What’s going well, what’s not, and where to from here are the hot topics of conversation in China this week at the National People’s Congress. Every five years, the government reviews the progress of the past five-year economic plan, and debates and affirms the plan for the next five years. In three separate reports delivered to the entire Congress of about three thousand representatives, the government leadership establishes the broad outlines of the budget and its economic priorities (PDF). This time around, the five-year work plan (PDF) is striking for several reasons: the high degree of continuity from five years ago, the push by Beijing for Chinese companies to assert themselves globally, the strong hand of the state in areas of the economy considered integral to social stability, and the potential for serious debate over several of the redistributive aspects of the plan.
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