The cancellation of one of the most popular events in China’s economic and political calendar, the premier’s press conference after the annual parliament session, is causing controversy. Press conferences were also canceled for the remainder of the three-year parliamentary term.
The event allowed questions about the economy and foreign policy to be answered, with the process taking place from 1993 to the present day, a move seen by some observers as a sign of the country’s increasingly inward focus and insistence on central control.
For three decades, the briefing has offered foreign investors and governments insight into how Chinese policymakers are dealing with the challenges of managing what is now the world’s second-largest economy, an example of its once “open” world.
In a surprise announcement on Monday, March 4, a spokesman for Xi Jinping’s government said that China’s Premier Li Qiang will not address the media at the close of this year’s annual parliamentary session, which began today, Tuesday, March 5 at Beijing.
In addition, except under special circumstances, Li will not hold such annual press conferences for the rest of the term of the Chinese parliament that ends in 2027, National People’s Congress spokesman Lu Qingjian said.
The opening session of parliament comes in the wake of a crisis in China’s construction market and amid growing concerns among Western investors about the health of the Chinese economy.
The meeting of the two bodies of legislative power (the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) is expected to approve in a solemn meeting the economic policy drawn up by the Party. Meetings are carefully choreographed, while every public statement faithfully echoes the party line.
Since 1993, China’s premiers have addressed the media after the annual meeting of parliament, taking a wide range of questions from Chinese and foreign journalists in press conferences broadcast live worldwide. During the 1990s and 2000s, China actively sought to clarify its politics and policies in an effort to attract foreign investment and boost trade.
At the close of parliament’s annual session last year, Lee attempted to reassure the country’s private sector in his first media conference as prime minister.
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