BEIJING (AP) — China’s government said Monday it is scrapping the premier’s annual press conference, which was one of the rare occasions when a top Chinese leader answered questions from journalists.
Lu Qingjian, the speaker of the Chinese National People’s Congress, said on the eve of the opening of the annual session of the legislature this prime minister Li Qiang will not hold a press conference at the end, as it has every year since 1993.
The move appears to be in line with reducing the power of the prime minister and that of the government bureaucracy as a whole, as the Communist Party and leader Xi Jinping centralize control over the nation’s affairs, said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore.
“Because the structure is now run by the party, the prime minister is more like an executor of party orders, so he is no longer as important,” he said. “That’s the main message.”
The weekly session of the largely ceremonial Congress, which opens on Tuesday, is being watched closely for any indication of what steps the government will take stimulating the struggling economy. Li will deliver an annual report at the inauguration, which is expected to include the government’s 2024 economic growth target.
On Monday, state leaders, including Xi and Li, attended the opening session of a parallel consultative body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, in the cavernous, red-carpeted hall of the Great Hall of the People on one side of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Lu said journalists would be given more opportunities to ask questions of government ministers and other officials, as well as the nearly 3,000 congress delegates. The last time there was no press conference by a prime minister was since the 1992 congress, state broadcaster CCTV said.
“Unless there are special circumstances, the premier’s press conference will not be held in the coming years of this Chinese National People’s Congress,” he said, referring to his current five-year term, which ends in 2027.
National People’s Congress Speaker Lu Qingjian poses for a photo after a news conference on the eve of the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Monday, March 4, 2024 (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana).
Lu, speaking on a range of issues, insisted China remains open to foreign business and investment, dismissing concerns raised over recent changes to national security laws. He also expressed confidence that the nation can overcome any limitations placed on its access to technology.
The spokesman repeated the government’s assurances that the revisions to the Espionage Act do not target normal business, scientific and academic activity and exchange. China opposes attempts to denigrate and undermine its business environment through misinterpretation of the law, he said.
The revised law “improves the definition of espionage and clarifies illegal behavior and the boundaries of legal behavior to improve the safety and security of foreign companies and foreigners investing, working and living in China,” he said.
Foreign businessmen say uncertainties remain about what is and is not illegal.
Lu also said no one can put a “stranglehold” on China when it comes to technology, citing the development of China’s own GPS-like satellite navigation system.
“This example fully demonstrates that as long as we persist in self-reliance, there are no difficulties that cannot be overcome,” he said. “For any known technology…it’s only a matter of time before we develop it.”
Lu declined to comment on this year’s US presidential election and its impact on China’s relations with the United States. He did oppose attacks by US lawmakers and their trips to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory.
“To be honest, ordinary Chinese people often see members of the US Congress introducing anti-China bills, attacking Chinese institutions, companies and citizens, or even making provocative visits to the Chinese region of Taiwan,” he said.
How much military spending will rise is expected to become clear when Congress opens on Tuesday. Lu did not comment on this year’s increase, but his response suggested it would be similar to the recent trend of more moderate growth in percentage terms than the double-digit increases that ended in 2015. Last year’s increase was 7.2%.
Helena Legarda, a defense and foreign policy analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, expects a 6 percent to 7 percent increase, which she says will reflect the importance the government attaches to defense even as it seeks to stimulate the economy.
“This would signal quite clearly that Beijing is quite concerned about its international environment and is therefore prioritizing military modernization at the expense of certain other economic or social policy issues,” she said.
Lu said China has “encouraged the simultaneous improvement of national defense and economic strength” in recent years, while maintaining a reasonable level of spending on its military.
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Associated Press reporter Emily Wang Fujiyama and researchers Yu Bing and Wanqing Chen contributed to this report.
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This congress speaker’s name has been corrected to Lu Qingjian.
