China Warns Risks Are Increasing After Biggest Party Meeting

(Bloomberg) -- China's ruling Communist Party warned that internal and external risks were increasing after wrapping up its most important meeting of the year.

The party “holds high the great banner of socialism” in the face of “a more complicated situation with risks and challenges significantly increasing at home and abroad,” according to a communique released after the meeting known as a plenum that mostly contained vague statements. The party's 200-plus-member Central Committee also discussed ways to improve the market-based economic system as well as the legal system in Hong Kong “for safeguarding national security.”

The four-day closed-door meeting ending Thursday was the first time the body gathered since February 2018, the longest stretch without convening since China began its reform era four decades ago. In the run-up to the event, President Xi Jinping had repeatedly warned against complacency, complaining in a speech last month that some cadres were “weak-kneed and unwilling to fight” against the party's growing and long-term challenges.

“The communique confirms that the Xi administration's outlook is one of increasing domestic and global risks, and therefore the solution is to double down on the party's absolute control,” said Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair of China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The lack of meaningful economic reforms coming out of the meeting isn't an aberration, but merely the most recent signal from Xi that he's not seeking to make fundamental alterations to the Party's level of oversight and control.”

Xi Uses China's Biggest Annual Meeting for Politics, Not Economy

China is projected to see the slowest growth in gross domestic product in almost three decades this year -- a concern made worse by the trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump and rising prices of food staples like pork. Xi's government has also struggled with how to quell protests in Hong Kong that began over controversial legislation allowing extraditions to the mainland.

Faced with these challenges, the party's leadership stressed the need for continuity. The readout outlined what it called the “clear advantages” of China's political system, including “unified leadership” and “political stability.” It also returned to themes Xi has emphasized as president, including the party's leadership of the economy, culture and society, and the need for “confidence” in China's system.

On Hong Kong, the communique echoed previous statements by Xi and other top officials who have stressed the need to rule the semi-autonomous former colony “strictly” according to the constitution and ensure its long-term prosperity and stability. The committee said Hong Kong's law and enforcement system would be improved, without offering details.

Months-long protests have weighed on Hong Kong's economic growth, driving it into a recession in the third quarter. Gross domestic product retreated 3.2% from the previous three months, the worst slump since 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.net;Peter Martin in Beijing at pmartin138@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Philip Glamann

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With assistance from Bloomberg