Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX)(NYSE: GOLD) said on Monday it had achieve a significant legal milestone to proceed with the development of the giant Reko Diq copper-gold deposit in Pakistan, close to the borders of Iran and Afghanistan.

During a four-day visit to the country, president and chief executive Mark Bristow held discussions with several stakeholders, which finished with all the documents needed to start building Reko Diq being approved by the country’s president Arif Alvi.

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Paperwork was filed on Saturday with the supreme court, Barrick said, adding that once that transaction is completed, the project will be owned 50% by Barrick, 25% by the province of Balochistan, where the asset is located, and 25% by major Pakistani state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The Reko Diq project, which hosts one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits, has been on hold since 2011 due to a dispute over the legality of its licensing process.

Barrick solved the long-running dispute earlier this year, reaching a preliminary out-of-court deal that cleared the path for a final agreement on how to run the mine and profit-sharing arrangements.

The project is now seeking financing partners, with a target of 50% debt to total capitalization.

The company plans to deliver production as early as 2027-2028 from Phase 1 at a cost of around $4 billion, with Phase 2 to follow in five years and a cost of roughly $3 billion.

Two-phase development

The conceptual design calls for an open pit with a life of more than 40 years. It would be built in two phases, starting with a plant that will be able to process about 40 million tonnes of ore per annum, which could be doubled in five years.

The latest plan is double the annual throughput capacity and more than twice the investment estimated in an unpublished 2010 feasibility study.

During peak construction, the project is expected to employ 7,500 people and once in production it will create 4,000 long-term jobs during the expected 40-year life of the mine.

Some analysts believe that Pakistan’s lack of experience in mining and its political instability make this a risky deal.

Bristow, however, said in May that he had worked in challenging situations all his life and that he was “very comfortable” with the project. He added that this was the “perfect opportunity for the mining industry to demonstrate what it can bring to an economy” of a region that has been “neglected” and struggles to get access to potable water.

Barrick is setting up community development committees (CDCs) to identify priority projects and supervise their implementation.

“Our CDC model provides a transparent and accountable mechanism for tailoring development programmes to the needs of these communities with their full participation,” Bristow said on Monday.

Barrick also said it was donating an additional $150,000 to the Balochistan flood relief fund, bringing the its total contribution to $300,000.

21 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Mongolia in past 24 hours.

17 of them were contacts in Ulaanbaatar, and 4 were recorded in the regions. No imported cases were found.

The number of coronavirus related deaths is 2,131.

Some foreign countries prefer to use young animals' meat for food. Because such animals have not been vaccinated, the risk of getting infectious diseases is low. Therefore, Mongolia has started to export lamb recently. The 'Darit Shuteen' company of Sukhbaatar aimag has carried out this work in the eastern region by exporting lamb meat to the Islamic Republic of Iran. 'Bayan Tal' meat processing factory contracted with the 'Star Sky Muscat' company to supply lamb to Iran. In the first phase, the parties contracted to provide 500 tons of meat and currently deliver about 250 tons. The meat preparation process is very sophisticated. The supplier has high prerequisites. Therefore, representatives of the government of Iran and partner companies work in Mongolia to double the control.

We interviewed the company's director, B.Enkhtsetseg, about the meat processing factory's products, evolution, operations, and unique advantages.

-Why did you start your foreign trade with lamb export?

-Three years ago, we started exporting lamb in cooperation with a Mongolian company. We studied how to bring a lamb into economic circulation and its importance. The primary significance is to prevent pastures' overloading and protect fields. On the other hand, lambs are the most possible and first-priority animals that can be put into economic circulation. Circulating spring-born lambs in the fall can solve issues that increase the risk of winter disasters and make herders' work more accessible. Our factory started the export of lamb independently in 2021.

-Some people criticize eating the lamb as it comes from a baby animal. Have these things happened a lot before?

-There was a lot of criticism and opposition in the beginning. Our herders barely gave their lambs. When people think of a lamb, they immediately think of it as a tiny baby animal. In general, the animals of our country are raised by grazing methods, so they have good taste besides body types. When the spring calves are sold in the autumn, they have already grown in size. The average weight of lamb is 16-18 kg in our aimag. This idea started giving the correct understanding to the herders and citizens, and on the other hand, our herders also saw the benefits of delivering their lambs. It is a good result of our work. Now the herdsmen are asking to give their lamb by themselves.

