BEIJING (Reuters/AFP) – China has achieved comprehensive control over Hong Kong, turning it from chaos to governance, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech on Sunday at the opening of the once-in-five-year Communist Party congress in Beijing.
China has also waged a major struggle against Taiwan separatism and is determined and able to oppose territorial integrity, Xi said.
He also reiterated that China opposed a “Cold War mentality” in international diplomacy, but made no mention of frayed relations with the United States.
“China... resolutely opposes all forms of hegemony and power politics, opposes the Cold War mentality, opposes interfering in other countries’ domestic politics, opposes double standards,” he said.
The Chinese president also hailed his Communist Party’s zero Covid policies and graft crackdown at the five-yearly Congress at which thousands of delegates were set to extend his bid to rule for a historic third term.
Xi walked onstage to thunderous applause from the roughly 2,300 attendees who had gathered at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for the event.
In an opening address lasting about 100 minutes, Xi promoted and defended a wide range of policies under his rule and said the Congress was taking place at a “critical moment” for the country.
Xi celebrated the party’s continued efforts to eradicate Covid as a major achievement, adding the approach “protected people’s safety and health to the highest degree”.
He also said the anti-corruption campaign had eliminated “serious latent dangers” within the Communist Party, the military and the state.
“The fight against corruption has won an overwhelming victory and has been comprehensively consolidated,” he said.
Should everything go to plan for Xi, the 69-year-old will be endorsed as the party’s general secretary after the week-long meeting ends, cementing his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
If picked as party leader for another five-year term as expected, Xi is almost certain to be elected president at the annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress in March.
Xi and the party’s other top brass are likely to be unveiled on October 23, the day after the Congress closes.
In the highly choreographed, mostly closed-door conclave, the delegates will also pick members of the party’s roughly 200-member Central Committee, which in turn selects the 25-person Politburo and its all-powerful Standing Committee -- the country’s highest leadership body.