Top politicians will gather to set growth target with focus on technology self-reliance amid rising US competition
Thousands of delegates will arrive in Beijing this week for China’s annual Two Sessions, one of the most important events in the country’s political calendar and a rare opportunity for the global media to see Beijing’s top lawmakers up close.
The Two Sessions” are concurrent gatherings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body.
Of the two gatherings, the NPC, China’s legislature, is more important. It has the power to amend the constitution, appoint people to political offices, enact laws and approve the budget. In 2018 it was at the NPC that amended China’s constitution to scrap term limits for the president, and in 2023 it was the NPC that subsequently elected Xi Jinping to that office for an unprecedented third term.
However, in modern China, the Chinese Communist party (CCP) is more powerful than any organ of the state, and the NPC is in effect a rubber-stamp parliament, having never voted down any item on its agenda. The real decision-making is done by the CCP at separate meetings.
