China will convene its 19th Party Congress on October 18, state media said Thursday, a key meeting held every five years where President Xi Jinping is expected to receive a second term as the ruling Communist Party's top leader. More than 2,300 delegates will discuss the country's accomplishments since the previous gathering and elect the new members of the party's top leadership, according to the party's official mouthpiece the People's Daily. The congress will decide a new line-up for the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, the group of seven politicians who run the world's second largest economy.
At the meeting, Xi is widely expected to consolidate his grip on power, solidifying his position as China's most powerful ruler in a generation. "The spirit of President Xi Jinping's important speeches will be carried out at the Congress," the People's Daily said. There has been speculation that Xi's name will be immortalised in the party's constitution, alongside the country's two most powerful former leaders, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
The People's Daily article added that the meeting would discuss a strategy for building a "moderately prosperous society," the goal of Xi's banner campaign to eliminate poverty nationwide by the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2021.