Explainer - China’s N ational P eople’s Congress and t he economy: Short

1 This three d ecades-old p ractice oered a rare opportunity for the Premier of t he People’s Republic o f China’s ( PRC) to engage with t he media openly, and a way f rom t he formulaic a nd often i mpenetrable language which features in t he main economic reports published o n the fi rst d ay of the NPC. [...] Whether the end of the p remier’s press event i s a message f rom Xi J inping, G eneral S ecretary of the Chinese C ommunist Party (CCP), about the s tatus of t he premier or the economy is a moot point. [...] 3 The N ational Development a nd Reform Commission (NDRC), formerly the S tate Planning Commission, n oted in i ts 2024 report to the NPC t hat t he government h ad rolled out 2 0 policies and measures t o revitalise and expand c onsumption, 1 7 to boost i nvestment, and c onducted a ppropriate monetary and credit p olicies. [...] 1 2 These and other government-related sources of f unds are unprecedented in scale, and play a significant role in the PRC’s science and technology ecosystem, in t rade p olicy, and i n rendering industrial policy a s a k ey tool to strengthen the CCP’s command o f the e conomy. [...] The main issue in t he P RC’s labour markets is t he steady shift i n occupational composition t owards lower-paid and l ower-skill work, a nd to informal or gig-type p ositions, a t a time when the economy n eeds to churn o ut b etter educated and skilled workers and job o pportunities.