Unpacking main take-aways from China’s 2021 ‘two sessions’

Doors to the 2021 Two Sessions, the annual forum that brings together the highest organs of state power and national legislature in China, have finally closed.

As happens every year, leaders of both the National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), respectively, met from March 4 to March 11 to take stock of the government’s performance in the last one year and plan ahead for what needs to be done.

The CPPCC is a consultative body that includes over 2,000 members from various aspects of Chinese society, ranging from business entrepreneurs to movie stars. The NPC is China’s top legislative body.

Keen observers cannot fail to get statements that carry a lot of weight on the Chinese government’s policy standpoint and political outlook. Official statements from the twin forums are as good as law – there is no need for second guessing their real meaning or intention. Further, they dispel any misunderstanding that the outside world might have on how the government operates.

The main takes from the two separate sessions as expressed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in his closing remarks on Thursday include:

• China is aiming for sustained and sound economic development in the long term.
• China is still a developing country, and there is still a long way to go before it can achieve modernisation.
• China hopes to get to the bottom of where the virus came from. Firm confidence that humanity can win the battle against Covid-19, a common enemy of humankind.
• Improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will help ensure that "patriots administer Hong Kong".
• China and the US should respect core interests and not interfere in each other's internal affairs.
• China is ready to enhance cooperation in science and technology with other countries on the basis of intellectual property rights protection.

Keqiang’s statement addressed some pertinent issues regarding China’s economic development. First, the second largest economy in the world is not in a hurry or in a race to overshadow any other country.

Experts see this statement pointing more to the US which instigated a vicious trade war between the two countries during the four-year term of former president Donald Trump.

“The fundamental purpose of China's development is to enable the Chinese people to lead a better life, and China's development will be a major contribution to world peace, stability, development and prosperity.”

China has previously said that America’s intention in challenging China's developing-country status is an attempt to prematurely deprive it of its legitimate rights and interests under the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

Speaking at the fifth WTO General Council meeting in December, 2019 China's Ambassador to the WTO, Zhang Xiangchen, noted that generally China still lags way behind developed countries in terms of economic and social development levels.

Secondly, the premier could have aimed at dissuading people from holding the notion that the country has now acquired developed country status simply by vanquishing absolute poverty within its borders. Keqiang was alluding to the fundamentals that make a country developed in real terms as illustrated above. But this does not negate the fact that in the last few decades, China has made giant strides in socio-economic development.

The World Bank classifies China as an upper middle-income country, saying that it has remaining challenges which both partners are working to “address institutional gaps and increase China’s contribution to global public goods.” Critically, the Bank acknowledges China “is a growing influence on other developing economies through trade, investment, and ideas.”

Indeed, China is gradually redefining global economics by creating and using more ingenious economic policies both at micro and macro levels. These policies have enabled the country to grow to the second largest economy globally within an unprecedented period of about 40 years.

In any case, Covid-19 has shown that the term ‘developed country’ is overrated. Many of the so-called developed countries have been hardest hit by the scourge. It is ironical that amid the raging pandemic China, a developing country, is the only one that managed to register positive growth in 2020 among all major global economies.

Ultimately, Keqiang was saying that China’s core objective is to help in the creation of a prosperous and multilateral world and not the pursuance of narrow unilateral interests. The country’s priorities and aims are not hegemonic and thus do not lead into a rat race that takes undue advantage of vulnerable countries by exploiting their disadvantages.