China’s ‘two sessions’: Covid-19 vaccines, tests and limited media access

Most of the thousands of people attending annual political meetings expected to have been inoculated, as well as drivers and hotel staff

Journalists not allowed into Great Hall of the People or to interview deputies and members at their hotels, and press conferences will be held virtually

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The “two sessions” will begin at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:44pm, 1 Mar 2021Updated: 11:12pm, 1 Mar 2021

Beijing has been on a vaccination drive in the lead-up to the country’s most important – and carefully choreographed – annual political meetings later this week.

Most of the thousands of delegates who will stream into the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital are expected to have been inoculated against Covid-19, while others involved in the event have also been given the jab.

Some of those attending said all members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and deputies of the National People’s Congress had been tested for Covid-19 and offered two vaccine doses last month.

The CPPCC political advisory body meets from Thursday, while the nation’s legislature, the NPC, begins its meeting on Friday. But despite a packed agenda – including discussion of the next five-year plan for development and reform – this year’s lianghui, or “two sessions”, will be shorter than usual, as it was last year, running for eight days instead of two weeks because of the pandemic. The CPPCC finishes on March 10 and the NPC on March 11.

Cai Peihui, a businessman and NPC deputy from Taiwan, said he would arrive in Beijing on Wednesday. “Deputies have been tested for the coronavirus and taken two doses of vaccine as requested,” he said.