on top of the top, on top of the top, that's the straw that broke the camel's back. i've been running forever. thinking to myself here, when's it all going to come crashing down? who's with pay won't pay. taxation and politics starts october 21st on d. w. here watching t w news asia coming up today we are taking a closer look at china as communist party. congress is a big deal because cheating, ping will be consolidating his power, capturing a 3rd term. what will this mean for the state and for the people? ah, i melissa can't. thanks for joining us. the communist party of china begins. it's

major congress this weekend. that's all but certain to hand, she keeping a 3rd 5 year term. it's moved that puts him on the path to becoming leader for life, for better or worse, richer or poorer? because china, under she has had its share of milestones and challenges. as dw clifford conan reports, huge in pings, political journey has been epic from political exile during the upheavals of the cultural revolution to becoming the most powerful chinese leader since miles at dawn in the 19 seventy's. china has been transformed since the mouth era, from a poor, inward looking country into a global superpower and the world's 2nd largest economy. unless, believe she goes into the congress in a strong position, i was appointment for a 3rd term as party chief. give some more political muscle, eating nauseous, each and baggage they don't go there. in the past,

the party congress and china was similar to elections in the west. they found that there were many factions, many struggles on many disagreements of those. and this is likely going to be the 1st one without factional struggles since the establishment of the communist party of china. which means that she, jim ping, has taken control of everything. oh, she to me, in some corner you tick. the authoritarian, she has taken a hard line approach to china's relations with the west, particularly over self rule taiwan. she wants taiwan to revert to beijing's rule by 2049, the century of the foundation of the people's republic. he's not ruled out taking the island by force. his reluctance to condemn russia's invasion of ukraine has antagonized the west and his efforts to grab territory in the south. china sea have angered china's neighbor, his r. i do relations with the united states or at their lowest ebb for years,

while tensions between the you and china could escalate if she strengthens his commitment to a confrontational foreign policy. while the rest of the world is easing cove, at 19 restrictions, chinese authorities of intensified their efforts to contain outbreaks, with strict loc downs, mass testing and lengthy quarantines. the 0 cove approach is one of she's landmark policies. it's also turning into the most potent test of his leadership so far. at least one person was arrested in beijing for hanging, a protest banner in the city. such protests are highly unusual. he can on the growth under she is suffering and fears of a global recession, triggered by the war and ukraine, have hit confidence any hint of china's future direction will be followed closely around the world. a burning question hanging over the congress is succession. who comes after she that report by demi is clifford cooney who joins me now in the studio. so let's follow up on that last line of your

report. there doesn't seem to be a succession plan of any kind. was been very interesting in the, in the, in recent years, in china mean under mount a dong he did have people who looked like his anointed successors. some of them were eased out like joe and lie, others died and playing crushes like an embryo, am. and then we had young junk, the men who followed on from, from dunc shopping am and huge in town, they sort of formed an arc as well. but then suddenly would she, jim ping m, who again could be put in that camp with the successors of at all. going all the way back to don shopping am. but he doesn't, he seems to be behaving very differently. so it's very difficult to actually draw an arc here. what he's doing now is taking full control and he's entrenching himself up at the top of the party. and anyone, any of his allies seemed to be just like people on the standing committee of the

politburo rather than people. you would think that would be the next leader because they're very much of similar age or an, you know, similar background. but there's no one emerging am who looks like they could be someone who would, who would be his next successor. and he touched on a number of challenges that china is facing. and in your report, can you dive into any one of them? talk a little bit more about it. what i think 0 covered on the economy. i mean it's 2 issues, but they're very closely linked. i think that's one thing that's really struck me recently is how he's sticking to the 0 coven policy of these strict lock downs. and it's doing immense harm to the, to the economy. and people can't get to work. people can't get out to shop. and people can't make things to, to export it. it's really damaging the economy. i'm and i think this is one area for people looking at china often think that there's a very pragmatic approach to things. but actually is a very ideological approach to things that the colonies party on the companies party leader. she jim ping, few things very much,

an ideological terms. and this has become part and parcel of his rule of his ethos . so he's very much am pushing the 0 covert policy and, and the effect that, that might have been the economy is only secondary to him. where any 0 cove it is kind of anti science. and that really begs the question of like, there really are no challengers to him. are there key to question his policies or anything like that? no, i mean we've had, we had an incident where there was a protest in beijing recently with someone hanging a banner and that was just in the last couple of days. and, but that was presumably an isolated incident a few weeks ago. yeah. there were strong rumors about a possible coo and those things emerge every single time that there's a peer radio silence coming from from the government headquarters am. but there doesn't seem to be any one. normally you would expect to hear of someone who was emerging as a challenger. we had bo, she lie in the run up 10 years ago when am when i,

