CNN: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thousands of delegates from across China are gathering in Beijing this week for the start of the country\u2019s most prominent annual political event, where leaders will signal how they plan to steer the world\u2019s second largest economy in the year ahead \u2014 and try to dispel deepening concern about the challenges it faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Projecting confidence is likely to be high on the agenda for Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his top Communist Party officials during the days-long, highly choreographed event, known as the \u201ctwo sessions,\u201d when China\u2019s rubber stamp legislature and top advisory body convene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The largely ceremonial gathering is taking on heightened importance this year as China\u2019s economy has been roiled by a property sector crisis<\/a>, hefty local government debt, deflation<\/a>, a stock market rout <\/a>and tech friction with the US<\/a> \u2014 all fueling questions about whether the country will lose steam before it reaches its goal of becoming a developed global power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also will include a significant break with precedent: the scrapping of a closing press conference with China\u2019s premier, a political tradition that has featured in the gathering for three decades \u2013 at a times providing a rare window into the thinking of China\u2019s number two leader, who is nominally in charge of the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The press conference would also not take place for the rest of the current five year political cycle \u201cunless there are very special circumstances,\u201d spokesperson Lou Qinjian told reporters in Beijing Monday ahead of the legislative meeting\u2019s opening day, citing other interview opportunities for media throughout the event. This year\u2019s legislative gathering will also last just seven days, a shorter format than was typical prior to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The changes are likely to add to broader concerns about transparency around China\u2019s policymaking and further dim the premier\u2019s profile, which had already been impacted by Xi\u2019s hardline control over all policy areas, including the economy. Under Xi, the premier and the State Council, which functions as China\u2019s cabinet, have been increasingly sidelined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy design, they only want one voice \u2014 from the (Communist) Party. They don\u2019t want other voices to dilute the voice of the party, which is controlled by Xi,\u201d said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore\u2019s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That also means Xi is heavily under the spotlight as economic pain has sparked growing frustration within China. The gathering comes one year after he began a norm-shattering third term<\/a> as president, having consolidated power atop the party and stacked its leadership with a raft of officials who appeared to be selected for their loyalty as much as experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A year later \u2014 as an expected post-Covid recovery has yet to fully materialize, young people struggle to find jobs, investors grapple with market losses and small business owners fight to stay afloat \u2014 skepticism<\/a> has been rising about the direction charted by the leader and his new team. Xi has also overseen a political shakeup<\/a> in his own ranks, further marring the start of the new term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those challenges may not pose a threat to Xi, who is China\u2019s most powerful and authoritative leader in decades. But how his team addresses those concerns will have implications not only for the future of China and its 1.4 billion people, but the global economy at large \u2014 and Xi\u2019s top officials are likely stepping into the meeting feeling that pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Policymakers, investors and business owners in capitals across the world will also be watching closely, especially in a year when America\u2019s presidential election could further strain the relationship between the world\u2019s two largest economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe government wants to use this platform to send signals that China\u2019s economy in general is okay and is on the right trajectory,\u201d said Chen Gang, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore\u2019s East Asian Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow there are a lot of doubts and suspicions about the capacity of the new administration \u2026 (so) they want to showcase that this government, the new administration led by (Xi\u2019s number two) Premier Li Qiang, is capable of handling economic issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CNN: Thousands of delegates from across China are gathering in Beijing this week for the start of the country\u2019s most prominent annual political event, where leaders will signal how they plan to steer the world\u2019s second largest economy in the year ahead \u2014 and try to dispel deepening concern about the challenges it faces. Projecting confidence is likely to be high on the agenda for Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his top Communist Party officials during the days-long, highly choreographed event, known as the \u201ctwo sessions,\u201d when China\u2019s rubber stamp legislature and top advisory body convene. The largely ceremonial gathering is… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37897,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37895\/revisions\/37897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}