Xi Calls for Quality Growth; Hong Kong Elections: NPC Update

(Bloomberg) -- This year’s full-session of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, enters its fourth day on Monday.

Over the weekend, President Xi Jinping participated in a gathering of NPC delegates from Qinghai Province and spoke about the need for China to seek high-quality economic growth. Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng met with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, during which he emphasized the need to contain the spread of Covid-19 and to also ensure implementation of Beijing’s overhaul of the city’s electoral system.

On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned the U.S. to stop “crossing lines and playing with fire” when it comes to Taiwan, which Beijing claims sovereignty over. The independently-ruled island was one of several topics that Wang hit out at the U.S. for during a briefing with reporters.

What to Know:

Latest developments: (Time-stamps are local time in Beijing)

Upcoming Events: 5-Year Plan Briefing

Key upcoming NPC events that have been announced so far include:

• Monday, 10 a.m. — NDRC Vice Chairman Ning Jizhe discusses 14th five-year plan at briefing
• Monday, 3 p.m. — NPC plenary session, with delegates listening to work reports delivered by NPC standing committee chairman, head of of the supreme court and the top procurator
• Thursday, 3 p.m. — NPC closing session. Delegates will vote on work reports, 14th Five-Year Plan, and other legislative revisions including decision on revising Hong Kong’s electoral system

China Defends ‘Patriots Governing Hong Kong’ (Monday 01:43 AM)

It is “legitimate, reasonable and necessary” for the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, to make a decision at the constitutional level to “improve” Hong Kong’s electoral system, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary.

Defending Beijing’s proposal to reform Hong Kong’s electoral system in face of criticism from the West, the news agency said “anti-China and destabilizing forces” in Hong Kong have collaborated with “external Western force” to taken advantage of longstanding loopholes in the existing electoral system to try to disrupt the governance of Hong Kong.

The proposal, which lawmakers in Beijing are expected to pass within days, signals a dramatic rejection of the democratic institutions China had tolerated in the former British colony since regaining sovereignty in 1997.

Read more about the proposed overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system

China Vice Premier Meets Hong Kong’s Lam (Sunday 11:25 PM)

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng met with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Sunday, telling the financial center’s leader that she should continue to make containing the spread of Covid-19 her top priority, while also ensuring that the city implements Beijing’s plan to overhaul its electoral system. The changes to election processes are part of “a battle to defend Hong Kong’s legal system and the rule of law,” the South China Morning Post reported Han as telling Lam, who is in Beijing for the National People’s Congress. Han is the member of the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body, with overview for Hong Kong and Macau.

Xi Calls for Quality Economic Growth (Sunday 9:37 PM)

President Xi Jinping, in a meeting with NPC delegates from Qinghai province, stressed the need to pursue high-quality economic growth and said Beijing would require that of all parts of China, not just those that are relatively more affluent. For Qinghai, one of China’s poorest regions, Xi called on the province to develop clean energy industries, to become a destination for international eco-tourism and to make itself into a source of green and organic farm goods. Xi also called on authorities in Qinghai, which is home to a significant number of ethnic Tibetans, to promote the prosperity and unity of all ethnicities, according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency.

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