-Subsequently, may it change the breeding methods of herders as a result?

-Absolutely. When herders see the results of delivering their lambs and bringing them into the economic cycle at the right time, they start to approach their herding methods from a scientific point of view. They started doing research focusing on how to increase the weight of their lambs. The first lambs weighed 11-12 kg, but now the maximum weight is 24 kg. They used a scientific approach of feeding and emasculating. It is the success of the policy behind our operations.

-In which markets does the ‘Bayan Tal’ meat processing factory sell its products?

-Our factory processes meats from five livestock, except for camels. Our market focuses on three main areas: internal, external, and local. We aim to provide cheap, clean, and quality products to the people through our local factory shops. Ulaanbaatar city is our domestic market. We deliver products that meet the national standard to households and organizations with a precise return address. For families, our factory-prepared and delivered meat products are accessible for consumption. When it comes to enterprises, we follow the customers' orders, not depending on whether it has high-quality bone or boneless meat. Of course, to represent and highlight the country in the foreign market, we aim to have value-added products starting from the box. Currently, we are exporting our products to China and Iran.

-How many animals and meat are processed and put into economic circulation per year?

-It is relatively different eve­ry year. Few factories work continually throughout the year. It is difficult for a country with 3 million people and 80 million animals to do business only in the domestic market. Along with the lifestyle of Mongolians and the needs of herders, the peak period of meat factories is August through October. During this time, we put 400- 500 sheep, goats, and about 100 cows and houses into the factory.

-What other opportunities are there to expand the foreign market?

-For manufacturers in any field, it is essential to release their products abroad, including meat. Bringing livestock and meat into economic circulation will benefit the country, industries, and herders. Therefore, expanding the foreign market is extremely important. It is not easy and depends on law and government policy. But it seems that all works out positively.

The government has recently launched an excellent initiative If our products meet the standards and requirements of the client country, it is being discussed that the Mongolian side will not impose many requirements. It is an advanced and correct decision. It means that if a citizen of a foreign country visits the factory and determines that our product meets the prerequisites of that country, we will be able to supply it directly to that country. If this is implemented in reality, many manufacturers will have the opportunity to sell their products to foreign markets.

For our industry, animal health is crucial in foreign markets. If they prevent their healthy herds, there are more opportunities and significant needs for livestock farmers and meat processors. Recently, meat has been called red gold all over the world. Therefore, exporting livestock meat products and raw materials with added value is an opportunity to improve the livelihood of herders it is essential too. The goal of ‘Bayan Tal' meat processing factory is to become the leading food industry competitive in the local and Mongolian markets to produce pure and organic products that meet the hygiene requirements using Mongolian raw materials. Even though our company started its operations in 2017, it is only now becoming a well-known factory in this country. This factory's lamb was selected as Mongolia's best export product in 2022.

Boiled rumen, scalped head, seasoned Mongolian traditional meat ham, and five purtenance meat soups. These are all foods that have been Mongolians’ national cuisine since ancient times. But these days, it is often depreciated and thrown away. In fact, these foods are the most beneficial for human health. Unfortunately, free vitamins are often wasted. So, we wanted to highlight the "Bayan Tal" meat processing factory to reconfirm that these devalued purtenance meats are a luxury food. It is one of the five companies for meat processing in Sukhbaatar aimag, and the uniqueness of this factory is not wasting anything from animals.

-What is unique about processing and selling purtenance meat products of your factory?

-As society changes and grows, I see Mongolians moving back to their traditional mindset. People started to understand that purtenance products are more beneficial than meat for human health. Based on this need, we process all the purtenance meats of our animals, sort them, and pack them separately because people like one purtenance product more than the other. We try to make our products easier to use by cutting and chopping. We see purtenance products moving beyond healthy organic products to luxury cuisine.

-It is interesting to know how citizens and customers accept your products.

-People pay more attention to their health than before. They learned that getting minerals and vitamins through food is more valuable. Therefore, our products are often praised for being easy to use and having good taste. On the other hand, this type of product costs cheaper.

