DELEGATES HAVE started arriving in Beijing for China’s annual parliament, the National People’s Congress, which opens this week and is expected to focus on rescuing the economy and lifting spirits in a year that marks 60 years since the revolution that brought the Communists to power.
Around 3,000 delegates will meet in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square for the congress from Thursday, and are certain to give unanimous approval to a series of plans to boost the economy.
Red flags fly all around Tiananmen Square and atop the surrounding buildings, including the iconic Forbidden City gate where the portrait of Mao Zedong, the founding father of the modern Chinese state, who is still considered only 30 per cent bad despite the excesses of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, still gazes out on the huge plaza.
However, despite the show of national unity behind the iconic red flag and Mao portrait, there are fears about slowing economic growth, rising unemployment and anxieties over possible social unrest and protests prompted by the worsening economic scenario.
The “lianghui” or joint meeting is also getting much more high-tech than in previous years – delegates can also log on to an electronic version of the congress to examine proposals.
The session starts today with a meeting of an advisory body of the legislature. Security is already tightening up around the city to make sure that protesters do not try to make their voices heard at a time when delegates from all over the country have gathered in the capital.
The security tsars have good reason to be wary.
While the National People’s Congress will focus on the 60th anniversary of the revolution, this year also marks some more controversial events, including 50 years since a major uprising in Tibet, one year since anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas, and 20 years since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in June.
Late last week, three Uighurs from the restive province of Xinjiang set themselves alight in their car at a shopping street not far from Tiananmen Square. Tibetan monks are also stepping up their protests as the anniversary of the March 10th, 1959 uprising approaches.
One of the landmark pieces of legislation that the NPC will deal with will be social security laws, which promise universal access to basic healthcare and unemployment benefits, as well as pensions. Many of these benefits were phased back during the last 30 years as the economy opened up and the role of the state was scaled back, but now the focus is on increasing the role of the government in caring for the populace.
To that end, the government has introduced a four-trillion-yuan (€0.464 trillion) fiscal stimulus package, and is about to record a record budget deficit to pay for these groundbreaking initiatives.
The leadership hopes that these measures will allow Chinese people to free up some of their legendary savings to start boosting consumer spending, as they will no longer have to put away as much money for retirement and healthcare.
The government is also expected to introduce a food safety law. Employment legislation is expected to be tightened up, while the military is also likely to get its annual steep increase in funding.