Explainer | Why postponing China’s National People’s Congress adds further complexity to Beijing’s economic plan

The annual National People’s Congress will be delayed until at least the end of March or even early April due to the coronavirus outbreak

The annual parliamentary gathering is a ceremonial event to rubber-stamp policies that have already been decided, but the outbreak has changed the landscape

Reading Time:4 minutes

Beijing’s practice of setting targets and top-down approach, a legacy from the command economy days, is again under pressure with the National People’s Congress set to be delayed until at least the end of March or even early April. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:30am, 20 Feb 2020Updated: 1:18pm, 12 May 2020

The forced postponement of China’s annual parliamentary gathering due to the coronavirus outbreak has added fresh uncertainty and complexity to Beijing’s management of the world’s second largest economy, reflecting inherent contradiction between a top-down policymaking system and a rapidly changing world.

Beijing’s practice of setting targets and top-down approach, a legacy from the command economy days, is again under pressure with the National People’s Congress to be delayed until at least the end of March or even early April.

This raises questions over how China can reconcile goals made at December’s Central Economic Work Conference, which are usually then released during Premier Li Keqiang’s government work report at the National People’s Congress, with the reality of a much-changed environment due to the deadly coronavirus outbreak which escalated at the end of January.

While the annual parliamentary gathering is seen as a ceremonial event to rubber-stamp policies that have already been decided, it is officially the supreme power body in China and the visible end of a long and opaque policy decision making chain.

It is the venue to explain the ruling Communist Party’s decisions to the public and to publish Beijing’s targets for economic growth, unemployment and inflation as well as the fiscal deficits – all of which were decided weeks or even months earlier at close-door meetings but remained unpublished.