Highlights from Xi Jinping’s opening speech
Four days have passed since the opening of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. The congress takes place every 5 years and this specific congress includes the most significant changes in the last 40 years. Both in trends of all China and in personal terms for Xi, who is running for another term as president of the nation. The President’s speech held on Sunday, October 16th is the opening speech for the Congress that will be held for a week until October 22th.
President Xi Jinping delivered a report to Congress on behalf of the 19th CPC Central Committee regarding the 5 past years and the main points for the next 5 years. Many commentators try to investigate every word in the speech and thus draw conclusions about the government’s plans for the future. Some of them talk about the conflict with Taiwan, relations with the United States or Chinese cooperation with Russia… We’ve chosen the chapters regarding innovation and technology from the president’s point of view and were presented in part of the 105-minute speech.
“We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth” Xi said. “We will open up new areas and new arenas in development and steadily foster new growth drivers and new strengths.” Systems for scientific and technological innovation will be improved. Innovation will remain at the heart of China’s modernization drive, and an open and globally competitive innovation ecosystem will be created, according to Xi.
There is a deep understanding that innovation relies on high-quality, educated, and creative personnel. The government intends to develop and Invest effort in finding talented people, improving them and expanding strongly the infrastructure for that purpose. Another matter in the same context that the president mentioned is the China Standards 2035 program, without mentioning the name of the program but the required results:
High-standard opening up will also be promoted. China will steadily expand institutional opening up with regard to rules, regulations, management, and standards, accelerate the transformation into a trader of quality, and promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said. An ambitious task that is an integral part of the state’s ability to operate and develop independently.
Another important subject is to strengthen China’s position and its global influence. “We will strengthen our international communication capabilities, make our communication more effective, and strive to strengthen China’s voice in international affairs so it is commensurate with our composite national strength and international status,” it said. “We will deepen exchanges and mutual learning with other civilizations and better present Chinese culture to the world.”
After 5 successful and very complex years which included dealing with an epidemic and an economic conflict with United States, it seems that China moving towards an ambitious 5 years of developing new infrastructure to achieve new heights, in addition to strengthening existing achievements and capabilities. So it is true that there are still no updates regarding easing guidelines in dealing with the epidemic. At the same time, maybe the new concessions in Hong Kong mark the near future to take place in China.
China intends to continue to be a leading technological nation and in the future a country that defines regulatory and quality standards. It also seems important for China to improve the image created for it in some cases by the foreign media, during the epidemic and on various other issues such as low product quality. In addition, the ambition to increase the salary of the lower class and maintain the stability of the GDP In an unstable world will be challenging and will affect the targets’ results set by its leaders.
