Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.

Chinese President Xi Jinping chose Oct. 16, the day China successfully conducted its first nuclear test in 1964, to open the Chinese Communist Party's 20th National Congress. (Nikkei montage/Xinhua/AP/Getty Images)
Leader talks up Taiwan 'mission' as he makes play for third term amid economic downturn