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China's NPC - what it is and why it matters · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Every year, China's most important politicians, leaders and influential figures
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  Speaker 1: gather here to hold the two Sessions to shape the.
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  Speaker 2: Country's most crucial policies. But what's it like, how does
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  Speaker 2: work and what have we learned so far? We're going
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  Speaker 2: to unpack that with the help of Clifford Konnan. He
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  Speaker 2: has covered China for years.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the main thing is that we have very little
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  Speaker 3: information about how decisions are made in China. It's effectively
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  Speaker 3: a black box. You have the Standing Committee, which is
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  Speaker 3: Shi Jimping and the other very senior leadership. Then you
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  Speaker 3: have the Pollup Bureau, which is the next level down,
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  Speaker 3: and then you go into the various other groupings. So
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  Speaker 3: it's very much a top down structure with Ji Jimping
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  Speaker 3: at the top and his role is he's General Secretory
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  Speaker 3: to the party. He's the president, and he's also head
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  Speaker 3: of the military, and we'll talk more about the military later,
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  Speaker 3: but he's very It's very much a way for us
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  Speaker 3: to kind of see what is on China's mind, what
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  Speaker 3: is on the leadership's mind.
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  Speaker 1: He's attended fifteen of the two Sessions meetings as a
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  Speaker 1: correspondent and he's helping us today to understand this important
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  Speaker 1: political gathering and why it matters for people in China
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  Speaker 1: and around the world.
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  Speaker 3: It's anti Eenement Square, which of course is this massive concourse,
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  Speaker 3: and it's in the Great Hall of the People, which
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  Speaker 3: is this very Cold War era meeting hall, and you
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  Speaker 3: you sort of walk these lots, you walk these long
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  Speaker 3: distances across the across the square to get in there.
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  Speaker 3: And the hall itself is enormous, with the red stars
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  Speaker 3: and all the sort of the pump and spectacle that
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  Speaker 3: you get of a Marxist Leninist gatherings. You know, it's
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  Speaker 3: very much everyone's in very neat rows, and all the
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  Speaker 3: applause is carefully, carefully choreographed, and everyone the different speeches,
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  Speaker 3: everything is so sort of routine and organized that there's
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  Speaker 3: no room for any sort of variations. You know, the
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  Speaker 3: teacups are all perfectly placed in front of the leadership,
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  Speaker 3: and the order in which people sit and everything. It's
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  Speaker 3: it's like before it's like a throwback to that era
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  Speaker 3: before the end of communism, and it's really it's fascinating.
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  Speaker 3: When you're walking through Gianeman Square to the first meeting,
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  Speaker 3: you will see a lot of people dressed in Tibetan gear,
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  Speaker 3: dressed in military uniform because there's a lot of a
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  Speaker 3: lot of members from the military there. You'll see people
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  Speaker 3: in weager outfits, so people will wear their sort of
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  Speaker 3: local provincial garb. Most of them, though, are ethnically hand Chinese.
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  Speaker 3: There's relatively few people from the actual minorities in the
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  Speaker 3: at very senior levels, although there are some, and so
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  Speaker 3: that's you get this sort of that adds to the
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  Speaker 3: visual spectacle of it.
