How China’s Parliament Aims to Rejig Economy After Covid Zero

China’s parliament — the National People’s Congress — is meeting for the first time since the end of Covid Zero to hear how the country’s top leaders plan to restart the country’s growth engine. Then the roughly 3,000 deputies will give their ceremonial seal of approval — no surprise — to everything proposed. Still, the annual session is worth watching in that it provides a chance to see China’s future leaders in action. Li Qiang, who’s poised to become the premier and is already the Communist Party’s No. 2 after President Xi Jinping, and the new foreign minister, Qin Gang, may even meet the press. The meeting, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, starts Sunday and is expected to run a week or so.

Last year’s Covid outbreaks and restrictions ended abruptly after the controls hit economic growth, caused the budget to blow out and led to a wave of anti-lockdown protests. Even after reopening, there are still lingering effects from hurt investor sentiment, dented consumer confidence and isolation from the rest of the world. The NPC will review the government’s performance and listen to the economic and policy goals set for the year to aid the recovery. Crucially, the legislature will formally name new officials to government posts, including the premier, vice premiers and other economic and financial leadership roles including market regulators, likely in the final days of the session. The NPC runs alongside the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body of party delegates and people from the arts, business and legal worlds. Together, they’re known as the Lianghui, or “Two Sessions.”