Key points of the 2024 Chinese parliamentary meeting: economy, environment

BEIJING – China’s annual parliamentary meetings ended Monday, and for the first time in decades, China’s premier did not hold a news conference.

In a break with tradition, the prime minister will no longer hold a press conference after parliamentary meetings this year – at least for the remainder of the legislature, according to an official announcement last week.

These press conferences were a rare example of press interaction with the highest levels of the Chinese government.

President Xi Jinping did not speak at the closing ceremony. He usually speaks only during the closing ceremonies of the first session of each National People’s Congress, the nation’s highest authority that is elected every five years. This year the second session of the 14th National People’s Congress takes place.

To be clear, the annual meeting of top executives is typically ceremonial in nature. Real power rests with the ruling Communist Party, led by Xi, who is the party’s general secretary and president of China.

However, announcements made during the Congress may shed light on government policy.

Here are some highlights of what was announced during this year’s week-long parliamentary meeting, which began on Tuesday last week and ended on Monday.

“Along with extensive discussions on environmental protection, the Government Work Report (GWR) has explicitly committed to reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by approximately -2.5% in 2024,” Citi analysts highlighted in a report on Sunday.

The report “set no such numerical targets in 2022-23, after the -3.0% target and ‘campaign-style’ execution led to power outages in 2021,” the analysts said.

But they warned that investors “need to be aware of the growth risks that could arise from a potential tightening of environmental policy.”

China has set a growth target of around 5% for 2024: this was stated by Prime Minister Li Qiang at the beginning of Tuesday’s meetings in which he published the highly anticipated government work report.

Support for industry is clearly at the top of Beijing’s list of priorities for the year ahead, according to three major plans released during parliamentary meetings.

The top economic planner also noted that a push to upgrade equipment would generate a market of more than 5 trillion yuan (about $694.5 billion).

Real estate, in contrast, has received less emphasis.

However, the Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that property developers “who have to fail should fail”. At a press conference on Saturday, Ni Hong warned that those who “harm the interests of the masses” will be investigated and punished.

The Chinese Communist Party has increased its control over Xi’s government.

In the 2023 parliamentary meeting, Beijing announced an overhaul of financial and technology regulation by establishing party-led commissions to oversee the two sectors. Xi also won an unprecedented third term as president at last year’s meeting.

This year, the National People’s Congress approved changes to overhaul the structure of the State Council, which has been the top executive body of the prime minister-led government. During the closing ceremony on Monday, the amended organic law of the Council of State was approved with 2,883 delegate votes, of which eight were rejected and nine abstained.

The changes include vice premiers and the head of the People’s Bank of China among the board’s top executives.

It wasn’t immediately clear what impact those changes would have.

— CNBC’s Clement Tan contributed to this story.