20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China

Successful Congress Held in Beijing

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) opened at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 16 and closed October 22. At the preparatory meeting held the day before it opened, a list of 22 members of the delegate credentials committee was approved, and a list of 243 members of the presidium of the congress. The meeting approved Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee to serve as secretary-general of the congress.

The meeting also approved the agenda of the congress: the presentation and examination of a report of the 19th CPC Central Committee, a report of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, an amendment to the Party's Constitution, and the election of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

After the preparatory meeting, the delegate credentials committee held a meeting, and the presidium of the congress held its first meeting at which the schedule of the congress was set.

Qualifications of 2,296 delegates to the Congress were confirmed valid. Delegates represented more than 96 million CPC members and over 4.9 million primary-level Party organizations.

Full Preparation

Media in China provided detailed reports on the preparations for the Congress. They inform that the draft report of the 19th CPC Central Committee to the 20th CPC National Congress was written by a working group headed by General Secretary Xi and joined by other leaders of the CPC Central Committee and heads of relevant departments and local senior officials, as well as experts and scholars, to carry out the work under the direct leadership of the Political Bureau, and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The CPC Central Committee also conducted in-depth investigations and research for issuing the draft report, as it set 26 key task topics, which were researched by 54 institutes under the CPC Central Committee and the government, and 80 research reports were produced. The relevant departments under the CPC Central Committee also solicited opinions from the online users and received more than 8.54 million comments. These all formed a solid basis for issuing the draft report, Sun Yeli, the spokesperson for the 20th National Congress, said.

Opinions of more than 4,700 people were subsequently collected on the draft report.

The Constitution of the CPC was amended in accordance with the needs of theoretical innovation and the evolution of practice, the spokesperson of the CPC pointed out.

The spokesperson explained that the CPC Constitution was adopted at the Party's 12th National Congress in 1982, and subsequent congresses have all made amendments to that document. He said that different regions and departments earlier this year agreed unanimously to make appropriate amendments to the CPC Constitution. A number of Party members, including some veteran Party members, also wrote to relevant departments of the CPC to offer their suggestions, he said.

The amendment to the Constitution of the CPC incorporated the major theoretical views and strategic thinking put forward in the report of the 19th CPC Central Committee to the 20th CPC National Congress. The spokesperson said that the amendment fully embodies "the latest achievements in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and to the needs of the times." It also enshrines "the new ideas, thoughts and strategies on national governance that the CPC Central Committee has set forth since the 19th CPC National Congress, while reflecting the latest experience in the Party's development and work." 

According to the spokesperson, the amendment meets "new requirements for advancing the Party's development and work in the face of new circumstances and new tasks." 

The 20th CPC Central Committee held its first plenary session after the 20th CPC National Congress ended. Members of the new Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee met Chinese and foreign journalists after the conclusion of the first plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee.

(Xinhua News Agency, The Global Times)

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This article was published in

Volume 52 Number 11 - November 2022

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2022/Articles/M5201112.HTM

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