Next week, China’s leadership will gather in Beijing for a meeting to set the direction of its economy for the next five years. The escalation in trade hostilities with the US means this meeting has special weight.

More than 300 members of China’s ruling Communist Party’s central committee will hold the closed-door meeting in a Beijing hotel – usually the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing’s west – to discuss (which in China means endorse) the economic plan developed by the senior leaders of the party, headed by President Xi Jinping.

President Xi Jinping and China’s leaders will set the course for the nation’s economy. Credit: AP

The “Fourth Plenum”, one of seven gatherings scheduled in every five-year period, normally focuses on internal party matters and governance, with economic strategy reserved for the fifth plenum. After Xi delayed last year’s third plenum by almost a year, however, next week’s meeting’s primary focus will be on the economy.

That doesn’t mean that it will exclude internal party issues. More than a dozen senior officials have either died, been investigated for corruption or have simply disappeared from public sight this year. There has also been an unusually large-scale turnover of generals within China’s armed forces.

Xi has been conducting a purge of his senior ranks, with much speculation about his motivation but few real insights. Is he clearing a path for his successor, trying to ensure his own pathway towards a fourth term in 2027 is secure, or attempting to strengthen the party’s position within a more challenging environment?

While any indication of a power play within the party would have geopolitical implications, the outcomes of more immediate global consequences will lie within the next five-year plan.

The foundations for these plans were laid in 2015, two years into Xi’s presidency, by the “Made in China........

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