China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) is to hold its annual session next month after being delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, state media said yesterday, signaling the leadership’s growing confidence in taming the outbreak.
Beijing in February announced that it would postpone the NPC for the first time since the Cultural Revolution as the nation battled the coronavirus outbreak, which has since become a pandemic.
The rescheduled session on May 22 would highlight confidence by the leadership that China has largely brought its outbreak under control.
Photo: AFP
Top leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), attend each year’s gathering with thousands of delegates from across the nation to rubber-stamp bills, budgets and personnel moves.
The epidemic in China is “improving steadily,” and “normal economic and social life is gradually resuming,” Xinhua news agency cited a statement by the NPC Standing Committee — the body that oversees the legislative session — as saying.
This means the “conditions for convening the NPC annual session ... are ready,” the statement added.
Beijing yesterday lowered its emergency alert from the highest level and lifted a strict quarantine requirement for domestic travelers from “low-risk” areas, which it had kept in place long after many other regions of the nation had eased travel restrictions.
Arrivals in Beijing from the epicenter, Hubei Province, as well as travelers coming from abroad are still required to complete a 14-day quarantine, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.
The annual gathering was originally due to begin on March 5.
A number of local governments have held their regional political meetings online — fueling speculation that at least part of the NPC might also consist of online sessions — but Alfred Wu (吳木鑾), associate professor at the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore, said that given how symbolic the meeting is, delegates are more likely to attend in person.
“I believe that the delegates, many of whom are middle-aged, would not be able to accept virtual meetings as much as face-to-face meetings — they see it as a great privilege to go to Beijing for these meetings and would hope to physically attend,” Wu said.
The NPC is usually a 10-day gathering, but the Global Times quoted one delegate as saying that the length of the meeting is likely to be reduced this year.
“This is a show of strength,” said Willy Lam (林和立), adjunct professor at the Center for China Studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong. “It’s a sign that China is back on its feet and the economic machinery keeps humming, and a big reassurance to the people that the epidemic is over.”
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