Beijing: Chinese leader Xi Jinping opened the ruling Communist Party's twice-a-decade National Congress on Sunday, state media said.

The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) opened at 10 am at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Global Times reported. The week-long event will conclude on October 22.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Congress spokesperson Sun Yeli said the qualifications of 2,296 delegates to the 20th National Congress of CCP have been confirmed valid.

The delegates will attend the 20th CCP National Congress, representing more than 96 million CPC members and over 4.9 million primary-level Party organizations, he added.

China's most important political event of 2022, and indeed of the coming five years, will kick off on October 16 when the 20th National Congress of the ruling CCP and its 90 million members convene.

Regional experts say that Chairman Xi Jinping will undoubtedly extend his term in power for another five years.

He will either be re-elected as general secretary of the CCP or will be newly elected as chairman of the CCP, a title that has lain dormant since 1982 and was once the highest position ever held by Mao Zedong.

The congress is taking place at one of the most perilous periods in international affairs in recent years. A war is raging in Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin attempts to burnish his credentials as a great Russian leader, and China remains a staunch supporter of this would-be tsar.

At the same time, Taiwan Strait tensions are at their highest in decades, as China attempts to pummel Taipei into acquiescence.

Moreover, diplomatic tensions with the US, the after-effects of a global pandemic and China's own paranoid efforts to stamp out COVID-19, and all the ingredients for a brewing storm are present.