-What guarantees can be given for the quality of meat and meat products? Because after the incident last June, people's trust in meat producers has been lowered to a certain extent.

-Precisely. A Mongolian proverb says if one cow's horn shakes, the horns of a thousand cows will shake.

That incident negatively impacted the lives of herders in our country and citizens and enterprises that provide services in this field. However, places that are well-known to consumers and prepare good quality products overcame this difficulty. As for our factory, we purchase the animals directly from the herders. But the herdsman must register his animals to the Veterinary Platform.

-Most of your customers purchase the products from hand to hand at your local shops. Does it mean they can only learn about the origin of meat and meat products when they make a purchase?

-Certainly. We have opened a warehouse and factory shop in Ulaanbaatar to supply our products to our customers directly. Customers can come and make their selections and have us deliver to their desired location.

China has told its state-owned gas importers to stop reselling liquefied natural gas (LNG) to foreign buyers as the government aims to secure the nation’s own supply for the winter heating season, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

People with knowledge of the matter told the news outlet that the National Development and Reform Commission has asked PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC to keep their winter supplies for domestic use. While the sales had offered some relief to European buyers, rapidly filling inventories and record-high shipping costs also reduced the appeal of reshipping the fuel, the sources reportedly said.

Domestic demand for energy had been falling in China in recent months, prompting Beijing to resell excess LNG in the global market. Europe, Japan, and South Korea were among its key buyers. Data shows that as gas supplies from Russia to Europe plummeted from 40% to 9%, imports of LNG to the EU have increased by 60% year-on-year, despite being much more expensive than pipeline deliveries.

However, current forecasts for a small deficit in the gas supply likely spurred the move by Beijing, which has pledged to keep houses warm this winter. On Sunday, President Xi Jinping addressed energy security concerns during his two-hour speech.

According to Bloomberg, the move by China to secure its own supply could drain shipments to Europe and exacerbate the region’s looming energy crunch this winter. “China holds large contracts to purchase LNG from exporters like the US, with the Asian nation’s traders diverting some of that supply to Europe this year amid lackluster demand at home,” the outlet reports.

The Elders today welcomed Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, former President of Mongolia, as the newest member of the group.

President Elbegdorj is the first former head of state from Asia to join The Elders, which was founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007. He led his country’s transition to democracy in the 1990s and is an international campaigner on human rights, freedom, nuclear disarmament and climate change.

President Elbegdorj served as President from 2009 to 2017 and as Prime Minister in 1998 and from 2004 to 2006. He helped redefine his country’s relations with its neighbours including Russia and China, as well as establishing Mongolia as a constitutional democracy in the heart of Asia.

The Elders welcome President Elbegdorj to the group as they consider the challenges for the world in the decade ahead. His insight into the geopolitics of Asia, human rights, and multilateral dialogue on existential threats will be critical to The Elders’ upcoming activity.

President Elbegdorj will become one of eleven current Elders and the first to join since early 2019. Made up of former world leaders, Nobel Peace laureates and human rights advocates, the group promotes global solutions to existential threats and encourages ethical leadership.

Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders and former President of Ireland, said:

“I am delighted to welcome Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj to The Elders. He is a leading voice on democracy, disarmament and good governance across Asia who will bring a unique perspective to the Elders’ work. My fellow Elders and I are looking forward to working with him in the years ahead to tackle the interconnected challenges facing humanity.”

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj said:

“It is a huge honour to join The Elders at this critical time. In confronting our global challenges the world needs a holistic approach that puts people and their rights at the centre of the stage. I am inspired by Nelson Mandela’s vision of hope, courage and resilience, and look forward to working alongside my fellow Elders to build a safer, healthier and fairer world for all.”

In the winter of 2019, a number of children living in India's Jammu region began falling sick with what many thought was a mysterious illness.

The children, suffering from cough and cold, had been prescribed a cough syrup by local doctors. Instead of recovering, they fell seriously ill, vomiting, running high fever and kidneys shutting down. By the time the mystery was solved, 11 children, aged between two months and six years, had died.

