SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
While the Republican Party held its convention in Milwaukee, this week, China's ruling Communist Party convened an important meeting of its own in Beijing. The party's elite met to chart a course for China's development and reform over the next five years. NPR's John Ruwitch is in Beijing. John, thanks so much for being with us.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Happy to do it.
SIMON: Who was there?
RUWITCH: Yeah. This was a meeting of the policymaking Central Committee of the Communist Party. So it's the top 200 or so officials. There are also about 170 alternates. It's a staid affair that's held in secret. And when it ended, we got an initial curated glimpse through state media of what they all agreed on and what the priorities are. It ended on Thursday, just like the RNC, and sort of the split screen with the Republican Convention could not have been starker.
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HULK HOGAN: Enough was enough. And I said, let Trump-a-mania run wild, brother.
RUWITCH: That's not Beijing. That's retired pro wrestler Hulk Hogan in Wisconsin as he was about to rip his shirt off at the RNC. And basically, at the exact same time that that was happening, this scene was playing out in Beijing.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) Reform will be advanced in areas where the people have the highest concerns and expectations.
RUWITCH: These are bureaucrats speaking through an interpreter explaining the Central Committee's decisions. I have to tell you it was very jargony, and it's hard to make sense at this point what it all means in practice, or what it will mean. But if the RNC, you know, was about a vision for fixing America's problem, that's sort of what the Central Committee was doing, ultimately, talking about rejuvenating China.
SIMON: What came out of the party meeting?
RUWITCH: Well, it was a big grab bag of promises. There were - was everything from pledges to promote high-quality economic development to governing cyberspace better to deepening reform and education. Everything was quite vague, though. What was clear was they endorsed Xi Jinping's vision for the future for the country, one that has security and economic development going together, and they endorsed a very proactive role for the party in guiding the economy.
China's economy has big problems, right? GDP growth came in this past week, lower than expected for the second quarter. Consumption's weak. Deflation's a risk. There's a huge debt problem. There's a real estate crisis. On and on these problems go. There was lip service at the Central Committee meeting to all of the big economic problems, but we didn't really see any concrete or immediate measures. We do expect to hear more details in the coming days, though.
SIMON: Both Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, have had some sharp words about China. What seems to be Beijing's reaction?
RUWITCH: Yeah. Beijing, first of all, is not thrilled with either Trump or Biden, to be honest. With Trump and Vance in the spotlight, though, yeah, China featured very prominently in the RNC. It was in speech after speech. And Vance, actually, in one of his first interviews after being named Trump's running mate, called China America's, quote, "biggest threat."
Now, the official communique from the Central Committee meeting this week in Beijing made no mention of the United States. That's to be expected. China is not taking sides in the election. They are keeping official commentary on the election to a minimum, probably so there's no blowback. But in recent years, the Chinese position on U.S. policy towards it has been very clear. They've accused the U.S. of trying to thwart China's development, of trying to encircle China and trying to hold it down.
SIMON: What about the question of Taiwan, which certainly is at the heart of U.S. concerns?
RUWITCH: Yes. Taiwan is interesting. President Biden has said on many occasions, quite directly, that he would help Taiwan defend itself. J.D. Vance has also been pretty clear on that in the past, saying that the United States needs to help defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion because of all the microchips that are made in Taiwan. They're critical to the U.S. economy.
Trump's been a bit cagier. There was an interview with Bloomberg that was published this past week in which he did not commit to the defense of Taiwan. In fact, he questioned why the U.S. should defend Taiwan at all and said that Taiwan should be paying us if they want help with defense. It's really hard to know if that'll translate into policy, but if the Chinese government senses any hesitance on the part of Trump or a U.S. president to defend Taiwan, maybe it'll see an opportunity, right? And almost nobody thinks that Taiwan can repel a Chinese invasion by itself.
SIMON: NPR's John Ruwitch in Beijing. Thanks so much for being with us.
RUWITCH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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