Case for strong leadership: China's fourth plenary session and African aspirations

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OPINION

By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

On October 23, 2025, China adopted the Communique of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). This document documents China’s strategic plans for national progress as a significant global actor. During the deliberations, Chinese leader and the CCP General Secretary, Xi Jinping, affirmed the Party’s achievements during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) but also laid out plans for the future, drawing the next course for the 15th Five-Year Plan.

The blueprints designed for China’s future are intended to position it as the world’s beacon of resilient modernisation.

I think that, as a continent inheriting multiple retrogressive postcolonial legacies, with backward economies in an increasingly globalised world, and suffering incessant external interferences in its politics, Africa has invaluable lessons to derive from China.

The CCP has a long history of disciplined central leadership with strategic foresight, which has centred the Chinese people in the exercise of public policy. That people-centred governance in China is a lesson that should resonate deeply with our continent’s aspirations for sovereignty, unity, and prosperity.

There are many major lessons we can derive from the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCCP including: the primacy of unified central leadership in driving national cohesion, the long-term strategic planning as a pillar of sustainable growth, high-quality development over mere quantity: innovation, reform, and balance, People-First Governance and full party self-governance as foundations for legitimacy, and resilience amid global uncertainty: seizing opportunities in risks.

The session saw participants discussing and adopting the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, while President Xi also explained the draft recommendations.

During the session, the Central Committee appraised the Political Bureau since the last plenary session. Note that China is governed by those bodies, although they are different. The Central Committee is a large body constituting about 350-400 members, while the Politburo is a smaller, more powerful executive committee of 24 top officials elected by the Central Committee. The Central Committee is mandated to meet annually to elect the Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee, which are the real centres of power in China’s system of governance.

The achievements of the Political Bureau thus far have been notable. It has ably implemented the guiding principles from the Party's 20th National Congress and the plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee. The bureau has adhered to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability. 

It has fully and faithfully applied the new development philosophy on all fronts, implementing the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy in a coordinated way. It was also congratulated for balancing domestic and international imperatives, ensuring both China’s development and security, further deepening reform comprehensively, and delivering tangible results in high-quality development.

The committee also found that the bureau had tremendously advanced socialist democracy and rule of law; improved public communication and cultural work; ensured the people's wellbeing and protected the environment; safeguarded national security and social stability; launched a study campaign for fully implementing the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving work conduct and further strengthening full and rigorous Party self-governance.

It has also modernised China’s national defence and the armed forces; pursued major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics; and promoted sustained economic recovery and growth. 

The communique unequivocally reaffirms President Xi’s leadership in the CPC, and elevates his Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. The confidence in Xi’s enlightened leadership shows a commitment to political integrity and big-picture thinking, which in some contexts can emerge from a singular leader.

This is something we are still shying away from in Africa. We pretend to practice rituals of democracy, even if they sometimes not only fail to work but also produce political violence and instability. This can be seen in the Sahel, where insecurity is now commonplace, and in some parts of East and West Africa, where electoral instability is almost regular. The pursuit of Western democratic rituals has often led to weak central authority in some of these areas, although these failures of democracy are normally explained as a result of a lack of democracy, yet they are results of democracy itself or its pursuit.

We need to learn from countries like Rwanda under President Paul Kagame or Ethiopia, which had prosperity-oriented reforms for a long time under singular yet strong and visionary leadership. Sometimes we need to free ourselves from the perpetual partisan gridlock that comes from pretentious democratic practices, which tend to disunite and decelerate our development.

Like President Xi, African leaders should cultivate similar confidence in the strategic paths they chart for their countries, their theories of leadership, and their unique systems and political cultures that fit their contexts.

The writer is a senior research fellow, DWC