like the long mediterranean, ah, it's waters connect people of many cultures seen of almost rock and so far do korean drift along with exploring modern more styles and mediterranean youth. where has a history left? it's traces reading regal, hearing their dreams, them to me. this week 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 she, king king, 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 hands, 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 poor. because china, under she has had its share of milestones and challenges. as dw clifford, conan reports a 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 1970s. china has been transformed since the mile 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 and his appointment for a 3rd term as party chief gives him more political muscle. he eating yoshika each in baghdad. they don't go there. in the past, the party congress in china was similar to elections in the west. ah, they found that there were many factions, many struggles on many disagreements with 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 each hit 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, the foundation of the people's republic. he's not rude, are taking the island by force. his reluctance to condemn russia's invasion of

ukraine has antagonized the west g and his efforts to grab territory in the south china sea of anger. china's neighbor is all i do relations with the united states or at their lowest ebb for years. while tensions between the e, you and china could escalate if she strengthens his commitment to a confrontational foreign policy. while the rest of the world is eating cove at 19 restrictions, china's authorities have intensified their efforts to contain outbreaks, with strict loc downs, math testing and lengthy quarantines. the 0 coven 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. jaime, 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 modes a dong he did have people who looked like his anointed successors. some of them were eased out like joe and lie. others died in plain crushes like an embryo, m. and then we had young junk, the men who followed on from, from don shopping am and who's in town they did, 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 old 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, is taking full control, and he's entrenching himself at the, at the top of the party. and anyone, any of his allies seemed to be just and 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, and 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? well, i think 0 covered and the economy. i mean, it's 2 issues, but the very closely linked, i think that's one thing that's really struck me recently is and how he's sticking to the 0 covey 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 to shop and people can't make things to, to export it's, it's really damaging the economy. i'm and i think this is one area where 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 come his party leader. she jim ping, few things very much in 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 in 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 to, 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 m a possible coo and those things emerge every single time that there's a period of 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 is emerging as a challenger. we had both. she lie in the run up 10 years ago when am when i, when she jumping took power. i was clear the bow she lie was a possible contender there and he was very quickly moved aside. so there's no similar challenges emerging. yeah, me, he's very much a mystery man. so on that, no, i want to take a look at she came ping story, his background and his arise to power and, and we'll follow up. ah, it was this moment that elevated, changing ping above johnny's latest 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 dilates each she our country. is that an important point at strategic

opportunity in its development? shaw dryer issue of a n g. she was born in bay ging 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 ping 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 under see john has become more assertive on the international stage fuel by a growing patriotism at home. much of it based around changing things, image as china's strong man. but she has also ever seen increased limitations on freedoms. expanding online censorship in cracking down on opposition, voices and leaked humans link she directly to human rights abuses against the muslim minority wiggers. in 2018, the to term limit on the presidency was removed and paving the way for a 3rd term in office and allow and see to effectively reminding power for life. i city 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 and i think he, i think he thinks he does. he definitely has a version of what he thinks is best for, 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, you know, his father was a key figure and he's, you know, he grew up in us and it was mentioned there in the report in, you know, he was sent to the, in the culture and the cultural revolution, he was sent under chancey province and, and it to, you know, where he lived in caves and even turned that struggle into something that appears to have motivated him 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 is, oh man and, 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 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, 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 every grand and, and the other property develop switch 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 cove. it, i think a lot more flexibility because then he can certainly relax. i mean, scientifically, there are reasons why he can do it. but as you said, he's not thinking scientifically when it comes to this year, 0 coven policy. and i think am 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. and so i think a lot of it is going to be about m. m is 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. i and that's it. for, for the show, i will leave you with these images from bay gene,

as they're prepared for the 20th communist party congress. have a good weekend and see on monday with ah, with

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