Coronavirus outbreak casts shadow over China’s top political meetings

Sichuan and Yunnan provinces have postponed their legislative and political advisory meetings

With no urgent business this year, the central government should consider doing the same, political scientist says

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China is grappling with a coronavirus outbreak just weeks before the country’s political elite are expected to meet in Beijing. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:00am, 29 Jan 2020Updated: 2:07pm, 17 Feb 2020

The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is casting a shadow over plans for the annual gatherings of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), and its top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which had been expected to take place in early March.

Cases of the illness have been confirmed in almost all corners of the country, with the death toll from the disease surpassing 100 on Tuesday.

The province of Yunnan cited the spread of the virus as the reason it was postponing its annual legislative gatherings. Sichuan province has also postponed its meetings but gave no reason. A handful of municipal governments have done the same.

With fewer than 100 confirmed cases each as of Monday, Sichuan and Yunnan are not among the provinces hardest hit by the outbreak.

But their decision came after an ad hoc official committee to handle the epidemic, led by Premier Li Keqiang, issued a nationwide order on Saturday to delay or cancel all meetings and public events.

All tiers of government, beginning at the district level, hold legislative and political consultative sessions once a year, culminating in the “two sessions” of the NPC and CPPCC in Beijing.