The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference opened on the afternoon of March 4. General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is expected to read the “Government Work Report” at the National People’s Congress meeting on Saturday (March 5), and will answer questions from Chinese and foreign reporters on the closing day of the National People’s Congress.
The Chinese Communist Party’s major foreign propaganda media “Hong Kong 01” reported on March 4 that, if nothing else, this will be the last time Li Keqiang will hold a Chinese and foreign press conference as the Chinese Premier of the State Council.
As the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang is relatively knowledgeable about the economy. It is precisely in the economic field that Li Keqiang leaks some “secrets” from time to time, and this kind of “secret leakage” often occurs at the reporters’ question-and-answer sessions of the CCP’s Two Sessions.
In the fall of 2021, a serious power crisis occurred in China, with various provinces and cities shutting down and power outages, and eventually the price of electricity went up.
On October 14 of that year, when Li Keqiang inspected a thermal power plant in Guangdong, he said that rising electricity prices would not cause inflation because China’s inflation is determined by food prices.
Here, Li Keqiang exploded the “black box” of the CCP’s statistics: China’s inflation data is determined by food prices. No matter how electricity prices rise, as long as food prices do not rise, China’s CPI index will not rise. The video of Li Keqiang’s speech was later deleted from the Internet.
Last year (2021) on the day of the end of the two sessions (Thursday, March 11), Li Keqiang revealed another “secret” of unemployment data when answering questions from Chinese and foreign reporters. Li Keqiang said that flexible employment in China now involves more than 200 million people.
According to Wang Jian, a well-known overseas political and economic observer and senior media person, the so-called flexible employment is a state between employment and unemployment, and the income of these people is not guaranteed.
On May 28 of the previous year (2020), Li Keqiang answered questions from Chinese and foreign reporters at the end of the two sessions and said that there are 600 million people in China whose monthly income is only about 1,000 yuan. The data cited by Li Keqiang came from a professional research team at Beijing Normal University, and sparked a long-lasting fermentation of public opinion both at home and abroad.
“Hong Kong 01” reported that Li Keqiang was more low-key and pragmatic in his second term. However, the outside world is still curious about what Li Keqiang will say to Chinese and foreign journalists this year and how he will end his prime minister career.
The two sessions of the Communist Party of China have officially opened this year, and people from all walks of life have paid attention to whether the sessions will pave the way for Xi Jinping’s third term.
Deutsche Welle reported on March 4 that the international community has been closely watching Xi Jinping’s moves to further consolidate his power after the removal of term limits for the Chinese president in 2018. Some experts believe that the discussions during the NPC meeting may not directly touch on this issue, but every decision made during the meeting will pave the way for Xi Jinping to achieve a third term during the 20th National Congress this fall.
Wu Qiang, an independent Chinese scholar, said that this session of the CCP’s National People’s Congress itself serves Xi Jinping’s re-election, a summary of the work of the past five years, and some designs for the future, including legislative planning, political suggestions and some major issues. These will play a big role in Xi Jinping’s re-election.
Wang Xinxian, director of the East Asia Institute at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, believes that Xi’s third term will be an important backdrop for this year’s NPC and part of a series of major political events over the past year aimed at consolidating Xi’s power in China .
Xi Jinping takes control of the CCP’s inner circle of power
The official Xinhua News Agency reported on February 28 that members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, secretary of the Secretariat, members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council, and the CPPCC National Committee, and the party secretaries of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Procuratorate report to the “Party Central Committee” and General Secretary Xi Jinping every year. Written report.
The report said that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will be held this year, and Xi Jinping requires officials to maintain a high degree of consistency with the “Party Central Committee” in ideology, politics and action.
Reports show that the debriefers to the “Party Central Committee” and Xi Jinping include almost all senior officials at the deputy national level and above, and belong to Xi Jinping’s core team, showing Xi Jinping’s control over the “key minority”.
Specifically, these “key minorities” include 24 members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China other than Xi Jinping, five state councilors, nine vice-chairmen and secretary-generals of the National People’s Congress, and 11 vice-chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (including Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office) ), as well as You Quan, Secretary of the Secretariat who is not a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, Zhou Qiang, Secretary of the Leading Party Group of the Supreme People’s Court of the Communist Party of China, and Zhang Jun, Secretary of the Leading Party Group of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the Communist Party of China, a total of 52 people.
According to the analysis of observers, the information revealed in this written report is quite clear. All senior officials of the party and state have surrendered, and their every move is under the control of Xi Jinping.