Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders attend the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua
China has formally entered the annual "two sessions" time Thursday as the country's top political advisory body Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) kicked off. The National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislative body, will start Friday.
After the difficult and challenging year of 2020, the attendees of the two sessions found they are bearing greater responsibility and expectations to contribute to the country's economic recovery, further opening-up and reform and long-term growth plan.
Foreign media have also participated in reporting the two sessions as usual, but some Western media are still regarding the NPC as China's "rubber stamp" legislature, which experts say reflects the same old bias and arrogance.
Having successfully completed the 13th Five-Year Plan in 2020, China is set to release the 14th Five-Year Plan and Long-Range Objectives through 2035 at the meetings. Some Chinese analysts predicted that China will overtake the US as the world's largest economy by 2035, and China's economy should be at least 1.5 times bigger than that of the US by that time.
Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is seen on the screens as he speaks during an online press conference, in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: IC
The NPC, China's top legislature, will start its annual session on Friday. Zhang Yesui, spokesperson of the 4th annual session of the 13th NPC, announced the agenda at the press conference on Thursday, which includes deliberating report on the work of the government; reviewing the draft outline of 14th Five-Year Plan; deliberating a draft NPC decision on improving electoral system of Hong Kong.
The session this year will run from March 5 to 11. On China's defense expenditure issue, Zhang said that China will maintain a steady and proper increase in the defense budget.
Based on the recent situation in Hong Kong, the electoral system of the special administrative region (HKSAR) needs to keep up with the times. "To improve the HKSAR electoral system is the power and the responsibility of the NPC at the constitutional level," Zhang said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders attended the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC at the Great Hall of the People. At the meeting, the agenda for the session was reviewed and approved, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Wang Yang, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, delivered a work report of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee to the session. A total of 5,974 proposals have been submitted since the previous annual session of the top political advisory body, said Gu Shengzu, vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, when delivering a report on the proposals, according to Xinhua.