Britain voted to leave Europe, and the United States voted to elect Donald Trump. Now, could China be facing a populist backlash of its own? Some China watchers say a growing populist movement will test the nation's leadership ahead of the 19th Party Congress in late 2017, set to be one of the year's biggest political events. The Congress is essentially a three-week long meeting in which the ruling Communist Party selects and announce the country's next leaders. PresidentXi Jinping is widely expected to be given a second term. However, his ability to manage rising socio-economic pressures will be a major theme in the lead-up to the Congress, Nicholas Consonery, senior Asia-Pacific director at FTI Consulting, told CNBC last week.