China's Communist Party begins key meet; to finalise 5-year plan, tariffs

The closed-door gathering known as the fourth plenum is expected to last four days and will discuss and put the final touches on China's next five-year plan, a blueprint for 2026-2030

China's ruling Communist Party on Monday commences a key meeting to finalise a new five-year plan amid concerns over an economic slowdown driven by US trade tensions and a sweeping purge at the top of the military.

The Communist Party of China, headed by President Xi Jinping, began the three-day meeting of the plenary session, considered to be the most important in the current context of growing strategic competition with the US.

According to the data released on Monday, China's economy grew at 4.8 per cent, the slowest pace this year compared to the previous quarters.

The slowdown of the world's second-largest economy was attributed to its growing trade conflict over the tariff war initiated by US President Donald Trump, blunting China's exports to America, one of its major markets.

The data for this quarter was the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2024.

The economy slowed down from a 5.2 per cent pace of growth in the previous quarter, but close to the official annual target of five per cent GDP for this year, figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.

The slowdown was a concern for the CPC as it will further deepen the increasing unemployment, especially that of youth, which was stated to be around 20 per cent.

Official media announced that the plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, comprising 370 members, began its deliberations on Monday.

President Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the party, delivered a work report and expounded on the Party leadership's draft proposals for the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for national economic and social development, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Besides the prevailing economic situation, the new five-year plan, the high-powered body, also called plenum, with party leaders from across the country, is expected to discuss the shifting global strategic environment with Trump's efforts to expand the US global leadership, challenging China's influence, especially in the global south.

The closed-door plenary session, being held in Beijing from October 20-23, will discuss major issues related to the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for national economic and social development, according to an earlier official announcement.

Discussions on the new five-year plan were expected to factor in the continued slowdown of the economy, with stagnated domestic consumption, the excess capacity of new productive forces, especially the E-Vehicles produced in large volumes, and the impact of Trump's tariffs and export curbs on them.

The thrust of the five-year plan was expected to boost growth to focus on job creation as the unemployment rate is steadily climbing, causing concern to the CPC leadership.

Chinese President Xi Jinping stepped up his sweeping anti-corruption campaign in the military by expelling two top Generals along with seven other top officials ahead of the plenary meeting, sparking speculation of a purge in the party.

The CPC retains overall control of the military whose top brass are part of the influential bodies of the party.

Last week, the second ranking General of the military He Weidong, who is also a member of the Political Bureau the top decision making body of the CPC and Vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) the overall high command of the Chinese military, have been expelled from the CPC and military service along with Miao Hua, who is also a CMC member.

A spokesperson of the Chinese Defence Ministry, Col Zhang Xiaogang, said that besides the two top Generals, seven former senior military officials have also been expelled from the CPC and military.

The seven expelled officials were three-star Generals holding key posts in the military.

Zhang said investigations found that the military officials had seriously violated party discipline and corruption, and they are also suspected of major duty-related crimes.

They were expected to be replaced by new military officials during the plenary meeting.

In power for the last 12 years, Xi carried out a massive crackdown on corruption and indiscipline in which over a million officials and dozens of top brass of the military were punished, which critics say helped to consolidate his power in the party and the military.

In his recent speeches, Xi has been asking the party to take a forward-looking approach and consider the impact of the changing international landscape on China in the backdrop of the Trump tariff war on China and other countries.

The plenary session is being held ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, where Xi is expected to meet Trump on the sidelines.

The two leaders spoke over the phone recently, and Trump claimed Xi approved a proposal for the US to acquire a major share of popular Chinese media app TikTok, but relations nosedived again after China strengthened controls of key rare-earth metals and related technologies.

The two countries are holding talks to reach a new trade deal over Trump's tariffs.

The plenary meeting is also expected to discuss the eventful past few weeks during which China held the SCO summit in Tianjin from August 31-September 1, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin took part.

Modi's visit to China, his first in seven years, was regarded as significant and took place against the backdrop of growing discord between the US and India, especially over India's oil imports from Russia. He and Xi held in-depth talks on the SCO sidelines to revive stalled relations after the Eastern Ladakh military standoff.