Decoding China's Two Sessions: Politics, Purges, and a New Five Year Plan

In this episode of Pekingology, CSIS Senior Fellow Henrietta Levin is joined by Neil Thomas, Fellow on Chinese Politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. They discuss the significance of China's recent "Two Sessions," where the National People's Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference come together with great pageantry to announce new policies. Neil unpacks the state of China's elite politics and purges, the highlights of the 15th Five-Year Plan, President Xi's conservative approach to policymaking, and who might rise to important roles during Xi's fourth term.

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Decoding China's Two Sessions: Politics, Purges, and a New Five Year Plan is an episode from Pekingology by Center for Strategic and International Studies.

This episode is 48:58 long.

This episode was published on Mar 19, 2026.

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