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  Speaker 1: The two sessions run over several days. It's essentially two
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  Speaker 1: different meetings. One for the National People's Congress, these are
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  Speaker 1: the lawmakers, and one for the Chinese People's Political Consultative
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  Speaker 1: Conference or the CPPCC, which is a political advisory body
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  Speaker 1: work together to set the direction for the world's second
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  Speaker 1: largest economy.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is in Chinese. It's called the Langue,
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  Speaker 3: which means the two meetings. So we tend to focus
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  Speaker 3: more on the NPC because that's the one that actually
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  Speaker 3: does approve all the decisions. And then the NPC tends
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  Speaker 3: to be where the actual rubber stamp decisions are made,
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  Speaker 3: and they have the big the big theater of the
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  Speaker 3: of the Annual Parliament. So as I say, it's not
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  Speaker 3: a parliament as we would as we would understand it
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  Speaker 3: in Germany or in the West, where where you know
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  Speaker 3: you have a lot of people, you would have an
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  Speaker 3: opposition or you know, you would have people even criticizing
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  Speaker 3: any any of the measures that are being adopted. But
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  Speaker 3: the CPPCC is also very important. It's a consultative body. Basically,
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  Speaker 3: it's an advisory body and they don't have any real
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  Speaker 3: impact on on what decisions are made, but they do
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  Speaker 3: it does have a role in that they will discuss
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  Speaker 3: the main sort of issues that are affecting society. So
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  Speaker 3: so members of of of the CPPCC would include actors,
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  Speaker 3: you know, for example, like Jackie Chan was on it
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  Speaker 3: the Martial Arts Hero until he was offered then because
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  Speaker 3: of his son getting into trouble, but then he was
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  Speaker 3: back on after he managed to atone for for his
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  Speaker 3: son's sons issues. So you have actors, you have film
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  Speaker 3: directors like Funk schaal Gang and Jiang Emo who are
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  Speaker 3: very famous film directors. And then you also have tycoons
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  Speaker 3: who are on it. Robin Lee, the founder of BAI
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  Speaker 3: do you know he's he's been on it, and and
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  Speaker 3: various other tycoons from various sectors of society, and so
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  Speaker 3: it's it does have a kind of a it's kind
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  Speaker 3: of a way of getting the elite together, and so
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  Speaker 3: you have it's it's a way of displaying that China's development,
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  Speaker 3: for example, has all been that that China has developed
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  Speaker 3: into this, into this, you know, this aspect of society
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  Speaker 3: is there now that you have these very important cultural
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  Speaker 3: figures for example, and and financial figures. So it's it's
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  Speaker 3: that that's the main that's the CPPCC.
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  Speaker 1: Now you often hear about the five Year Plan. I
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  Speaker 1: asked Clifford what it is.
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  Speaker 3: So you have all these sort of provincial leaders and
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  Speaker 3: basically when they hand out the five year Plan, even
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  Speaker 3: though it's all been worked out in advance, the symbolism
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  Speaker 3: of it is that they will take this five year
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  Speaker 3: Plan home and they will study it and then they
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  Speaker 3: will seek to meet these targets that are in it.
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  Speaker 3: And the targets are very interesting. Well, the five year
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  Speaker 3: Plan is very significant, as I said, because that's our
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  Speaker 3: that's our window into how how the economy is expected
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  Speaker 3: to develop and what sort of what priorities they have
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  Speaker 3: set on the on the economy.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a huge meeting that runs on for days.
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  Speaker 1: What do observers actually look at for what are the
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  Speaker 1: juiciest bits.
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  Speaker 3: The four point five to five percent economic growth forecast,
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  Speaker 3: and that's a that's basically my feeling on this is
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  Speaker 3: that because the data is always slightly you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: indicative rather than hard and fast, if you know what
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  Speaker 3: I mean. That it's kind of that you can get.
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  Speaker 3: It gives you an idea of where the economy is going,
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  Speaker 3: but they're always going to meet their targets. And one
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  Speaker 3: thing that you get in the narrative of the Chinese
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  Speaker 3: Communist Party, as in other communist parties over the years,
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  Speaker 3: is the concept of struggle. They like the idea of
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  Speaker 3: a struggle and a campaign that people can get behind.
