• Related stories
Lu Yu of the Sino-US Times newspaper is covering China’s annual national legislative and political consultative sessions. He tries to actively participate in every news conference and open panel discussion.
Lu has raised questions to the State Council Leading Group Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development director Liu Yongfu, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Zhang Mao, head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
Lu is not alone. Beijing is swarming with journalists reporting on the fifth session of the 12th National People’s Congress and the fifth session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. According to the media center, this year’s sessions have received more than 3,000 journalist applications, including those from an increased number of foreign reporters.
“Because China now is such an influential country, no journalist wants to miss out on an event so abundant with news,” Lu said.
Seeing is believing
It’s the first time Ronald Kato, a journalist with Vision Group in Uganda, has been to China. “It’s hard to understand what goes on here, until you see Chinese democracy in action,” he said.
While Kato knows already how democracy in China differs from that in the West, he now sees that it works and puts people at the center of their own government.
He said that Ugandans are currently fascinated by China — the people, culture, political system and socialism with Chinese characteristics — and mostly how a country that was among the poorest in the world 40 years ago has grown to such a paradigm of inclusive development.
Old China hand
Russian reporter Andrey Kirillov of ITAR-TASS Russian news agency has been reporting on the two sessions for 20 years. He is interested in economic development in general, and this year, in China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) in particular.
China can be seen as a growth engine in the world, Kirillov said. China has set its GDP growth target for around 6.5 percent this year, and Kirillov wants to see how China’s growth contributes to world growth.
Kirillov also wonders about the role of his home country in the initiative and has closely followed tripartite relations between China, the United States and Russia since US President Donald Trump took office.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at his March 8 news conference that China, the United States and Russia should come together in pursuit of win-win outcomes. Relations should not be a “seesaw”. The three should work with, rather than against, one another.
In addition to social issues covered by foreign media, questions also touched on the prospects for relatively poor zones surrounding Beijing, rural land transfer and artificial intelligence.
Kirillov has felt more openness at the two sessions, year after year. “As foreign media, we are now welcome to attend and report on discussions by delegations from local regions.”