Luncheon Discussion on China and Xi Jinping after the 20th National Congress

The National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is a party congress that is held every five years. The National Congress is theoretically the highest body within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since 1987 the National Congress has been held in the months of October or November. The venue for the event, beginning in 1956, is the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Congress is the public venue for top-level leadership changes in the CCP and the formal event for changes to the Party’s Constitution. In the past two decades, the National Congress of the CCP has been pivotal at least as a symbolic part of leadership changes, and therefore has gained international media attention. The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Beijing October 16 – 22, 2022. Xi Jinping gave a big speech at the opening ceremony and then at the first plenum on Sunday, the Congress elected a new lineup of leaders who paraded across the stage, including General Secretary Xi Jinping. Most folks were struck by the video of Hu Jintao taking an early exit from the meeting, but there was much more going on than just that over the six days.  Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Heino Klinck will discuss the 20th National Congress and its impact on China and Xi Jinping. 

Heino Klinck served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia from August 12, 2019, to January 19, 2021. In this role, he oversaw all U.S. defense policy throughout the region, advancing U.S. national security interests through defense strategy development, security cooperation, contingency planning, and program oversight. He brings more than three decades of private sector and military experience to this position including 8 years living and working in the Indo-Pacific Region. During his military career, Colonel (retired) Klinck served in various tactical, operational, diplomatic, and strategic assignments in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. As the Director of Army International Affairs in the Pentagon, he was the senior advisor on geo-political, foreign affairs, and international security cooperation issues to the U.S. Army’s leadership. He led bilateral staff talks and counterpart consultations with partners and allies globally including with Australia, Japan, and South Korea. As an Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO), his Asia-focused assignments included military attaché duty in Beijing and Hong Kong as well as positions on the Army Staff, Joint Staff, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Headquarters, U.S. Army Pacific. His non-FAO assignments included command and staff positions in armor, armored cavalry, and military intelligence units including during combat operations in Kuwait and Iraq. Mr. Klinck has a BA and MA in International Relations from Boston University; an MBA from the University of London (UK); an MS in Global Strategy and Security from the University of Rome (Italy); and an MS in Strategic Studies from the University of Milan and LUISS University (Italy). He was a Visiting Scholar in East Asian Studies at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center and attended Capital Normal University in Beijing. You can read his entire bio here. 

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