China's ruling Communist Party began a key four-day meeting Monday to discuss how to further deepen reforms, state-run media said, with the world's second-largest economy facing such challenges as a prolonged property sector crisis and population decline.
The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee, which brings together top party officials, is also expected to set China's mid- to long-term economic policy.
The country's leader Xi Jinping delivered a work report and explained a draft decision of the committee on "further comprehensively deepening" reforms and advancing "Chinese modernization," a development model different from that of Western nations, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Meanwhile, China's economic growth in the April-June period slowed to a real 4.7 percent from a year earlier, official data showed Monday, with the result likely increasing calls for more stimulus at the third plenary session.
The Communist Party is expected to release the outcome of the gathering in a communique on Thursday, the last day of the plenary session. Historically, the third plenum has served as a springboard for major changes in China's development policies, including the adoption in 1978 of the reform and opening-up policy.
However, some observers have cast doubt on the direction of the opening-up policy, with the Asian power's top leadership in recent years advocating stronger state control over the economy and the importance of ensuring national security.
This trend can be seen as a backpedaling on the party decision at a third plenum of the 18th Central Committee in 2013 that said China will advance reforms to ensure that the market plays a "decisive" role in allocating resources, the observers say.
Besides the economic issues, the plenary session may also decide on a personnel reshuffle following scandals involving senior party members. In late June, the party decided to expel two former defense ministers, Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, for serious disciplinary and law violations in corruption cases.
The Communist Party typically holds seven plenums over a five-year cycle. The third plenary session following a twice-a-decade party congress in 2022 had been widely expected to be held last fall.
The apparent delay of the session has sparked speculation about difficulties in formulating policies to cope with economic challenges such as the real estate sector problem.
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