Tests found that three samples of the cough syrup, made by an Indian drug company called Digital Vision, contained diethylene glycol or DEG, an industrial solvent used in the making of paints, ink, brake fluids. Kidney failure is common after consuming this poisonous alcohol.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) put out a global warning over four India-made cough syrups thought to be linked to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia. Lab analysis of the samples of a syrup made by a 32-year-old firm called Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited confirmed the presence of "unacceptable amounts" of diethylene glycol and another toxic alcohol called ethylene glycol.

The tainted drugs and the tragic deaths again shone a spotlight on India's $42bn - half of the revenues come from exports - drug manufacturing industry.

Some 3,000 firms operate 10,000 pharmaceutical factories making generics (copies of branded medicines that usually sell for a fraction of their price), over-the-counter medicines, vaccines and ingredients in what is one of the world's largest drug-making countries. Although India imports 70% of the active ingredient chemicals for its medicines from China, it is trying to make more of them at home.

A view of the Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited pharmaceutical Indian factory at Toansa village in Ropar about 50 Km from Chandigarh on May 14, 2013. The US subsidiary of New Delhi-based Ranbaxy Laboratories pleaded guilty to seven counts of felony after it distributed several India-produced adulterated generic drugs in the United States in 2005 and 2006.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has championed India as the "pharmacy of the world". India's traditional expertise in making generics has helped make it a formidable low-cost maker of drugs and become a global manufacturing base.

Some 40% of over-the-counter and generic medicines sold in the US and a quarter of all medicines dispensed in the UK come from India. The country supplies some two-thirds of anti-retroviral drugs globally to fight HIV. Outside the USA, India has the most number of drug making plants - 800 - that are compliant with the US health and safety requirements.

Yet such breathless growth - the industry has been running at a clip of over 9% every year for nearly a decade - has been clouded by allegations of problems of quality and weak regulation.

Many believe that India has always battled a flood of counterfeit drugs, mostly sold in small towns and villages. But analysts say the physicians and patients are possibly conflating sub-standard drugs with what they think are fake medicines. State-run drug testing labs in many states are under-funded, short-staffed and poorly equipped. Regulatory oversight and enforcement is unsurprisingly spotty, analysts say. In 2014, India's top drug regulator famously told a newspaper: "If I follow US standards I will have to shut almost all drug facilities."

More than 70 people, mostly children, have died in five separate mass poisoning incidents related to drugs spiked with DEG since 1972.

In 2013, after a seven-year long investigation, top Indian drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories was ordered to pay a record $500m fine in the US, the biggest handed down to a generic drug maker for improper manufacturing, storing and testing of drugs.

A teacher administers a deworming tablet to children to prevent intestinal worms as part of India's National Deworming Programme at a government primary school in Hyderabad on September 15, 2022

Official government records reveal that between 2007 and 2020, more than 7,500 drugs sampled in just three of India's 28 states and three union territories had failed quality tests and had been declared drugs "not of standard quality" or inferior, research by Dinesh Thakur, a former Indian drug executive-turned-public health expert, found.

These drugs failed tests for not having enough of ingredient chemicals, impaired ability to dissolve in the patients' blood or were found to be contaminated.

Each failed sample typically represents a batch of the medicine, which in turn could run into hundreds of thousands of tablets, capsules and injections. "The total number of patients affected by such inferior drugs possibly runs into hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions over the last decade," says Mr Thakur, co-author of The Truth Pill, a piercing look at drug regulation in India.

Mr Thakur says he worries that many Indian firms are not following "good manufacturing practices" or GMP, a drug industry term to refer to testing for quality control. He believes that the DEG-related incidents had occurred at home - and now abroad - because some firms "quite often fail to test either the raw materials or the final formulation before shipping it to the market".

"Given the sheer quality of drugs detected as "not of standard quality" over the last decade from the open market it is obvious that a large number of manufacturing facilities are completely flouting quality and process control procedures that form the core of 'good manufacturing practices'" says Mr Thakur.

A photograph shows collected cough syrups in Banjul on October 06, 2022. - Indian authorities are investigating cough syrups made by a local pharmaceutical company after the World Health Organisation said they could be responsible for the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia.