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  Speaker 3: And at the same time, they want to show that
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  Speaker 3: they're focusing on high quality growth. They want to show
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  Speaker 3: that it's that like manufacturing. For example, China has been
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  Speaker 3: the world's factory for for many, for many, for many months,
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  Speaker 3: and sorry for many for many years, but it's it's
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  Speaker 3: it's making widgets and patio furniture, and now it wants
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  Speaker 3: to make high end shifts and it wants to you know,
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  Speaker 3: high tech and AI driven robotics for example, are a
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  Speaker 3: big issue now in China at the moment, and the
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  Speaker 3: social side of it is very interesting too, because we
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  Speaker 3: have the birth rate. China's birth rate is at the
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  Speaker 3: lowest level since nineteen forty nine. China spent many years
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  Speaker 3: enforcing a one child policy, and now that the population
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  Speaker 3: is getting older, this has turned into a real problem
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  Speaker 3: because you have two things. You have the fact that
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  Speaker 3: people are not having children, because that's what's happening. It's
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  Speaker 3: kind of nearly a global phenomenon, but particularly in Asia
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  Speaker 3: at the moment, Southeast Asia particularly, the birth rate is
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  Speaker 3: very low, not just in China, as I say, but
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  Speaker 3: also in Japan and in Taiwan. All of these societies
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  Speaker 3: have got a real problem with replacing the population. And
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  Speaker 3: this means that the dependency ratio that means the amount
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  Speaker 3: of people who are going to have to look after
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  Speaker 3: the aging population, which is increasing all the time, is
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  Speaker 3: not very It's not conducive for growth in China. It's
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  Speaker 3: going to really struggle with the whole concept that China,
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  Speaker 3: like Japan, got got old, but it was also rich,
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  Speaker 3: and the challenge is always to get to get rich
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  Speaker 3: before you get old, so and China hasn't really done that.
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  Speaker 3: So what it's doing now is it's going to start
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  Speaker 3: trying to introduce these efforts to to boost the growth
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  Speaker 3: rate and and to see if they can work, because
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  Speaker 3: it looks like even in countries where they've introduced these measures,
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  Speaker 3: like you know, tax relief for help with childcare, it
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  Speaker 3: doesn't really make that much difference because people are having
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  Speaker 3: to pay so much for education, the property is so expensive,
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  Speaker 3: they don't have any room for children. You know, all
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  Speaker 3: these different reasons why why these societies are not having
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  Speaker 3: not having children.
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  Speaker 1: There are also some highly contentious topics on the agenda.
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  Speaker 1: One of them are plans around the Mandarin language.
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  Speaker 3: This is very controversial because in u In particularly like
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  Speaker 3: in Shinjiang, where people speak they speak they're the weaker dialect, sorry,
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  Speaker 3: the weaker language. And then in you see it as
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  Speaker 3: well in Tibet, where the Tibetan language is there. They're
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  Speaker 3: now encouraging people to speak Mandarin, and they're going to
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  Speaker 3: up those efforts to make people speak Mandarin. Mandarin is
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  Speaker 3: kind of the is kind of the standard Chinese that
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  Speaker 3: is spoken around in Beijing and in the in in
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  Speaker 3: that part of China. But then you have Cantonese which
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  Speaker 3: is another dialect of Chinese, but it bears no relation
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  Speaker 3: to Mandarin. And so it's not only it's not only
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  Speaker 3: the political sort of colonial aspects as were of making
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  Speaker 3: the Wigers and making the Tibetans speak speak Mandarin Chinese.
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  Speaker 3: There's also a cultural thing that's making it a common
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  Speaker 3: language through the whole country, because there's also pressure in
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  Speaker 3: Hong Kong, for example, where Cantonese is spoken, there's a
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  Speaker 3: lot of pressure to learn Mandarin, and that's going to increase.
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  Speaker 3: And in Canton, Guangdong Province, which is beside Hong Kong,
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  Speaker 3: where a lot of the factories are, people are being
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  Speaker 3: urged to learn Mandarin. And even in Shanghai, which is
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  Speaker 3: the Shanghai dialect is pretty hard to can be pretty
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  Speaker 3: hard to follow a firm if you speak if you
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  Speaker 3: speak Beijing Mandarin, for example, So it's trying to standardize
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  Speaker 3: the language everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of international headlines are about the amount of
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  Speaker 1: money China plans to spend on its military, which has
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  Speaker 1: again gone up to a record high.
