[Merics.org] At a time when the United States retreats from its global leadership responsibilities and China tries to assert itself as a global leader, changes to the political agenda of China’s governing party and its top leadership are of increasing importance to the rest of the world. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) convenes its 19th Party Congress in late October or November this year, the 2,300 delegates will discuss and endorse the Party’s strategic goals for the next five years and elect a new central committee. The day after the congress concludes, the newly elected committee will appoint the top leadership team tasked with implementing those goals. The Party Congress will also give the first authoritative indication on future CCP leadership constellations beyond 2022. If the rule-based, institutionalized processes of leadership successions initiated by Deng Xiaoping are upheld, we can expect Xi Jinping’s heir presumptive to be appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee.
The Party Congress is formally the highest decision-making organ of the CCP. Congresses are carefully choreographed affairs intended to rally party members around a political platform drafted under the supervision of the general secretary of the CCP. Simultaneously, the congress provides the stage to present this platform in the best possible way to the national public. Ahead of the congresses, there is little to no official reporting, but after their conclusion, party-state media present the roadmap leading up to the major event in the party's five-year political cycle. Since the preparatory process for this key event has been increasingly institutionalized since the 1990s, we have an indication of the major steps in between and their timing. Based on the assumption that there will be no major deviation from established practice, we present the milestones leading up to the 19th Party Congress in this graphic.