Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, slowing economic growth, and tensions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and beyond, Beijing will host its Fifth Plenum of the 19th Chinese Communist Party from October 26 to October 29, 2020. Among other items on the Plenum agenda, the 14th Five-Year-Plan will be approved by the more than 300 full and alternate members of the Party Central Committee and a new economic strategy called the “2035 vision” will be unveiled.
Dr. Ling Chen, assistant professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, examines the upcoming Plenum in the context of Fifth Plenums past, considers the economic and non-economic items likely to be on the agenda, and reflects on the significance of the Plenum for China, the United States, and other parts of the world in an interview recorded on October 21, 2020.
