Context:

On October 22, 2022, more than 2,300 delegates and invited representatives to the 20th National Party Congress elected the 20th CPC Central Committee (CC), consisting of 376 members and alternate members (who do not have the right to vote), and the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) with 133 members. A very rigorous process of candidate selection has been adopted to ensure corruption does not occur.

Key points:

• The CPC’s election process for a new CC and CCDI began at the end of 2020. General Secretary Xi Jinping and the CC required that the candidates’ who stood for election adhere to the political direction as elaborated by Xi and the CC, strengthen the overall Party leadership, ensure political integrity, follow Marxist principles, and be highly disciplined. In July 2021, 45 investigation groups, chosen by the CC, and eight investigation groups, chosen by the Central Military Commission, went to State organs, army units, enterprises, and other institutions to engage in deep discussions with the candidates, and ensure that they were holding the Party’s overall leadership in their daily work, adapted to their specific contexts. The election process is rooted in the investigative groups that maximize the use of dialogue, thus improving the quality and accuracy of the final election.
• To ensure that the candidates remain honest and uncorrupted, Xi emphasized “political standards”, specifically political alignment with the Party’s CC. The list of proposed candidates, recommended in provincial, autonomous regional, and municipal meetings, are sent to the National Commission of Supervision for preliminary political examination. After the nomination process, the National Commission carries out another round of investigations of the candidates’ integrity. The investigation of the candidates is then appropriately expanded to areas such as personal ownership of real estate and the business conduct of spouses and children. For enterprise leaders and representative candidates, the Commission also solicits opinions from law enforcement departments and industry supervisory agencies. The rigor of the election process is to ensure that corruption does not occur, with only cadres of high integrity, trustworthiness, and who can stand the nomination tests are elected to serve the Party and the people.
• The investigation results were written up after a comprehensive evaluation. On September 29, 2022, the Political Bureau of the CC reviewed and approved the proposed list of candidates and decided to submit the list to the 20th National Congress. During the Congress, based on democratic centralism, a rigorous evaluation, and taking into account the views of all parties and vetted public opinion, the candidate list was reduced through a Congress-wide, thoroughly democratic election. The results were as follows: for the 20th CC, 205 candidates were selected out of 222 nominees, and 171 alternate candidates were chosen out of 188; for the 20th CCDI, 133 candidates were selected out of 144. On October 21, the candidate list was approved by the presidium; 130 members of the 19th CC were renominated to the body, accounting for 34.6 percent; 246 candidates were newly nominated, accounting for 65.4 percent. Forty-seven members of the 19th CCDI were renominated, accounting for 35.3 percent while 86 new candidates accounted for 64.7 percent.
• On October 22, Xi presided over the election of the 20th CC and the CCDI. The average age of the members of the new CC is 57.2 years, including 33 women, and 32 ethnic minority cadres; 98.9% of them have a college degree or above; 49.5% have senior professional and technical positions; and 29 are members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. The members are the mainstay of governance and the outstanding representatives from various regions, departments, political and economic spheres, and sectors.

Context:

After the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Ding Yifan shares his views on China’s economy, its past achievements, and its future development potential.

Key Points:

In the last decade, the transformation of China’s economy is its most significant development; it is reducing external dependence and driving economic growth mainly through domestic investment

• The investment effectiveness of domestic infrastructure (e.g., railroads, high-speed rail, etc.) is gradually emerging.
• The alleviation of absolute poverty demonstrates the country's progress in terms of economic development and social justice, benefiting the people, especially the lower-income population.
• China has made great progress in environmental pollution control and ecological restoration by vigorously promoting the scientific concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".
• Sustainable development has made great strides, such as reducing the consumption of traditional energy and vigorously developing renewable energy sources. China has a cumulative share of more than 40 percent of the electricity generated by clean energy worldwide. The proportion of clean energy usage will continue to increase in the future, simultaneously driving the sales of non-fossil fuel consuming products.
• The quality of China's economy has improved significantly. The rapid development of the digital economy and digitized services have, in a practical way, provided the public with a more convenient lifestyle.

In the context of the return of external economic uncertainty, China has proposed the concept of "dual circulation" and a "unified national market"

• After the 2008 financial crisis, many Western countries began spreading the idea of "reverse globalization". Today, we are witnessing geopolitical factors that could, in the future, seriously undermine the basic operating mode of the existing globalized economy, and which have already led to a significant decrease in economic efficiency and a significant rise in inflation in other countries and regions.
• To solve this problem, China has proposed the concept of "dual circulation", the internal logic of which is to stimulate domestic circulation through coordinating national investment, production, and consumption. With the goal of common prosperity, China has promoted a "unified national market" to take advantage of its population and their increased purchasing power. The larger the market is, the more resilient the economy will be, and the less it will be affected by external economic conditions.
• In the future, China must secure the necessary supply of materials for its domestic industrial chain. Securing the supply of semiconductors and energy is a prerequisite to ensure China's economic development and the success of its next phase of industrialization.

China is capable of redefining modernization

• Modernization is not the same as Westernization, or "Americanization". US capitalism was based on plundering, exploitation, and violence against other nations and territories, which allowed them to steal natural resources and subjugate the peoples, leading to their rapid industrialization.
• In contrast to the US modernization path, one justified by extreme individualism, China’s path to modernization embraces the idea of collectivism. The developmental achievements of Chinese society have been led, step by step, by the state, including the poverty alleviation policies. These achievements are made possible not only through individual struggle but also through state organization and power.

China’s potential development in the next five to ten years

• To achieve true energy independence, China should continue its development of renewable energy to replace traditional energy and achieve carbon neutrality. This will be a great contribution by China not only to its own energy security, but also to that of the world's.
• The achievement of this goal also relies on corresponding institutional arrangements, such as eliminating the use of the US dollar as the only currency for international financial settlement.