Covid-19 tests and remote reporting await media covering China’s ‘two sessions’

Stricter rules will be placed on participants and journalists for this year’s the “two sessions”, the annual gathering of the country’s legislature and advisory body.

Fewer journalists will be allowed at the event, and those who do enter will be restricted to viewing live-streamed sessions at the media centre. Foreign journalists will also have to be tested for Covid-19 in advance.

Beijing delayed the annual sessions this year for the first time in decades due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has sickened more than 82,000 people across the mainland, killing over 4,600. Originally scheduled for early March, the National People’s Congress will start in Beijing on May 22, while the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference will convene a day earlier.

Only journalists from the state-run People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency and Central China Television will be allowed into the Great Hall of the People, where the meetings are held, according to the Association of China Industrial Newspapers, an organisation overseen by the All-China Journalists’ Association.

Press conferences and other interviews will be conducted through video chats or phone calls, and the public will have access to live feeds of the proceedings.

Sources told the association that the quota for journalists has been cut from 3,000 in the past to a few hundred this year.

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The cuts also apply to state media. The South China Morning Post understands that People’s Daily website Renmin Wang, which has sent dozens of staff in the past, will be restricted to three reporters this year while nationalist tabloid Global Times will not be sending any.

All members and reporters who enter Beijing will be required to take a nucleic test for Covid-19 in advance. Representatives from Hong Kong will take nucleic tests in Shenzhen on Tuesday before flying to Beijing, according to Ta Kung Pao.

While there will be fewer people overall at the event and going into the hall, there will be no “social distancing” such as empty seats between participants during the sessions, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, said that instead of sending its officials to attend the meetings as in the past, council officials would log in remotely to hear about proposals from representatives and delegates.

“There will be hotlines to the State Council for representatives, all phone calls will be recorded and replies will be sent before the two sessions close,” the announcement said.