C
hina comes to a standstill during the Lunar New Year holiday, but political activity will soon return in full force to Beijing. In early March, senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party will converge on the capital and its vast Great Hall of the People for the major annual meeting of the National People's Congress, the party's rubber-stamp legislature. The 2026 edition promises to be particularly strategic: Beyond the economic goals for the current year, the 3,000 delegates will, without suspense, approve the country's roadmap for the next five years.
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The endless purges of Xi Jinping's China
The new five-year plan was already finalized during a meeting of the Party-State leaders in autumn 2025. At that time, the authorities outlined the plan's priorities: to build a modernized economy "with an advanced industry as its backbone," to achieve "a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance," and to develop "a strong domestic market." The details of this roadmap are eagerly awaited, prompting many questions: How will China continue to produce for export while supporting the weak consumption of Chinese households? Has the one-party state taken full stock of the demographic challenge, given that China's population declined in 2025 for the fourth consecutive year?
