Why Xi Jinping chose Oct 16 to open the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress

Why did China’s President Xi Jinping choose October 16, despite it being a Sunday, to open the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress which is expected to approve his unprecedented third term as the head of government.

The all-important event in the Chinese political calendar, which takes place once in five years, was held on weekdays in 2012 and 2017.

According to Katsuji Nakazawa, a Tokyo-based journalist who has earlier been a reporter in China, “Oct. 16 occupies a special place in communist China’s history. It is a date regarded by many Chinese as glorious and historic,” as it was on Oct. 16, 1964, that China broke into the nuclear club its first successful atomic bomb test.

“Any time there is a party history exhibition, the nuclear test 58 years ago at the Lop Nur site in the western part of the country, features prominently,” Nakazawa wrote in an article for Nikkei.

This is the reason why President Xi Jinping chose the date to open the Chinese Communist Party’s national congress.

The Chinese regard the test as an achievement that enabled them to break the nuclear weapons monopoly of western countries and put the country in a position to counter America and Russia.

In his opening speech, Xi repeatedly spoke of “a strong nation,” “a strong military” and of bringing about unification with Taiwan to safeguard “national security.” His calls for more military muscle was a clear message to the rest of the world of Xi Jinping’s geopolitical ambitions and his aggressive gunboat diplomacy.

The United States has expressed concern about China’s rapid build-up of its nuclear forces and called on Beijing to engage with it “on practical measures to reduce the risks of destabilizing arms races.”

According to senior US officials, it appears China under Xi is deviating from decades of nuclear strategy based around minimal deterrence.