Known as a plenum, the meeting is also likely to pledge strong measures to lift household consumption and curb deep, historical supply-demand imbalances that threaten long-term growth in the world's second-largest economy.

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The two goals are decades old and pull in opposite directions, a policy challenge that has become acute now with U.S.-China tensions worsening, making it hard for Beijing to pivot to demand-side policies, analysts say.

Industrial prowess demands maintaining the status quo of channelling state resources to producers, while boosting consumption requires funds be redirected to households, leaving less for business and government investment.


China's growth over the past decade was driven by the pursuit of the first goal at the expense of the second. But this action is now fanning deflationary pressures and creating unsustainable debts.


The intensifying rivalry between the U.S. and China, underlined by U.S. President Donald Trump's renewed threats of triple-digit tariffs last week, has complicated matters for policymakers in Beijing, analysts say.

It's a choice to prioritise great power competition over the compelling need to address domestic growth imbalances.

China's next five-year plan, the closely watched policy document that the October 20-23 plenum will produce for parliamentary approval in March, will "definitely emphasise, and re-emphasise, support for high-tech research and industrial development," said Chen Bo, senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute.

"In terms of a country's hard power, manufacturing is still a top priority," Chen said. "When conflict arises, what ultimately matters is manufacturing, not services."