CHINA ANTICIPATED TO GRANT Xi 5 MORE YEARS WITHOUT MAJOR CHANGES

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to receive a third five-year term, breaking with recent precedent and making him perhaps the most powerful Chinese politician since Mao Zedong, on Sunday as the country's twice-decade party conference commences.

At the opening session, Xi is expected to deliver a lengthy address, but little is expected to change regarding his strict one-party rule, intolerance of criticism, and hard-line stance against COVID-19, which includes quarantines and travel restrictions even as other nations have opened up.

Like other political events in China, not much information has been made public beforehand, and the results of the congress won't be made public until after many days of sessions behind closed doors. It is also unclear how much has already been decided and how much needs to be worked out in person.

Sun Yeli, a congress spokesperson, reiterated the government's commitment to its "zero-COVID" policy during a two-hour news conference on Saturday. She also repeated the threat to use force to annex self-governing Taiwan.

Sun, however, provided few details regarding what, if any, revisions to the party's charter would be adopted during the meeting, which is expected to run for approximately a week. The party, which has been around for a century and has 96 million members, including more than 2,000 who will attend the meetings in Beijing, is holding its 20th congress.

According to Sun, a deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party's Propaganda Department who is not well known outside of party circles, the modifications will "incorporate the major theoretical views and strategic thinking" developed in the five years since the last congress.

With himself fully in charge of domestic affairs, foreign policy, the military, the economy, and the majority of other important topics monitored by party working groups that he leads, Xi has left little room for further political aggrandisement.

The congress occurs as China's economy is grappling with severe challenges, including a real estate market that is on the verge of collapse and COVID-19 restrictions that have had a negative impact on retail and manufacturing and increased the regime's already harsh restrictions on free speech and population monitoring.

Many expect that the policy will remain in place at least until March, when Xi is anticipated to be elected to a third term as president and other key Cabinet members are expected to take office.

Yin Weihong, a political observer and dissident who has survived repeated police harassment for his opposition views, said that while Xi does not currently face open opposition, the public and party officials do object to his decision to abandon the party's previous collegial leadership style in favour of centralizing power in his own hands.