Chinese leaders begin closed-door meetings in Beidaihe

"On behalf of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Mr. Tran Hi - member of the Communist Party Central Committee and Head of the Central Organization Department sent greetings and best wishes to the experts in Beidaihe. Accompanying him was Deputy Premier of the State Council Sun Chunlan," China's state news agency Xinhua said in a statement yesterday.

Experts say this is a sign that a closed-door meeting of China's leadership has begun at the Beidaihe resort. The Chinese government has not officially announced the event, but it usually takes place in early August.

This year’s meeting is being closely watched as Beijing faces unprecedented challenges, with the focus on US-China relations after more than a year of trade war. Protests in Hong Kong and Taiwan are also expected to be high on the agenda for Chinese leaders.

Analysts believe Mr Xi will use the Beidaihe meeting to reach consensus among current and retired Chinese leaders on how to handle the political fallout from the trade war, protests in Hong Kong and other pressing issues.

All of these issues are strategically important to China's core interests and development, and are related to whether it can achieve the two major goals outlined by President Xi: becoming a "moderately prosperous society" by 2021 and transforming China into a "rich, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious country" by 2049.

"Beidaihe is where senior leaders can meet in informal meetings to exchange their views on major policies. This event plays a very important role in China's policymaking," said Alfred Wu, associate professor at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.