Until it opened on March 5, the annual full session of China’s National People’s Congress had promised to be more interesting than most, which is admittedly not saying very much.
Most legislative action is conducted year-round by the parliament’s 175-member Standing Committee. In 11 largely tedious days, the 2,964 “people’s representatives” now gathered in Beijing will endorse various government reports by large majorities, praise the leadership of the ruling Chinese Communist party, and likely pass just one amended “Legislation Law”, tweaking the process by which laws are passed.
Yet in recent weeks, voices from across China’s political spectrum had suggested that a much more feisty NPC session might be in the offing.