That's not all. Using right to information law, Mr Thakur found many of India's state-owned drug testing labs lacked key equipment. Drug sampling practices, he noted, date back to a colonial 1875 law where inspectors pick up a small number of random samples from the market.

India has been debating a law to recall drugs that have been found to be inferior from the market since nearly half a century. "All it has are guidelines, which many state regulators seem to be unaware of. Have you ever heard of a drug recalled in India?" says Mr Thakur.

It is difficult to understand the scale of the problem - many of India's drug factories are indeed world-class. Physicians say they largely trust India-made drugs.

Dr Rahul Baxi, a Mumbai-based diabetologist, told me that only once in recent years he became suspicious about a drug when glucose levels of a patient shot up after he switched off from branded drug to a cheaper generic.

But he suspects that there could be counterfeit or inferior drugs being sold in small towns and villages. "Many of my patients that come from far flung parts of India buy six months of prescribed drugs from pharmacies in the city because they say they don't trust drugs available in their areas," Dr Baxi said.

After the deaths of the children in The Gambia, India claimed that its federal regulator was "robust" and sought more details from the WHO on the causality of the deaths with the exported cough syrup.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates medical products in the US, posts inspection status of firms supplying drugs to the US and warning letters. A spokesperson told me that its policies ensure that "companies - regardless of where the are located - meet the FDA's strict standards for producing medicines for US patients that are high quality, safe and effective".

A pharmaceutical industry leader, insisting on anonymity, told me that "although some countries do have very rigid quality standards", India's drugs were completely safe. "We are not defending the mishaps," he said, "but these are aberrations". Mr Thakur says: "An aberration should only happen once. You can't play with people's lives".

The Mongolian justice system has progressed significantly towards protection against arbitrary detention but it is important not to stop, as further measures are needed if rights are to be fully respected, UN experts said.

While commending the government for multiple reforms during the past five years, a delegation from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said arrests without a judicial warrant are still the norm rather than the exception in Mongolia and individuals are routinely interrogated in police custody without the presence of a lawyer.

“It is concerning that criminal investigators and prosecutors enjoy vast and unchecked powers, while defendants are not afforded all the guarantees of due process, disregarding the equality of arms,” the group said in a statement at the end an official visit to the country. It has made recommendations to the Government on how to further strengthen safeguards.

“We welcome the reform of criminal justice laws, the enactment of a law on human rights defenders, as well as the establishment of a National Preventive Mechanism. Nevertheless, these strategic decisions need to be effectively translated into practice, since the adequate implementation of the law cannot be taken for granted.”

The experts said the judicial system is under immense pressure, due to the lack of new and specialised courts, shortage of staff and case overload.

“This situation could be preventing judges from devoting sufficient time to give detailed consideration to each case, opting for simply granting the prosecutors’ request, without giving due consideration to the arguments and evidence presented by the defence.”

Some crimes were vaguely worded or not properly defined in legislation, including provisions used to combat the spread of COVID-19.

“It is concerning that these could be used to interfere with the legitimate work of human rights defenders, especially as they protest against strategic development projects or to restrict the peaceful expressions of opinions and freedoms of assembly and association,” the experts said.

The Working Group said Mongolia was tackling what appears to be a widespread problem of alcohol abuse and it recommended that the Government approach this from a health and social perspective, for example, by implementing community-based treatment. Resorting to deprivation of liberty and tasking the security and law enforcement agencies or officials with the prime responsibility was not the answer.

During the visit, from 3 to 14 October, the delegation – Elina Steinerte and Matthew Gillett – met Government officials, judges, prosecutors and lawyers, civil society representatives and other stakeholders. They visited 21 facilities and interviewed around 65 people deprived of their liberty.

A final report on the visit will be presented to the Human Rights Council in September 2023.

Germany wants to expand investment in Mongolia to help secure strategically important raw materials including copper and rare earths, according to Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The East Asian nation sandwiched between Russia and China can be a reliable partner for Germany as it seeks to diversify suppliers and guarantee access to the materials it needs in areas like battery and chip production, Scholz said Friday after talks with Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai in Berlin.

“What is important now is that very concrete projects are identified where cooperation can be taken forward,” Scholz told reporters at a joint news conference. Germany wants “many good partners around the world” as it looks to avoid “placing all of its eggs in one basket,” he added.

