Why I miss the Chinese premier’s annual press conference at the close of the country’s ‘two sessions’

A major attribute of the press conference is it projects Beijing’s confidence and open attitude about various topics from foreign policy to economy

The way China’s premier fields questions also enables the public to get a better glimpse into his personality

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang presides over a press conference after the closing ceremony of the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 13, 2023. Photo: AP

Zhou Xin

Zhou Xin is Tech Editor of the Post, following stints as Political Economy Editor and Deputy China Editor.

Published: 7:00am, 12 Mar 2024Updated: 8:55am, 12 Mar 2024

The “two sessions”, the annual meetings of China’s top legislative and political advisory bodies, concluded on Monday without the much-anticipated press conference hosted by the country’s premier, discontinuing a customary practice that was established in the early 1990s.

According to the official explanation, the press conference at the close of this year’s National People’s Congress (NPC) was cancelled because there was already sufficient information from lawmakers, ministers and policy documents provided to the media and the public. Barring exceptional circumstances, future press conferences of the current NPC term will also be scrapped – in essence, the long-held practice was treated as unnecessary.

That “technical justification”, however, is not sufficiently convincing. There must have been a good reason for the press conference to have existed for more than three decades. As a student, and later as a journalist, I have always enjoyed watching these press conferences broadcast live by state television.

A major attribute of the annual press conference, held in a magnificent room inside the Great Hall of the People, is that at least half of the questions asked were from non-mainland Chinese media, covering a wide range of topics from foreign policy to issues related to the economy, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang.