On the eve of the opening of China’s annual Two Sessions (annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), there was an endless stream of Chinese and foreign reporters going to Beijing’s Jianguo Hotel to collect their interview credentials. This old hotel, which has been used as a quarantine location for journalists in the past few years, is no longer strictly guarded, indicating that the two parties will fully overcome the epidemic and return to the state before 2020.
According to figures released by the Two Sessions News Center, more than 3,000 Chinese and foreign journalists have signed up to cover the Two Sessions this year, a significant increase compared with the past few years, and have roughly returned to the situation before the epidemic in 2019.
The authorities also lifted the restriction that each media organization can only send one reporter to an event, allowing all journalists with accreditation to attend. This means that the Great Hall of the People Square in Beijing will once again be crowded with people, and the venue for important press conferences will be “hard to find.”
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, the two sessions have been held in a closed-loop format, and many interviews can only be conducted online. As for the group discussion activities of the local people’s congress delegation, they are not open to foreign media.
This year, according to “Lianhe Zaobao”, the group discussion sessions of many local delegations will be reopened to the media. Some local delegations have also received notices from their superiors to prepare some representatives to be interviewed by Chinese and foreign reporters and speak enthusiastically.
Some local delegations have successively invited foreign media to observe and ask questions; some business representatives have also contacted familiar reporters through public relations. On the one hand, they hope that reporters can ask questions on the spot, and at the same time, they also hope to communicate and prepare in advance to avoid facing too difficult questions on the spot.
Compared with the two sessions during the epidemic, the date of this year’s two sessions may be slightly extended by one to two days. In the years before 2020, the two sessions in non-election years usually lasted 12-13 days, but during the epidemic period, they were significantly shortened to six and a half days. The complete schedule of this year’s two sessions has not yet been announced. The outside world only knows that the CPPCC and NPC sessions will open on March 4 and 5 respectively, and the closing date has not yet been announced. However, the drone ban issued by the Beijing police during the two sessions at the end of February showed that the authorities banned small aircraft from 0:00 on March 1 to 24:00 on March 12. This means that the two sessions will end on March 12 at the latest and last for seven and a half days.
Most countries in the world have emerged from the epidemic in the past two years. China reopened its doors in early 2023. However, it took until this year for the two sessions to roughly return to the pre-epidemic state. The degree of openness can be described as “slowly advancing.” Moreover, after the public lifting of anti-epidemic measures last year, the two sessions still required reporters to quarantine in advance; although this year the isolation requirement was waived, reporters still had to undergo nucleic acid testing before they could receive their interview credentials.
Analysts pointed out that the “Two Sessions” came later than the overall society returned to pre-epidemic normalcy, indicating that the official attitude is still cautious about this major event in China’s political life and does not want any mistakes to occur. But the decision-makers also understand that it is still necessary to show an open attitude and send out positive signals.
At the opening ceremony of the National People’s Congress on March 5, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang will deliver his first government work report during his term of office. Economic and people’s livelihood issues are expected to be the focus of this report.
Although China is widely expected to maintain its economic growth target at around 5% this year, what economic stimulus measures will the government introduce, whether it will issue another 1 trillion yuan (RMB, S$189.2 billion) of special government bonds, and how it will stabilize the property market. and easing employment pressure are still to be revealed.
Xie Dongming, head of research for the Greater China region of Singapore’s Overseas Chinese Bank, pointed out in an interview that at the beginning of this year, most analysts also predicted that China’s fiscal deficit rate would exceed 3.5%. However, as the two sessions approached, market expectations were gradually lowered to around 3%, showing that the outside world is optimistic about this. The expectations from China’s policy observation window are not as high as before.
Xie Dongming believes that if last year is used as a benchmark, China’s fiscal deficit rate is likely to exceed 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, indicating that the official will further expand stimulus. “Even from the perspective of boosting market confidence, the deficit rate should be set at a level higher than 3%.”
Personnel changes are another highlight of the two sessions. Officials announced on Tuesday (February 27) that former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was dismissed last year, has resigned as a deputy to the National People’s Congress. Former Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who has also been dismissed, is still on the official list of National People’s Congress deputies. Whether the candidate for the new foreign minister will be announced during the two sessions and whether more explanations will be given on the situation of Qin and Li are also trends that the outside world is paying attention to.
As the format of the Two Sessions returns to the pre-epidemic period, will the spokesperson disclose more information on issues of concern to all parties? How will representatives and committee members respond to the “chasing and interception” of Chinese and foreign media? How much space is there for speech standards, and whether the official will allow public opinion ” The emergence of “noise” is another indicator to observe the degree of openness of this year’s two sessions.
One of the highlights of the past two sessions was the eye-catching outfits and outrageous sayings of the committee members, such as Li Xiaolin, a member of the “Red Second Generation” who wears famous brands, and Zhang Qicheng, dean of the School of Chinese Medicine at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, who suggested using the Xuanyuan calendar. However, after years of rectification of the meeting style, the deputies and committee members of the two sessions have become much more low-key and their speeches have become more cautious.
Lu Xi, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, pointed out in an interview that Beijing hopes to show the revitalization and openness of Chinese society through the arrangement of the two sessions to return to normalcy and boost confidence from all walks of life. However, merely showing an open attitude on the surface can only be used as material for self-promotion, and it is difficult to substantively change the world’s view of China.
Lu Xi analyzed that an important reason for the deepening gap between China and the world in the post-epidemic period is the transformation of the power structure. “The relationship between China’s government affairs and the party affairs system has undergone a major transformation in the past six or seven years, and the role of National People’s Congress deputies in the Two Sessions has become smaller and smaller. If these phenomena can be changed, it will help to change public opinion’s perception of the Two Sessions and China. “
But he also added that even if it is just to show a gesture, letting go is still better than not letting go. “At least it is a stop-loss signal, indicating that the official does not want the current situation to continue to worsen.”
2024-03-02 14:56:00
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