Chinese economy to be focus of session

BEIJING: The sky has been cleared and security tightened across Beijing as the city prepares to host the choreographed annual session of its rubber-stamp Parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), from Sunday.

Ahead of that, on Friday, the yearly session of the top advisory body, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will be inaugurated. Together, they are known as the “Two Sessions” or “Liang Hui” in Chinese, and more than 5,000 NPC deputies and CPPCC members have begun arriving in Beijing to attend the sessions.

It’s almost customary for Beijing’s pollution to clear up in the lead-up to and during the two sessions, which last for about two weeks.

As part of the annual routine, Chinese state media has gone into overdrive in its coverage of the meetings despite the fact that very little emerges about the actual decision-making by the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

“Much of the focus during the March sessions will centre on the economic front, as in previous years, with a government work report to be delivered by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to confirm the country’s growth targets for the year,” Xinhua news agency reported.

Li will signal the end of the two sessions with an annual news conference, where questions are usually vetted by the government. Though Li will deliver the government’s annual work report on Sunday - providing growth figures and sectoral outlays including the defence budget - the focus will be on the increasingly powerful President Xi Jinping.

The two sessions are also the first high-profile national political events held since President Xi Jinping was endorsed as the core of the CPC Central Committee last October, state media reported.