China Is Holding a Major Meeting on the Economy That You Can’t Watch

Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and 370 or so other Communist Party officials are meeting in Beijing this week, away from the public eye, to review a plan intended to shake the world’s second-biggest economy out of its malaise.

Mr. Xi will sit in the front of a conference hall, most likely in the Jingxi Hotel, a 60-year-old institution with Soviet-style architecture. The party loyalists arrayed before him are near certain to acclaim his plans during the four-day meeting that started Monday and will consider a draft proposal on “further comprehensively deepening reform.”

Chinese media have sought to create a buzz around Mr. Xi’s plans, but the real test may come later, as any changes in policy filter through the layers of government. Success or failure will largely turn on whether Mr. Xi is able to win renewed confidence from the Chinese population, as well as foreign investors who have grown disenchanted with his policies.

China’s businesses and consumers have suffered in recent years through stumbling growth, a property sector meltdown and a blight of debt among local governments.On Monday morning, China released data that showed a sharp slowdown in economic growth.

“A lot of uncertainty feeds into very low consumer sentiment, very low investor sentiment,” Bert Hofman, a former World Bank country director for China, said in a talk this month about the meeting. “This is a point in time where China needs to show its cards.”

Party leaders are orchestrating the conclave — a so-called Third Plenum of the Central Committee — as a stage to promote what Mr. Xi calls “high quality” growth. In recent history, Third Plenum meetings, named for their place in the five-year cycle of committee sessions, were when Chinese leaders like Deng Xiaoping ignited enthusiasm for their modernization goals.