Virus may force changes at China’s political pageant

Bloomberg

China’s plan to resume annual parliamentary sessions delayed by the coronavirus outbreak next month could be seen as a statement of the country’s commitment to get back to normal. The actual gathering may end up showing how much has changed.
The National People’s Congress (NPC) will start its annual session on May 22, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Wednesday, citing a decision by the body’s Standing Committee. The initial state media reports, which also said the advisory Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference planned to meet on May 21, made no mention of the length or format of the sessions.
The pandemic has upended the usual pageantry of the NPC, in which 3,000 deputies — and thousands more officials, political advisers and journalists — crowd into Beijing meeting halls for two weeks. The virus has turned the platform for projecting power into a dangerous
infection risk for Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top Communist Party leaders.
Measures to ease those concerns will likely dilute the symbolic value of the so-called Two Sessions, which includes the CPPCC. The NPC’s Standing Committee was considering whether to hold a shorter, one-week event, Bloomberg News reported on April 22, citing people familiar with the matter.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the meetings would be “somewhat different” this year, deflecting questions about whether foreign guests would face quarantine. “Due to the pandemic, I think the arrangements for the Two Sessions will be slightly different this year,” Geng said.
The Standing Committee conducted its own discussions this week by video conference, in a sign the bigger gatherings could also go virtual. Some provincial legislatures have already done the same.
“Convening the Two Sessions in their old forms would be a sign that the country is returning to normal,” Gu Su, a professor of philosophy and law at Nanjing University. “But a virtual gathering could send a signal that fighting Covid-19 will be a prolonged battle.”
Like most countries, China is struggling to adapt its government to a disease that landed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the hospital and has infected or killed ministers and lawmakers around the world. Although some legislatures, such as the US Congress and Japanese Diet, have continued to meet, China took a cautious approach with its own rubber-stamp parliament, postponing annual sessions just days before their planned start in March.
As they move forward with the meeting, Chinese leaders may also be forced to confront doubts about the country’s economic stability. One question is whether Premier Li Keqiang will announce an economic growth target for 2020, a ritual that has for decades been the most closely watched event during a legislative session that involves little real debate.
The coronavirus and resulting lockdowns have wreaked havoc with growth projections, reducing gross domestic product in the first three months of the year by 6.8%. Reducing or eliminating the target could raise questions about Xi’s goal to double GDP by the end of 2020, while reaffirming it could increase market expectations for costly stimulus measures.