China’s ‘two sessions’ 2014: Deepening reforms high on the agenda

Editor's note: The author, Zhenyu Li, is a contributing columnist for some of the world's premier publications and editor-in-chief of the business channel at the People's Daily Online, a publication of China's Communist Party. The author is a registered journalist of the NPC & CPPCC Sessions 2014.

BEIJING, China — The National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), known as the "two sessions", two of China's most important annual political conventions, concluded Thursday in Beijing, with deepening reforms high on the agenda.

More than 5,000 national lawmakers and political advisors gathered in the capital of China for the yearly 10-day event in an effort to discuss policies and come up with proposals for steering the world's second-largest economy forward.

There have been various topics coming out of this year's two sessions, but the main theme has been deepening reforms. The government work report by Premier Li Keqiang referred to "reforms" 77 times, indicating China's resolve to reform.

"I think the government work report is quite impressive," Ian Fok Chun-wan, a Hong Kong deputy of the 12th NPC and chief executive officer of the Fok Ying Tung Group, told this author during the two sessions at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

"The central government under the new leadership has done very well, especially I think not so much for short-term interventions and so on, but more about long-term economic reforms, you know, allowing the market to play a decisive role in the economy. And I think it's very positive."

Other hotly-discussed topics during the two sessions were environmental issues, social security, income distribution, the fight against corruption, property issues, medical reform, inflation and commodity prices, food and drug safety, etc.

As one of the biggest dates in the Chinese political calendar, the 10-day event had drawn world attention. More than 3,000 veteran journalists from China and abroad, including hundreds from the U.S. and Japan, gathered in the nation's political epicenter of Beijing.
 

The second annual session of China's 12th NPC closed in Beijing Thursday morning.(Zhenyu Li/People's Daily Online)

Closing meeting in lens (Zhenyu Li/People's Daily Online)

The National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), known as the "two sessions", two of China's most important annual political conventions, concludes Thursday morning. Pictured are two security guards at the 'two sessions'. (Zhenyu Li/People's Daily Online)

A group of security guards patrol outside the Great Hall of the People during the ongoing National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), two of China's most important annual political sessions. (Zhenyu Li/People's Daily Online)

The Hong Kong delegation to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) is open for media during its plenary session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Zhenyu Li/People's Daily Online)

Rita Fan, a deputy of the Hong Kong delegation to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) and former President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, is mobbed by journalists during the 2014 NPC annual session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Zhenyu Li/People's Daily Online)