Chinese Communist Party Set Key Plenum for November

What’s new: The Chinese Communist Party set a plenary session for November to discuss the “major achievements and historical experience of the party in the past century,” state media Xinhua News Agency said.

The decision to hold the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee was made Tuesday at a meeting of the party’s Politburo, China’s top decision-making body, chaired by President Xi Jinping, Xinhua said. An exact date was not given.

In addition, the Politburo said it reviewed reports from inspection teams on the country’s education system and urged colleges to strengthen the party’s leadership and promote high-quality development of higher education.

The inspection teams found some common and deep problems in the 31 universities directly under the administration of the central government and urged the schools to rectify the problems, according to the meeting. Xinhua didn’t identify the problems.

The background: The 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party was elected by the 19th National Congress in 2017 and will sit until the next national congress is convened in 2022.

The Central Committee is elected for a term of five years. Each central committee usually holds seven plenary sessions during its five-year term. The agenda for each session tends to have a relatively fixed focus. The first plenary session is usually responsible for electing the new central leadership, and the second discusses leadership of state agencies. The third and fourth sessions make major decision on economic reform and development and national policies. The fifth session puts forward suggestions for the next five-year plan.

The sixth session usually focuses on ideology and party building. The sixth plenum of the 18th Central Committee in October 2016 designated Xi as the “core” of the leadership.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full story in Chinese, click here.

Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)

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