China ahead of the Third Plenum, with Johnny Erling

Shortly after the 20th Party Congress of the CCP in 2022, party and state leader Xi Jinping was confirmed for a third term in office at the first plenum of the Central Committee. This year, the Central Committee will convene for its Third Plenum, which has often been the venue for landmark reform decisions in the past and takes place every five years. 

The meeting was expected to take place in October or November, but the date has not been publicly announced so far. In online debates, people in China are discussing possible reasons for the postponement and calling for reforms they deem long overdue. The current situation of the Communist Party and Xi Jinping ahead of the Third Plenum and the likelihood of reforms happening is the topic of Johannes Heller-John’s conversation with MERICS Senior Associate Fellow Johnny Erling. Erling lived in China for several decades and was Beijing correspondent for the German newspaper "Die Welt" and the Austrian "Der Standard" from 1997 to 2019.