Two Sessions in Retrospect
Personal Analysis of China's Priorities After Two Sessions
After an exhausting week of Two Session coverage, I've had limited time to watch every conference. Now that it concludes today, I can finally provide my personal review.
What Really Stoodout: Consumption & Innovation
Consumption
The Government Work Report（GWR） states that the economic policy focus is shifting more toward improving people's livelihoods(First time mentioned “investing in people” 投资于人) and promoting consumption, using consumption to revitalize economic circulation. Facing external uncertainties in the international environment, such as tariffs, domestic demand needs to become the main driver and stabilizing anchor for economic growth.
Regarding specific measures, on one hand, the government continues last year's trade-in program with 300 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds for consumer subsidies—double the amount from last year.
On the other hand, I believe we should pay equal attention to the promotion of the service sector. All 31 mainland provincial-level regions have prioritized service consumption expansion in their local sessions, suggesting this sector may also become the incremental growth point for the Chinese economy.
The Government Work Report outlines three ways to boost service consumption:
Easing regulations across healthcare, eldercare, childcare, and domestic services
Developing new digital, green, and smart consumption experiences
Optimizing vacation policies to stimulate spending on culture, tourism, and sports
Extra Highlights: Income Reform as a Cornerstone Strategy
GWR also introduced a significant new priority: "Improve the mechanisms for regular pay increases." This isn't isolated - over 10 regions have independently proposed similar measures, building on the February State Council meeting's emphasis on supporting income growth and the Central Economic Work Conference's directive to increase income for middle and low-income groups.
Involutionary-Competition： It’s the first time GWR mentioned about involution （内卷）The government noticed the backdrop of over-competition, which harms both consumption and demographic reproduction. We still need details on how they are going to manage that phenomenon, but it’s a good start. More and more large companies are beginning to abandon corporate cultures that glorify overtime work—although achieving work-life balance is still premature. Recently, DJI—a leading Chinese drone company and one known for its overtime work culture—has begun prohibiting employees from staying in the office after 9 PM.
Hard Tech Innovation
High-tech innovation can be seen everywhere in this year’s Two Sessions.(GWR, economic-themed press conferences, and even Foreign Minister’s press conferences) Beyond designating technological innovation as the second priority in the Government Work Report, its sub-priority—"Fully implementing the strategy of invigorating China through science and education while boosting the overall performance of China's innovation system"—also appears among the top 10 priorities, underscoring its significance.
People should also pay attention to phrases included such as "expanding the supply of high school education placements,"(扩大高中阶段教育学位供给) "gradually implementing free preschool education,"(逐步推行免费学前教育) and "solidly advancing the expansion of quality undergraduate education"(扎实推进优质本科扩容) are all new additions compared to last year's statements. This means China is innovating the education system to build a solid foundation of tech innovation.
In the industrial policy domain, China continues its transition toward innovation-driven development and high-end manufacturing. The GWR introduces concepts like embodied intelligence, 6G, intelligent robots, and "gazelle enterprises" for the first time, while increasing mentions of artificial intelligence, robotics, recycled materials, innovative pharmaceuticals, biomanufacturing, commercial space, and the low-altitude economy. It’s also encouraging private capital to enter high-end manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.
more:
Economic-Themed Press Conference During Two Sessions-Full Transcript & Highlights
Real estate
The real estate policy frames emphasized during the Two Sessions—"stabilize the housing and stock markets" (稳住楼市股市) and "continue to make efforts to halt the decline and stabilize the real estate market" (持续用力推动房地产市场止跌回稳)—set the tone for this year's real estate market policy targets.
Equally noteworthy is the new frame "Promote the construction of safe, comfortable, green, and smart 'good houses'" (推动建设安全、舒适、绿色、智慧的"好房子"), which was first introduced in the GWR. During the Two Sessions press conference on people's livelihood issues, Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, repeatedly highlighted the establishment of "good house" standards. My understanding is that setting higher quality benchmarks for housing construction would increase the supply of premium housing options and stimulate renewed consumer demand for housing upgrades and improvements. Also, the Chinese urbanization rate is almost 70%; the target is no longer building more but mining the stock market, like building houses with good living environments and quality public services.
Green is also part of the definition of “good houses“
Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Press Conference
My highlight would be the progress of negotiation of South China Sea Code of Conduct（COC）Wang said
Under China's promotion, the consultation process for the “Code of Conduct” is accelerating. The text has already completed three readings, and we are confident about the prospects of reaching agreement on the COC.
My friend Jiang Jiang, founder of Ginger River Review, took the chance and asked Wang Yi a question. Go check out the full transcript:
Other:
Private Economy Promotion Law：
Some asked why it had not been reviewed in Two Sessions. Its legislative body is the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress(NPCSC) instead of NPC. According to the Legislative Law
The National People’s Congress shall formulate and revise basic laws governing criminal offenses, civil matters, state institutions, and other matters.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress shall formulate and revise laws other than the ones to be formulated by the National People’s Congress,
The Private Economy Promotion Law is not part of the basic laws; thus, it’s not on the agenda for this year’s Two Sessions. However, it’s still a hot topic, and different delegates have mentioned it multiple times.
China's legislative framework operates under a three-review system for new laws. (21st Century Business Herald 21世纪经济报道 said there’s a conventional practice that draft legislation is not typically reviewed in consecutive sessions of the NPCSC). What's noteworthy about the Law is that it has already received two readings in rapid succession—at both the 13th (Dec.22) and 14th (Feb.24) meetings of the Standing Committee. So, the law needs to be passed to the later Standing Committee meeting for a third review, which is after the conclusion of the Two Sessions.
Childbirth Subsidy:
The childbirth subsidies were mentioned in the GWR and economic-themed conference. Finance Minister Lan Fo’an mentioned providing childcare subsidies and establishing a national financial aid system for preschool education. Director of the National Health Commission Lei Haichao revealed that the National Health Commission is drafting a childcare subsidy implementation plan in conjunction with relevant departments. We still need to wait and see the exact subsidy number.
Please also listen to this interesting discussion about Two Sessions, By
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