China Briefing | Coronavirus: going ahead with China’s ‘two sessions’ as normal would be foolhardy

In a little more than two weeks, thousands of delegates are scheduled to attend China’s most important annual political events – the NPC and CPPCC

If China’s best case scenario is that the virus will go away by April, pressing on with the political events in March would send a message that politics is above people. Far better to delay.

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A sports centre that has been converted into a temporary hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:30am, 15 Feb 2020Updated: 1:17pm, 12 May 2020

To resume work or not to resume work? That is the tough question China’s leaders, from central government to the local authorities, are grappling with for the moment as the novel coronavirus outbreak has basically put the whole country in lockdown mode for the past three weeks.

There is no easy answer as they are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, officials encouraged by a recent fall in new infections hope to restart production as soon as possible to mitigate the impact on the world’s second-largest economy and bring life back to some semblance of normality. On the other hand, they fear that having people return to work too soon would trigger a second wave of new cases.

The political stakes are high. Chinese leaders are under rising pressure to delay the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislative body, which is scheduled to start on March 5 and last 10 days. Among other issues, the annual session is to hear and approve the government work report, China’s version of the US State of the Union address, which lists economic targets and social development goals for the year. Along with the annual meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top advisory body, which is scheduled to start on March 3 for 10 days, the annual meetings – known as the “Two Sessions” – are considered among the most important political events in the country.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang attend last year’s National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Photo: Bloomberg

Of course, all this hangs on how quickly the Chinese government can contain the spread of the highly contagious virus, which by Friday had already killed more than 1,300 people and infected more than 60,000.

In recent days, China’s top health experts including Zhong Nanshan, famed for his role in combating the Sars epidemic in 2002-2003, have taken a cautiously optimistic tone, saying in media interviews and social media posts that the outbreak may peak later this month and be over by April.

President Xi Jinping reportedly told US President Donald Trump in their latest phone conversation that he also believed the virus would go away by April, presumably on the assumption that the coronavirus, like respiratory illnesses such as the flu, would be less potent and contagious in warmer weather.

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