In the beginning of the week a lot of attention was drawn to the foreign policy in Luxembourg- namely the EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs held a summit meeting in order to discuss the escalating Russian aggresion war against Ukraine and also the relations between the EU and China.
At the same time as the summit of the ministers in Luxembourg took place , the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held. The Congress is held every fifth year and its main task is to elect the new Central Committee. This time the historical novely is the fact that at the end of the Congress the third five-year leadership term should be confirmed for the Chinese President Xi Jiping, who is also the Secretary General of the Communist Party. Namely there was a change of the Chinese Constitution in 2018, when the former limitation, valid from 1977, which limited the function of the President to two mandates- in total ten years- was abolished.
In his initial almost two hours lasting speech President Xi stressed besides the regulation of the internal personal Party affairs the growing worldwide importance of China and at the same time warned its country of the coming difficult times. In doing so he pointed out the actual political challenges and he sharpened again his tongue against Taiwan. In the EU however there is a common opinion that an escalation in Taiwan must be prevented. Also at the upcoming meeting of the European Council on 20th and 21st October China will be again in the European focus.
