China’s ‘two sessions’: CPPCC chief presses need to hold Communist Party line
- Wang Yang urges members to get behind patriot push in Hong Kong and stops short of mentioning ‘one country, two systems’
- Coronavirus containment and economic recovery among last year’s achievements, he says
At the opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, CPPCC chairman Wang Yang said the country could claim a number of achievements over the past year, including containing the coronavirus, maintaining an economic recovery and eradicating poverty.
The address – the reading of the CPPCC’s annual work report – raised the curtain on one of the most important political events for the country.
In his speech, Wang called on the 2,100 members assembled in the Great Hall of the People to support the party, saying it had been the nation’s “backbone” through the turbulence of the past and would be so again as China went through uncharted waters to further development.
The annual gatherings of the CPPCC and the National People’s Congress, the top legislature, have been compressed into eight days this year, down from the usual two weeks, amid strict coronavirus prevention measures.