Advertisement
Advertisement
‘Two sessions’ 2021 bite-sized recap: smart courts, government debt and prenatal check-ups top Wednesday’s agenda
- Top political advisory body CPPCC concludes its week-long meeting in Beijing
- National People’s Congress will wrap up tomorrow evening with a press conference by Premier Li Keqiang
These are the issues that topped Wednesday’s agenda at the abridged annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing:
All over for another year: China’s top political advisory body, the CPPCC, concludes its week-long meeting, while the NPC has just one more day to run. The highlight on Thursday will be a press conference by Premier Li Keqiang, on which the Post will run a live blog.
00:59
CPPCC political advisory meeting closes with call to ‘unite more closely’ with China’s president
CPPCC political advisory meeting closes with call to ‘unite more closely’ with China’s president
Hi-tech justice: New five-year plan says Chinese courts will upgrade to the fourth generation of a “smart court” initiative by 2025. This will include a centralised database for judicial data and a nationwide control hub overseeing all aspects of the smart court initiative.
Defining patriots: In an interview with state broadcasters CGTN and CCTV, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor Lam gives her definition of what being a “patriot” means, speaking after Beijing spelt out its electoral reform plan for the city. Watch the clip.
Pregnant pause for thought: One of the proposals that gained a lot of attention online was from NPC deputy He Jinying, a schoolteacher from Hebei province, who suggested making routine check-ups for pregnant women free of charge.
Stat of the day: With China’s total government debt at 46.55 trillion yuan (US$7.1 trillion) at the end of 2020, the NPC urges regional governments not to “blindly expand” post-Covid infrastructure projects due to concerns about mounting financial risks.
Post