Major economies like Germany are competing fiercely for increasingly scarce resources and access to metals and rare earths is crucial for their climate and digital transitions.

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has also been a wake-up call for Germany, which built up a heavy reliance on imports of Russian fossil fuels in recent decades and is now seeking to diversify suppliers of the materials it needs to keep its economy running.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last month that commodities like lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas.

She predicted that EU demand for rare earths alone — which are used in anything from electric motors to wind turbines and portable electronics — will increase fivefold by 2030.

(By Michael Nienaber)

Chairman of the State Great Khural G.Zandanshatar will pay an official visit to the Republic of Turkey on October 13-17 at the invitation of Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Şentop.

On October 14, the Speakers of the two countries held official talks.

At the outset, the Turkish Speaker expressed satisfaction with the fact that the development of relations and cooperation between the two countries, which was slowed down due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, is being intensified and high-level visit is being organized. He then emphasized that Mongolia declared Turkey as its “third neighbor” in 2011 while expressing willingness to bring Mongolia-Turkey relations to the level of “Strategic Partnership”.

Moreover, the Turkish Speaker expressed his interest in expanding cooperation in air transportation and put forth a proposal to increase the frequency of direct flights by Turkish Airlines and cancel the passenger limit.

Expressing his commitment to further expanding interparliamentary cooperation, Mr. Mustafa Şentop invited Mr. G.Zandanshatar to take part in the 11th Conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking States in April 2023.

Thanking his counterpart for the warm welcome, the Mongolian Speaker expressed satisfaction with the development Mongolia-Turkey relations and cooperation and underscored that the people of Mongolia and Turkey have a long history of friendly relations.

He then reaffirmed his commitment to bringing Mongolia-Turkey relations to the level of “Strategic Partnership”, before expressing support for his counterpart’s proposal to increase the frequency of direct flights and cancel the passenger limit.

“Mongolia has over 70 million livestock and has the potential to bring 20 million livestock into economic circulation annually. We have a capacity to export 100 thousand tons of meat and 25 million livestock leather and raw materials per year. Mongolia accounts for 50 percent of the supply of cashmere products in the world. Therefore, I would like to express willingness to deepen cooperation in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry based on the Turkish advanced technology and Mongolia’s resources”, said the Mongolian Speaker.

In accordance with the Government of Mongolia’s decision to declare 2023 the year of visiting Mongolia, the Mongolian side also voiced interest in cooperating with the Turkish side in increasing the flow of tourists.

He mentioned that the ruins of Hulagu Khan's summer palace and the monuments related to the ancient Turkic Empire were found in Turkey's Van province and Mongolia's Arkhangai province respectively. He then expressed willingness to expand cooperation in the protection and conservation of cultural monuments and heritages and develop tourism based on archaeological discoveries.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Sunday vowed to steer China through grave challenges toward national rejuvenation, advancing a nationalistic vision that has put it on a collision path with the West.

Speaking at the opening of the 20th Party Congress, where he is poised to secure a norm-breaking third term in power, Xi struck a confident tone, highlighting China’s growing strength and rising influence under his first decade in power.

But he also repeatedly underscored the risks and challenges the country faces.

Describing the past five years as “highly unusual and extraordinary,” Xi said the ruling Communist Party has led China through “a grim and complex international situation” and “huge risks and challenges that came one after another.”

The very first challenges Xi listed were the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong and Taiwan — all of which he claimed China had come away from victorious.

The Chinese government, Xi said, had “protected people’s lives and health” from Covid, turned Hong Kong from “chaos to governance,” and carried out “major struggles” against “independence forces” in the island of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing claims as its own territory despite having never controlled it.

Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australia National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, said Xi’s decision to flag the Taiwan issue early on in his speech was a departure from previous speeches and conveys a “newfound urgency on making progress on the Taiwan issue.”

Xi won the loudest and longest applause from the nearly 2,300 handpicked delegates inside the Great Hall of the People when he spoke about Taiwan again later in the speech.

He said China would “strive for peaceful reunification” — but then gave a grim warning, saying “we will never promise to renounce the use of force and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary.”

