China’s Communist Party begins 20th national summit

BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 16: The 20th national congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) opens Sunday, Oct. 16, in Beijing with 2,296 delegates from across the country. The summit is held every five years where party delegates decide future policies and back new leadership roles. The CPC boasts more than 96 party members. China expert Einar Tangen said the main themes of the national summit “will be continuity and generational change.” “Continuity, as China experiences economic and political headwinds, due to COVID-19, conflicts, inflation, recession, and an increasingly hostile geopolitical situation. There is very little support for changing horses in the midst of the turbulent tsunami of events confronting China and the world,” Tangen, a senior fellow at the Beijing-based Taihe Institute, told Anadolu Agency via email from the Chinese capital. The quintessential summit is being held when the US sees China as its major rival and is mulling steps to liquidate dependency on Chinese supply chains. The two nations hold the world’s top two economies, respectively, and they have strong militaries. It also comes on the heels of renewed tensions in Taiwan Strait as Washington flew US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on an unannounced trip to the self-ruled island which Beijing saw as the biggest provocation from the West. - Party report on economic, political situation Founded on July 23, 1921, the CPC, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, won the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), and in 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Soon after, the Kuomintang migrated to an island across the Taiwan Strait, in southern China. Home to 24 million people, the island, officially known as the Republic of China, is identified as Taiwan across the globe and has independent diplomatic relations with 14 nations. (Footage by Emre Aytekin /Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)