiating a series of ideological and political changes advocated by Deng Xiaoping.
In September 1992, the Third Plenum of the 14th Party Congress unveiled the goal of creating a socialist market economy. At the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress in November 2013, the CCP underlined the decisive role of the market in allocating resources, which led many to expect a new wave of market-oriented reforms and liberalization.
