Paramilitary police march on Tiananmen Square outside the Great Hall of the People before the closing ceremony of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing on March 12, 2009. China’s annual parliamentary sessions, the National People’s Congress (NPC) and its advisory auxiliary, the CPPCC come to a close with the economy and unemployment at the top the agenda.
Peter Parks | Afp | Getty Images
Chinese leadership will kick off the annual parliamentary gathering on Tuesday by outlining economic measures designed to achieve its anticipated growth target of 5%, even as tariff threats from the U.S. loom large.
Thousands of delegates across the country gathered in Beijing for the country’s biggest political event of the year, known as the “Two Sessions.”
The highly-anticipated event, consisting of two parallel sets of meetings, will start with an opening meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a top advisory body, at 3 p.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
At the opening ceremony, the CPPCC members will review and approve the agenda for the upcoming meeting and listen to a work report from the committee’s chairman Wang Huning.
The National People’s Congress meeting is scheduled to open on Wednesday.
As part of the NPC meeting, investors will closely monitor a government work report, delivered by Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday, where policymakers are expected to set the country’s economic growth target at “around 5%,” while raising fiscal budget targets to 4% of gross domestic product from 3% last year.
The leaders are also expected to revise down its annual consumer price inflation target to around 2%, the lowest level in more than two decades.
The week-long event, which will conclude on March 10, is typically followed by a press conference with the foreign minister and heads of economic departments.
The meeting coincides with U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to double the new tariffs on Chinese imports to 20%, starting Tuesday, over the country’s role in the flow of fentanyl.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Commerce reiterated that Beijing “firmly rejects” the extra tariffs and vowed to take countermeasures, a day after Chinese state-backed media Global Times reported that officials are considering retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural and food products.
