China's Lianghui : Why is it Important ?

The first priority for the Chinese government is to set out the country’s directions for the coming year, and beyond.

These directions are never a big surprise:  The Communist Party system always signals its favoured policy compass bearings late the previous year.  These must now be translated into concrete government strategies and detailed work plans. 

 This is achieved by convening the ‘Two Meetings’, known in Mandarin Chinese as the ‘liang’ (two) ‘hui’ (meetings).  The annual meetings in question are those of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature and top state organ – this year starting on 5 March; and the catchily titled National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC, opening on 4 March.

 The latter is a body charged, in theory, with ensuring that the diverse views of China’s people are captured and fed into top-level decision-making following ‘consultation’.  Its members include prominent entrepreneurs, academics, sportspeople and others outside the core political system.  CPPCC reports and proposals become one set of inputs fed into the complex policy-making machine, alongside those of the Party and multiple layers of central and local government. 

 But it is the NPC where the rubber hits the road.  It is to this forum that the Premier (the head of government) reports on his government’s performance over the past year, and presents its strategy and plans for the one to follow.  This is done in a single document, the Government Work Report.  If you are going to read one lianghui document (and have fuelled up with lots of coffee), this is it.

China's National People's Congress/ image VOA

 The NPC also ratifies senior leadership appointments when required, including that of State President (last made in 2023, for a five-year term).  And it considers important documents on other focus topics, including China’s foreign affairs and rural development.

 The NPC is a spectacle, covered extensively on Chinese media.  For a start it is huge, with almost 3,000 members – the largest legislative gathering in the world. Attendees come from across the country.  Local media particularly favour images of ethnic minority representatives in spectacular dress and headwear, as a visual symbol of the national unity to which the People’s Republic aspires. 

 Surprisingly, not all NPC delegates are members of the Communist Party –  eight other ‘minor parties’ are also represented, including little-heard of groups like the China Association for Promoting Democracy and the Taiwan Democratic Self-Governing League.  These are firmly ‘non-oppositional parties’ , however, and their members are indistinguishable from their Communist Party brethren in all but name.

 Despite such diversity on paper, the NPC is not a forum in which issues, policies and decisions are debated openly.  Key proposals are voted on.  But under the stern gaze of top leaders, tallies in support of the tabled proposals are typically close to 100%.

 This is often characterised outside China as a rubber-stamping exercise, involving compliant cadres who know which side their bread is buttered on.

 If that is a perceived weakness, then an under-appreciated strength of the system is the comprehensive process of empirical data collection, socio-economic analysis and policy formulation (from grassroots county level on up the pyramid of municipal, provincial and central government, and also involving parallel CPPCC and Communist Party bodies at all levels) which produces the recommendations ultimately receiving such blanket support.

 This may still sound like ‘the system’ deciding what is best for the population.  But social and economic sentiment and pressure points are taken into account along the way, and adjustments are made to try to ensure the best outcome for as much of the population as possible - within some non-negotiable parameters.  The Communist Party could not remain in power for 77 years if it did not have some responsiveness to popular concerns.  At some basic level, therefore, the Party’s legitimacy does rely on the mandate of the people – but not in the multi-party democratic way that we are used to.

 So the lianghui are important, as an annual snapshot and affirmation of China’s top-level intentions for its people.  The two meetings produce a convenient, if wordy, distillation of what aims the leadership will pursue in the years to come and how they intend to get there.  In the past this process was of marginal interest to most of the outside world.  But China’s rise has seen increased global interest in the key signals it sends. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping/ image AMC

Significantly, this year the NPC will also be charged with approving China’s new five-year plan, which already has the Party’s sign-off, covering the years 2026 to 2030.  These are medium-term strategies, which successive annual work programmes will then be designed to advance.  It is China’s 15th such plan, a reminder of the continuity of China’s steady trajectory over the last three quarters of a century. 

 Foreign sinologists and analysts will pore over the five-year plan’s content, and that of the Government Work Report, noting a new adjective here and the elevation (or demise) of a sector or policy there.  Readers have to be very informed and passionate to detect these nuances and understand their significance.  

 By all means read the experts’ summaries – I will - but I suggest trying to read widely, as each external commentary stems from a different starting position and mindset.  

 On the surface nothing will change immediately on the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu or Guangzhou once the NPC and CPPCC sessions come to an end in the second half of March.  But internally, their outcomes will generate a top-down cascade of policy fine-tuning across the provincial, municipal and county levels of government which fed into the work reports on the way up.  China’s officials will get down to business for another year.  And before we know it, it will be time to start preparing for the next lianghui, in March 2027.

 Alistair Crozier is Executive Director of the New Zealand China Council.  The views expressed in this article are his own.

Asia Media Centre