China has reached a turning point in its history, Xi says
President tells top officials at seminar that last five years have been ‘extraordinary’ for nation
Officials in the top ranks of the party, government and military were summoned this week to Beijing for a two-day seminar to study President Xi Jinping’s speeches and to gear up for a key, once-every-five-years Communist Party congress this autumn.
The preparatory meeting, which ended on Thursday, came just days before an annual gathering of incumbent and retired party leaders in the seaside resort of Beidaihe, where they will seek consensus on major decisions for the 19th party congress.
The autumn congress will see a major shake-up of the party’s leadership – from the Central Committee to the Politburo and its Standing Committee - and inaugurate a second five-year term for Xi.
At the seminar, Xi told the officials that the last five years had been “extraordinary” for China and that the country had reached a historic turning point.
“Over the five years, the party’s central leadership … solved many challenging problems [the party] wanted to solve for a long time but couldn’t, and achieved many things it wanted to achieve in the past but didn’t manage to achieve,” he said. “The Chinese nation … has achieved the historic leap of rising to our feet, getting rich and getting powerful.”
