The ruling Communist Party of China kicked off a key secretive meeting of the party elite on Monday where President Xi Jinping is likely to press home the need to strengthen the CPC’s hold over governance and modernising the modes of governance including through technology.

The 370-member CC is expected to discuss the full range of major policies for the future as Beijing grapples with the trade war with the US, a slowing economy and the ongoing pro-democracy protests in the special administrative region of Hong Kong.

China’s economy is growing at its slowest pace in nearly three decades, and stable economic growth is fundamental to the authoritarian party’s political legitimacy.

“At the fourth plenary session, the CPC Central Committee will hear a report from the Political Bureau on its work, and discuss important issues concerning how to uphold and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and make progress in modernising China’s system and capacity for governance, according to a statement issued after the meeting,” an official statement released by the state-controlled Xinhua news agency said last week.

“While there are no firm guidelines, a convention has emerged wherein specific plenums have general themes. For example, the Third Plenum often focuses on economic reforms…while the Fourth Plenum often deals with issues of CCP internal governance.

A watershed plenum in 1978 under then top CPC leader Deng Xiaoping unveiled China’s economic reforms, transforming China from an economically backward country to an economic powerhouse in the next few decades.