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Opinion

Stephen Bartholomeusz Senior business columnist October 16, 2025 — 12.09pm

Next week, China’s leadership will gather in Beijing for a meeting that will 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 for the next five years developed by the senior leaders of the party, headed by Preisdent Xi Jinping.

The “Fourth Plenum,” one of seven gatherings scheduled in every five-year period, normally focuses on internal party matters an

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