when she jumping took power. i was clear the bow, sheila was a possible contender there. and he was very quickly moved aside, so there's been no similar challenges emerging. yeah, i mean he's very much a mystery man. so on that, no, i want to take a look at, she came pink story, his background, and his rise to power. and then we'll follow up. ah, it was this moment that elevated, changing ping above chinese leaders before him in 2017, at the end of his 1st 5 year term, the communist party congress voted to have she's philosophy written into the constitution. raising him to the same level as the father of johnny's communism molds at dawn, or fog and actually julia, julia g, she, our country is at an important point at strategic opportunity in its development shoulder. yes. survey. angie. she was born in

beijing in 1953, the son of a high ranking party official. but in the 19 sixty's, his father fell fowl of chairman mao in the communist leadership and was thrown into prison. the young she was sent to the countryside for political reeducation and hard labor for 7 years. but instead of turning against the communist party, he embraced it and worked hard to rise to the top. in november 2012, the relatively unknown changing thing was named general secretary of the communist party. a few months later he succeeded who jin tow as president of the people's republic of china. she set about pursuing what he hailed as the china dream. to turn china into the world's dominant power, undersea john has become more assertive on the international stage fuel by

a growing patriotism at home. much of it based around she doing things, image as china's strong man. but she has also ever seen increased limitations on freedoms. expanding online censorship and cracking down on opposition, voices and leaked. humans links, she directly to human rights abuses against the muslim minority wiggers rule. in 2018, the true term limit on the presidency was removed, paving the way for a 3rd term in office, and allowing she to effectively reminding power every for life. oh, why i silly. i mean, power for a life a why does he want to hold on to this power and do you think he has china's best interest in mind? you know, i think, yeah. i think he, i think he thinks he does. he definitely has a version of what he thinks is best for china in his mind. and power is,

is something that is obviously appealing and, and there's definitely that element he does enjoy his powerful role. but i do think that he thinks he is doing the best for the country. and i think what motivates him? i mean, he comes from party party royalty, his city or his father was a key figure. and he's, you know, he grew up in us and it was mentioned there in the report. if in, you know, he was sent to the, in the culture of the cultural revolution, he was sent on to chancy province. and am it too, you know, where he lived in caves and even turned that struggle into something that appears to have motivated him and to driven him forward to take on this role because he hasn't acted according to the way people expected. as we were saying earlier he's, he's basically very much his own man and am, and i think what drives him. there's obviously this will to power. but i think definitely he thinks that he is doing what's best for china, but he very much believes that he is the best person to do it. he's quite different

from his father who is rather a liberal. are all things considered? so a 3rd term, ah, possibly life came after that, but what might we me, he expect in the next 5 years? i think once he's am, i think what we seen, what we're seeing at the moment in china is a lot of issues that are kind of am, you know, that they're being sort of kicked into touch that they're basically not. and they're not acting on a lot of things until this congress is over. this has been such a, an issue for him that he wants to get this done and dusted, am and then i think he's going to try and slowly address some issues at this with the economy. we have the property crisis, which is, you know, based on ever grand and on the other property developers which have massive debts. that is the percentage of the total economy. and that's a real threat that the whole debt problem is something that he's going to have to address. and i think possibly, once he's secured his 3rd term, he can move on things like 0 covered. i think a lot more flexibility because then he can certainly relax. i mean, scientifically,

there are reasons why you can do it. but as you said, he's not thinking scientifically when it comes to this series, 0 coven policy. and i think it's, he's going to entrench his position. you have to think that he is going to start thinking about a successor that someone will emerge. i mean, we have no clues as yet, as we've said. so i think a lot of it is going to be about and it's going to be more of the same, but he will have to move a bit quicker on certain issues. yeah, it's been really interesting because the last few years china has really kind of been in suspended animation. i couldn't and thank you so much for joining us and i'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of you over the next week or so. and that's it for for the show. i will leave you with these images from beijing as they're prepared for the 20th communist party congress. have a good weekend and see on monday with

her again that i work that's hard and in the end is a me you are not locked up to you anymore. we will send you back. are you familiar with this with the smudges with lions of the what's your story with. ready women, especially and victims of violence and take part and send us your story. we are

trying always to understand this new culture. so you are not a visitor, not the guests. you want to become a citizen. in phil migrants, your platform for reliable information. there are many gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent lives. for example, glasses. that subtitle spoken conversations in real time for deaf people or a smart walking stick that detects obstacles with ultrasonic waves for people with low vision tech for more inclusive edi. that's our topic on shift today. ah, when you see a robot acting as servers in cafes, they're typically replacing human employees. but there is

a cafe in japan that thus thinks differently. the robots here enable people with disabilities to take part in work life, but remotely from their own homes. when customers talk to these little robots, they're not talking to in a i system that talking to a real person like from equal miyoshi, the controls, the robot from home. she's one of about 50 people with physical mental disabilities . working as robot operations at the dorm cafe in tokyo, japan. she takes customers orders through the robot and makes recommendations. the bigger robots them serve the food and drinks. the idea is to give people who can't leave their homes due to health reasons, but want to work the.