6th plenum: Xi's ambitions + German firms pessimistic • China.Table

Xi elevates himself to Mao’s level at CC plenum
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Real estate: reform of property tax to dampen prices
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Dear reader,

For China observers, a plenum of the Central Committee is like a small celebration every year. The word alone confirms that we are still dealing with a system whose structures were once shaped by Lenin. For all intransparency of China’s political processes, this at least provides some safe guessing. When the CC convenes to make significant decisions, then significant decisions are to be expected. And things kick off again on Monday, with the sixth and final plenum of the current CC. Michael Radunski analyses which signals might already give away China’s ideological direction. And it doesn’t make Xi Jinping seem not particularly modest.

As Xi consolidates his power, the country’s former pro-business agenda is to some extent falling by the wayside. Local German companies are feeling this more and more, as a survey by the Chamber of Commerce shows. There is nothing left of the optimism of the spring. Rather than the economy brightening up, a perfect storm is brewing. Problems with supply chains, logistics, Covid, power supply, and rising prices continue to deteriorate each other in a vicious circle, analyses Amelie Richter.

Meanwhile, the government is trying to tackle a pressing problem of Chinese citizens, namely high real estate prices. The plan is to use an instrument that has long been known in Germany: property tax. However, the introduction of a new burden on millions of homeowners is a delicate legal, organizational, and propaganda operation, and one that needs to be well-prepared. Our team in Beijing gives you an overview of the state of the debate.

Your
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk

Feature

The 6th plenum will be a historical one for Xi

The 6th plenum of the current Central Committee will convene in Beijing next week. Under normal circumstances of the post-reform era, this would herald the end of Xi Jinping’s term in office. But the latter dares to break with Deng Xiaoping and wants to anchor himself even more firmly as the “core of the CP”. He also wants to lift himself even further up the all-time list of the historic party hierarchy: above Deng, next to Mao.

By
Michael Radunski

Next week will be historic. And not just figuratively, but literally. Because when the 6th plenum of the 19th Central Committee convenes in Beijing on Monday, the 370 delegates will adopt, among other things, a “historic resolution.” What exactly President Xi Jinping’s resolution will include is not yet known, but Chinese media have been reporting for days that it is to celebrate “the great successes and historic achievements of the party in its 100-year struggle.”

The 6th Plenum proceeding from November 8th to 11 would certainly be a fitting occasion for an announcement of epic proportions. In China, the gatherings of the respective Central Committees in office are numbered consecutively. The 3rd Plenum and the 6th Plenum usually receive special attention: While special reform projects are announced at the 3rd Plenum, far-reaching fundamental decisions are made at the 6th Plenum as the final meeting before the Party Congress, which will have effects for decades to come. And it is supposed to be another “historic resolution” this time.

Xi has many plans. Resolutions that bear the label of a “historic resolution” are very rare and stand out from the flood of party pronouncements. In 100 years of party history, there have only been two such resolutions:

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