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  Speaker 3: It's always on the second day when the when they
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  Speaker 3: do their work report, we get an idea of what
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  Speaker 3: the defense budget is going to be and this year
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  Speaker 3: is growing seven percent, so it's it's a bit it's
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  Speaker 3: a little bit more than growth than the economy is
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  Speaker 3: expected to grow. So in that way, it is it
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  Speaker 3: is a big increase, but it's slightly less than we've
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  Speaker 3: seen in previous in previous years. But you're talking about
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  Speaker 3: a big military that's still growing by massive amount and
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  Speaker 3: still considerably less and massively less than you would get
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  Speaker 3: in the US, and it's it's much bigger than pretty
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  Speaker 3: much anyone else in the region. North Korea notwithstanding, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: they have I don't know what their military spend is,
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  Speaker 3: but I imagine it's fairly significant. So you've got a
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  Speaker 3: lot of focus on the military, on the military budget,
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  Speaker 3: particularly at the moment because of this sort of heightened
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  Speaker 3: insecurity more in the Middle East obviously, but there's always
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  Speaker 3: the issue with the South China Sea and what China's
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  Speaker 3: ambitions are there, and also about Taiwan and what its
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  Speaker 3: ambitions would be for self ruled Taiwan, which China claims
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  Speaker 3: as part of its territory to be taken back by
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  Speaker 3: force if necessary. So whenever you look at this the
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  Speaker 3: defense spent, the military spend, there's a focus on whether
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  Speaker 3: it's going to be on maybe taking action in Taiwan,
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  Speaker 3: or whether it's going to be more focused on the
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  Speaker 3: South China Sea and having a China having a greater
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  Speaker 3: presence in the South.
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  Speaker 1: I also asked about china stands on the war in
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  Speaker 1: Iran and whether it had any motivation to intervene.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think there is, except for the
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  Speaker 3: problem of energy security because Iran is an ally and
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  Speaker 3: it also China buys at least eighty percent of all
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  Speaker 3: of Iran's oil, so it's so basically the energy security
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  Speaker 3: is the main area. But I think Chinese ships have
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  Speaker 3: been promised that they can go down the straight up Hormuz,
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  Speaker 3: which is that narrow area through which the oil gets
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  Speaker 3: shipped out of much of the oil gets shipped out
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  Speaker 3: of the region. But they've been told that their ships
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  Speaker 3: are going to be okay. But clearly it's a very
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  Speaker 3: very volatile situation, and I think the main Chinese state
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  Speaker 3: shipper has told its ships to stay put for the
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  Speaker 3: time being, so it's going to be thinking a lot
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  Speaker 3: about energy security. It can't really intervene. I don't think
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  Speaker 3: it can really intervene because this is very much the
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  Speaker 3: U S's area of influence, and I think China is
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  Speaker 3: aware of the fact that it can only have a
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  Speaker 3: minimal role to play there. It's certainly not happy about it.
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  Speaker 3: One very interesting aspect is that that Trump is supposed
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  Speaker 3: to visit Donald at President Donald Trump is supposed to
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  Speaker 3: be visiting there at the end of this month, and
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot of questions about maybe that will be
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  Speaker 3: delayed now because it could be very difficult for them
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  Speaker 3: to receive him, given that he's you know, blocking off
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  Speaker 3: a lot of their energy supply through the war. So
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  Speaker 3: I suppose a lot depends on how long the current
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  Speaker 3: conflict lands. But I think China is very unhappy about it,
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  Speaker 3: and it's it's it's going to cause major repercussions, but
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  Speaker 3: as at the moment, I think there's relatively little it
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  Speaker 3: can do about it.
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  Speaker 1: Finally, here's Clifforod on what else people need to know
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  Speaker 1: to fully understand the two Sessions meetings.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think the main thing with the
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  Speaker 3: Two Sessions is that it is it is a rubber
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  Speaker 3: stamp piece of political theater, but it also should be
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  Speaker 3: a reminder that China is a centrally planned economy and
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  Speaker 3: it's still a communist country, and I think people forget
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  Speaker 3: that it would see itself as the most successful communist
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  Speaker 3: party ever because it's survived all the changes that where
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  Speaker 3: many other commuist parties have fallen by the wayside.