Delegates and members attending the two sessions of the Chinese Communist Party
An Epidemic caused by a Chinese Communist Party virus continues to spread across China. Hong Kong media are reporting that in response to the epidemic, the two sessions of the Chinese Communist Party will continue last year’s anti-epidemic strategy of holding a combination of offline and online sessions, and will be restricted to permanent Beijing-based media. Even if the approval is granted, there will still be many times when interviews can only be conducted online.
In late December, authorities confirmed that this year’s National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and National People’s Congress will be held on March 4 and March 5, respectively. Last year, because of the outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan, the two sessions of the National People’s Congress, which are customarily held in March, were postponed to late May.
The Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported today that the two sessions of the National Conference of the Communist Party of China will continue last year’s epidemic prevention strategy, held in a combination of offline and online. The duration of the session will be the same as in previous years.
Media registration for the sessions will begin next month, but officials will only approve applications from permanent Beijing-based media reporters to cover the sessions, refusing to allow temporary foreign correspondents to arrive in Beijing.
Sources said the authorities are still inclined to adopt similar measures to those taken last year to prevent the epidemic, strictly controlling the number of people attending the conference and only approving applications from permanent Beijing-based journalists to cover the two sessions, while refusing to allow temporary overseas arrivals to cover them.
According to the current requirements of Beijing’s epidemic prevention and control, entrants are required to complete a 14-day intensive quarantine, a 7-day Home quarantine, and a 7-day health declaration, for a total observation period of 28 days.
In addition, Beijing’s official press conferences have long raised the bar, requiring journalists to remain in the country for at least 30 days as a prerequisite for covering the event.
Sources close to the matter said this will be a condition for authorities to approve journalists’ applications to cover the two sessions, meaning that if any foreign journalists want to cover the event in Beijing, they will need to enter the country at least a month in advance and complete quarantine and health monitoring.
However, the plan to cover the two sessions has reportedly not yet been finalized.
The latest wave of outbreaks in China since the end of last year has hit several northern provinces and cities, including Hebei, Jilin and Heilongjiang, and in Beijing, from Shunyi District in the north to Daxing District in the south, and from Chaoyang District in the east to Haidian District in the west, the outbreak is approaching Zhongnanhai.
Hebei scholar Wang Man-kwong told Radio Free Asia that the authorities are already more nervous about the new wave of the epidemic than they were last year because the location of Zhongnanhai’s top brass is too close to the epidemic area and there have been several confirmed cases of indigenous cases: “This affects the so-called general stability, which is the node that the Communist Party values so much. For example, there are two meetings in March, the main thing is not to affect these so-called big picture, in fact, how many people are infected with this disease is not a big concern for them. The current round of the epidemic, especially launched from the north, is really scary.”
The Central News Agency reported that Hong Kong deputies to the Chinese Communist Party’s National People’s Congress and Hong Kong members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference were arranged to be vaccinated against the Chinese Communist Party virus in Shenzhen today. This is reportedly in preparation for their attendance at the “two sessions” in Beijing in March. The news confirms Beijing’s high political motivation to strengthen its epidemic prevention.
The outbreak suddenly broke out in Beijing’s Xinfa Di market after the conclusion of last year’s two Communist Party meetings, which were postponed until May, with Beijing Party Secretary Cai Qi issuing a warning to “enter an extraordinary period” within two days of the first case being reported.
As the confirmed cases, especially the first few, the patients have no history of travel outside Beijing, and no history of contact with people outside the country or in Hubei. The outbreak was discovered before the end of May, but it was kept under wraps for more than 10 days in order to keep Xi Jinping from taking the blame (because he was the one who insisted on holding the two sessions), and now it is finally being suppressed.
At the Time, some analysts believed that the outbreak in Beijing was likely to have emerged by the end of May, before the end of the “two sessions”, based on the incubation period of at least 2 weeks.
In an article about last year’s National People’s Congress, commentator Zheng Zhongyuan mentioned that the meeting was a perfect opportunity for the CCP authorities to divert attention. At that time, Xi Jinping was under a lot of pressure because he had to send thousands of delegates to Beijing at the risk of contracting the epidemic, as he was being chased by international claims for compensation for concealing the epidemic, and there were protests against Xi on the Internet from time to time. The meeting turned out to be a rush to push through the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law, which suppresses human rights in Hong Kong and directly destroys “one country, two systems”, causing an uproar.
Recent Comments