China’s Annual Legislative Meeting

Published on Author spencerb15

The Chinese Government recently completed their annual legislative meeting. The meeting was uneventful and little was accomplished. This has become the expected norm from these meetings and it is troubling experts. There is a continued rivalry between the Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping. These men are jockeying for the dominant voice and it is causing a stalemate in the government.

This is troubling because China faces two major problems. The first is a political issue. After Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, Cadre leaders are less willing to take action and this makes them less effective. Xi is promoting a strategy that he can not implement without these leaders. The second issue facing China is a slowing economy. Government officials have acknowledged this slowdown, but will need to make legislative progress to improve the situation.

The government has been able to reach a compromise before, and if they wish to counteract the problems they face, they will need to do it again.

Source: https://econ274.academic.wlu.edu/wp-admin/post.php?post=5921&action=edit&message=6

2 Responses to China’s Annual Legislative Meeting

  1. I would urge you to follow up with more in-depth analysis of domestic politics. What I’ve been reading suggests that Xi has more power than any recent president. But in that case he doesn’t need the Parliament [proper term? People’s Assembly?] to help nudge decisions in his favor — under past presidents / premiers there have been split votes — and it instead becomes a rubber-stamp institution. But I don’t follow politics carefully.