“The wheels of history are rolling on towards China’s reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Complete reunification of our country must be realized,” Xi said to thundering applause.

Xi also underscored the “rapid changes in the international situation” — a thinly veiled reference to the fraying ties between China and the West, which have been further strained by Beijing’s tacit support for Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He said China has “taken a clear-cut stance against hegemonism and power politics” and “never wavered” in opposition to unilateralism and “bullying” — in an apparent jab at what Beijing views as a US-led world order that needs to be dismantled.

Laying out broad directions for the next five years, Xi said China would focus on “high quality education” and innovation to “renew growth” in the country’s crisis-hit economy. China will “speed up efforts to achieve greater self-reliance in science and technology,” he said, in comments that come just months after his damaging crackdown on the country’s private sector and major tech companies.

Xi also vowed to speed up efforts to build the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a “world-class military,” pledging to improve the PLA’s ability to safeguard national sovereignty and build strategic deterrence. He also urged the PLA to strengthen its training and improve its “ability to win.”

Xi’s speech was peppered with the Chinese term for “security” — which was mentioned about 50 times. He called national security the “foundation of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” and urged enhancing security in military, economy and “all aspects,” both at home and abroad.

Another point of focus was Marxism and ideology. “I don’t think there will be any relaxation of the ideological atmosphere in the coming five years,” said Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the University of California.

Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said the directions laid out in Xi’s opening speech were a continuation of his previous policies. By emphasizing the challenges and struggles, he said, it justifies “the need for a strong party and its great leader.”

Cementing power

The week-long congress kicked off on Sunday morning amid heightened security, escalated zero-Covid restrictions and a frenzy of propaganda and censorship.

The Communist Party’s most consequential meeting in decades, the congress is set to cement Xi’s status as the China’s most powerful leader since late Chairman Mao Zedong, who ruled until his death aged 82. It will also have a profound impact on the world, as Xi doubles down on an assertive foreign policy to boost China’s international clout and rewrite the US-led global order.

A sense of crisis has defined Xi's rule. It will shape China well into the future

The meetings will be mostly held behind close doors throughout the week. When delegates reemerge at the end of the congress next Saturday, they will conduct a ceremonial vote to rubber stamp Xi’s work report and approve changes made to the party constitution — which might bestow Xi with new titles to further strengthen his power.

The delegates will also select the party’s new Central Committee, which will hold its first meeting the next day to appoint the party’s top leadership — the Politburo and its Standing Committee, following decisions already hashed out behind the scenes by party leaders before the congress.

The congress will be a major moment of political triumph for Xi, but it also comes during a period of potential crisis. Xi’s insistence on an uncompromising zero-Covid policy has fueled mounting public frustration and crippled economic growth. Meanwhile, diplomatically, his “no-limits” friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has further strained Beijing’s ties with the West following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the lead-up to the congress, officials across China drastically ramped up restrictions to prevent even minor Covid outbreaks, imposing sweeping lockdowns and increasingly frequent mass Covid tests over a handful of cases. Yet infections caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant have continued to flare. On Saturday, China reported nearly 1,200 infections, including 14 in Beijing.

Public anger toward zero-Covid came to the fore Thursday in an exceptionally rare protest against Xi in Beijing. Online photos showed two banners were unfurled on a busy overpass denouncing Xi and his policies, before being taken down by police.

“Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” one banner reads.

“Go on strike, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping,” read the other.

The Chinese public have paid little attention to the party’s congresses in the past – they have no say in the country’s leadership reshuffle, or the making of major policies. But this year, many have pinned their hopes on the congress to be a turning point for China to relax its Covid policy.

A series of recent articles in the party’s mouthpiece, however, suggest that could be wishful thinking. The People’s Daily hailed zero-Covid as the “best choice” for the country, insisting it is “sustainable and must be followed.”

On Sunday, Xi defended his highly contentious and economically damaging zero-Covid policy.

“In responding to the sudden outbreak of Covid-19, we prioritized the people and their lives above all else, and tenaciously pursued dynamic zero-Covid policy in launching all-out people’s war against the virus,” he said.

Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said Xi’s words signaled it is “impossible for China to change the zero-Covid strategy in the near future.”